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- [00:02]
Pastor Dudley
In the house this morning.
- [00:05]
Dr. Darius Daniel
Come on, if you know God is able.
- [00:07]
Pastor Dudley
Come on, let's give God and able praise that my presence is true, that God is able. Come on, let's just give God an able praise this morning that I'm here because God is able, that I made.
- [00:24]
Dr. Darius Daniel
It through some stuff because God is able. Heavenly Father, we're so grateful and thankful. We thank you for being an able God this morning. We just thank you for being God and God all by yourself. And before we ask you for anything, God, we just want to thank you for everything. Thank you for watching over us all week long. God, thank you for waking us up this morning and giving us a mind just to come to the house of worship. And so now, God, we invite you in this place right now. We ask that you remove anything that's not of you and that's not like you, God, arrest any spirit that will prevent you from moving and doing what you want to do. God, this is your house. Do what you want to do. God, you are welcome in this place. Have your way. Holy Spirit and God, we thank you that after we have spent this time together that you will be edified in all we do, that we you will be glorified, God, we will be edified. And then the enemy will be terrified. And this we pray in your son Jesus name.
- [01:33]
Pastor Dudley
Amen. Come on, put your hands together one more time for the Lord in this house. I am.
- [01:44]
Dr. Darius Daniel
For those who don't know me, I am Pastor Dudley. And I have the awesome privilege of standing in this sacred place and space. I am so honored and so grateful for this opportunity. And could we just give it up for the best pastor in the world.
- [02:03]
Pastor Dudley
Dr. Darius Daniel and Pastor Shamika Daniel. Can we just give it up for great leadership? Hallelujah.
- [02:12]
Dr. Darius Daniel
We are so grateful and thankful for just who they've been to me and my family. They have been a tremendous blessing to us. And if I cry, blame it on the medicine. Amen. I'm on the medicine. It make me emotional. I just get to crying over anything. Be watching TV and just go to.
- [02:31]
Pastor Dudley
Crying like, what's wrong? I don't know. It's the medicine. I don't know.
- [02:35]
Dr. Darius Daniel
So y'all pray for me. And so we just thank God for all of you.
- [02:38]
Pastor Dudley
Atlanta, can we welcome our New Jersey family in today? Welcome, New Jersey.
- [02:49]
Dr. Darius Daniel
Listen, y'all, I want to go right into the word. I want to steward this time. Well, I don't want this time to be the last time. So I want to do what I supposed to do and yeah, get y'all out of here on time.
- [03:05]
Pastor Dudley
But I want to call your attention.
- [03:06]
Dr. Darius Daniel
Thank you, to Genesis 37, and I want to begin reading at the 18th verse. Genesis 37. 18 verse. I believe that there's a word for the Lord for this house, and it.
- [03:18]
Pastor Dudley
Says now when they saw him afar.
- [03:20]
Dr. Darius Daniel
Off, even before he came near them, they recognized him.
- [03:30]
Pastor Dudley
They recognized him from afar, from afar off. And they conspired against him to kill him. Then they said to one another, look.
- [03:40]
Dr. Darius Daniel
This dreamer is coming.
- [03:41]
Pastor Dudley
Come therefore, now let us kill him and cast him him into some pit, and we shall say some wild beast.
- [03:50]
Dr. Darius Daniel
Has devoured him, and then we shall see what will become of his dreams.
- [03:57]
Pastor Dudley
21St verse said, But Reuben heard it, and he delivered him out of their.
- [04:01]
Dr. Darius Daniel
Hands and said, let us not kill him.
- [04:03]
Pastor Dudley
And Reuben said to them, shed no.
- [04:05]
Dr. Darius Daniel
Blood, but cast him into this pit.
- [04:08]
Pastor Dudley
Which is in the wilderness, and do.
- [04:10]
Dr. Darius Daniel
Not lay hand on him that he might deliver him out of their hands and bring him back to his father.
- [04:17]
Pastor Dudley
So it came to pass when Joseph.
- [04:19]
Dr. Darius Daniel
Had come to his brothers, they stripped him of his coat, the coat of many colors that was on him, and.
- [04:27]
Pastor Dudley
Then they took him and cast him into the pit, and the pit was.
- [04:32]
Dr. Darius Daniel
Empty and there was no water in it.
- [04:36]
Pastor Dudley
And I want to use these verses to talk from the subject.
- [04:42]
Dr. Darius Daniel
Necessary Pit Stops Necessary Pit stops.
- [04:52]
Pastor Dudley
While I may not consider myself a motorsports enthusiast, I occasionally find myself drawn to the sport of auto racing, and one aspect of it never fails to capture my intrigue or my attention. The pit stop process. In motorsports racing, pit stops are critical, often inconvenience, moments that play a necessary, critical role in a car and a driver successfully finishing a race. Designed for quick efficiency and staffed by a specialized team called a pit crew, where drivers go during the race to receive necessary maintenance, repairs, or make any necessary adjustments. You see, the pit is where the car and the drivers go to address problems, issues, and malfunctions that could prevent optimal performance, or they could prevent the car and the driver from finishing the race. You see, the pit stop is where the car goes when it starts losing grip and needs to change its tires. The pit stop is where the car goes when it begins to get low on gas and it needs to be refueled. The pit stop is where the driver goes to recharge, to refocus, and to realign their strategy to finish well and stay competitive in the race. Somebody shout, pit stops. Frequent pit stops may seem like unnecessary interruptions. Pit stops may disrupt momentum, cause frustrating delays, and appear to cause the car and the driver to go off track. Although they are called pit stops, Pit stops do not stop a race. Although they are called pit stops, Pit stops do not end the race. But well timed, planned, even unplanned, pit stops are strategic and they enable the car and the driver to finish the race. And if race cars could anthropomorphically speak this morning, they would testify and say, if it had not been for the pit stop, I would have lost my grip, I would have lost control and wrecked and not been able to finish to race. If they could talk this morning, they would say, if it had not not been for the pit stop, I would have ran low of fuel and I would have quit the race before it was over. If it had not been for the pit stop, I would have lost my mind, lost my focus, got distracted and not be able to make the race. But because of the pit stop, I got everything I needed to finish the race. In other words, the race car would say, thank God for pit stops. Pit stops are not designed to stop the race. They are not designed to end the race. The pit stops are not prevention, but pit stops are preparation. And I believe that pit stops are pertinent to this morning's preaching presentation because pit stops aren't just a concept confined to motorsports. In life, we all or will have to encounter what I call pit stop experiences. Moments of delays, seasons of unexpected dilemmas, challenges or rejection for direction which are not meant to hold us back or to stop us, but to equip, enable and to develop us for purpose and what God is calling us to. As a matter of fact, there may be somebody in a pit stop this morning where you've been delayed, where you've been frustrated, where you've been agitated, where you experiencing some confusing season that seem not to make sense. And I want to encourage you, it's only a pit stop. Don't give up, don't discourage. It's only preparation for what God is getting ready to do in your life. Somebody shout, it's only a pit stop. Pit stop. Pissed up. And throughout scripture, we witness God's sovereign hand at work in the lives of people like Moses who had a pit stop in the Midian desert. We see God hand at work in the lives of the three Hebrew boys who had a pit stop in the fiery furnace. Daniel had a pit stop in the lion's den. Paul had a pit stop. Even Jesus had a pit stop in Gethsemane. Jesus had a pit stop on the cross. Jesus had a pit stop in the grave, in the tomb. And it was a pit stop. Why? Because Jesus got up. Y'all know the story. He got up. And Jesus teaches us it's not a pit stop. It's a pit preparation. We see God's hand at work in the lives of believers. And these moments are often marked by trials, tribulations, adversity, and rejection were divinely listened, ordained aloud, or orchestrated by God for greater purpose. And these pit stops individuals were refined, prepared, and ultimately positioned for the fulfillment of God's plan. And in today's text, we see firsthand how God ordained and allowed a pit stop experience to develop, prepare and position a young man by the name of Joseph for a palace promotion. The story of Joseph is one of the most profound narratives, revealing how God can use even the most painful predicaments, how God can take the most challenging and most confusing circumstances to fulfill his purposes and accomplish his promises. In other words, we see Romans 8 and 28 in the life of Joseph, how God can take all things and get good out of them. Joseph is a representation and a testimony that even though I cause myself to get in some bad situation because of my decisions, or even if the devil sinned it, or even if God allows, God can take bad stuff and get good things out of it. As a matter of fact, you're sitting by somebody that's proof how God can take something bad. But when he put his good hands on something bad. God can take a bad girl and make a bad girl good. God can take a bad boy and make a bad boy good. In other words, look at your neighbor and say you sitting by a bad boy and a bad girl. But God put His hands on me and everything and everything God puts His hand on has to be good. Good. Oh, I don't look like what I've been through. Hallelujah. I don't look like what I used to do. I don't look like who I used to be because I'm too busy looking like what I'm going to and what God is doing in me. Don't let the fit fool you. Now. God can take bad circumstances, bad situations, and he can get good out of them. And I believe this is what God is teaching and telling us in this morning's text. And how God uses Joseph's life to teach us that pit stops are necessary inconveniences. And they are part of the process that God uses to develop us into who, what who and where he wants us to be. It is a process and we also talk through the life of Joseph. While Pitts may delay the Promise. They can't stop the promise. And somebody need to get excited over there right now because God made you some promises and because it hadn't happened according to your time frame and it hadn't happened according to your calendar. You believe God is slack concerning his word. But the Bible said God is not slack concerning his word. He is faithful to complete what he started in you. All that is to say God is a God of his word. If he said it, it's going to settle it. If he said it, it seals it. If God said you going to be, then you going to be. I don't care when it's going to happen and I don't care who is going to come through. But if God said it this hallelujah. Am I the only one that God has promised some stuff in here? Thank God for the promises. The Bible said God cannot lie. Hallelujah. That if he said it, he's gonna do it. And what I love about God is God such a God of His Word. He keep his promises. Even the dead people. What you talking about, Pastor? Some of y'all are sitting in here right now with your right mind. Not in jail, not dead, not in the graveyard. Because God made a promise to big Mama, who died a long time ago to say, God just keep them. God just hold them. God just keep them. And God said, even though she dead, because I'm a God of my word, I gotta do what I say. God made a promise to somebody that even not even here anymore. And you'd have been a fisherary of God being a God of his word. You know, you should have been in jail, you know, you should have been locked up with your crazy self. But God will say, I gotta keep crazy self. How in the world you still out? God kept. God kept his promise. God is a promise keeper. And although the pit may delight the promise, it's not going to deny or stop the promise of God. And I believe this is what we see in this morning text. Because the pericope opens with Joseph's brothers literally planning and plotting to kill him. As he was approaching, they said, here comes this dreamer. Let us kill him, throw him in the pit, and then we'll see what will become of his dreams. But the Bible says his older brother Reuben overheard them and said, no, let's not kill him. Throw him in the pit, but don't kill him. And I'm trying to use my sanctified imagination and wonder why in the world did Joseph's brothers hate him the way they hated him? The opening verses of chapter 37 gives us some insight on why they were envious and jealous and were hating on Joseph. The first thing we understand is the Bible said that Jacob, Joseph's father, loved him more than of his other brothers because he had been born to him in his old age. So Joseph literally was a miracle child that God gave to Jacob by the wife he really loved. He had other children with another wife and other handmaid, but it was Rachel whom he loved. And in his old age, God, who keeps promises, makes stuff that shouldn't work to fulfill his promises. God touched a dead womb, a barren womb, and gave life to a barren womb because he had made a promise to Abraham. So he had the love of his father. Not only did they hate on him because he was loved by his father, but they also hated on him because he had the favor of his father. And we see an expression of Jack, Joseph's favor in the form of a coat of many colors. For the Bible said, because Jacob loves Joseph, not only did he give him a coat, but he gave him a special type of coat. You see, this was just a regular type of coat. But the coat that Jacob gave Joseph was an indication of something. It was actually prophetic in nature because Jacob was putting on Joseph what he would be in the future. So Jacob was putting on Joseph what he already had in him. And sometime what God will do is he'll put on you what's in you to keep you in what you got to go through to get what is on your life. And so sometimes God encourages us and say, you're not what I want you. You're not yet where you're going to be, but this is a sign you're going. So they hated him because of his favor, because his father loved him. And this is what the text says. The text says this. It says they recognized him from afar off. And I wondered, did they have good eyesight or what was it about Joseph that his brothers recognized? And I surmise that they recognized him not because they saw his face. They recognize because they saw his favor. And how many of y'all know favor is tangible? People can see your favor. People can see when you operate in favor. And can I just let somebody know this morning? The reason that people are hating you and don't know you. The reason that people are lying on you and really don't have a relationship with you is not because they know you. They know your favor. They see your favorite because your favor shows up before you do your favor, walk in the room before you do your favor. Show up when you do, and people are mad at you because you got the favor of your father. They hating on you because of your favor. And then I recognized and I thought to myself, why in the world are Joseph's brothers hating on him? Like dad, they hating on him because he had a coat. And then they're hating on him because he had two dreams. And I was like, man, this is a lot of hate for two dreams and a coat. You gonna kill me over a coat, man? Get the coat. You want it, huh? But see, this is what your enemy don't understand. They want your coat, but it wasn't made for them. See, when God gives you a coat out of favor, it's only made for you. And even if you don't wear it, they can't do nothing with it. So you ought to tell your neighbor, you can't do nothing with my coat. You can't do nothing with my favor. And even if you take it off me, you can't wear it because it was tailor made. Anybody know God can give you a tailor made blessing, no matter if they get before you do, is still yours because it got your name. Cory, I don't know a lot, but I do know that Taylor made stuff got your name in it. And even if they take it off you and they look in it, it gonna have your name on it. And what I love about God, if God got a blessing for you, no matter who gets there before you, they can't get it before you get it. Why? Because it. Your name is on it. But, but, but this is what. This is what. This is what gets me. This is what gets me. They hating on him over two dreams and a coat. And I'm wondering why y'all gonna kill him over two dreams and a coat. But it goes deeper than that. Because what this. What this narrative teaches us is the devil's warfare and how the enemy engages in warfare. Because the enemy don't fight you where you are. He fights you based on. He don't fight you where you are. He fights you based on where you're going. And that's why some of you can't understand why the enemy fighting you like you fighting you. And you gotta. You can't make bills. Me, you barely making it pie. You can't hardly make it to the next month. And you wondering why you catching so much hell. It's because the devil is not fighting you where you at? He fighting you. Where you going? Come on, look at somebody and say that's why he had. That's why he's messing with me like that? Because he looked into my future and he seen that who I am today is not who I'm going to be tomorrow. He's seen my anointing in the future. He's seen how blessed I am. And that's why he's fighting me here and now, because he's trying to keep me from my next. Yeah, they hating on you not where you are. They hating on you where you're going. So some haters are indicators where you're going. The hating is an indication where you are and who you are. And because they hated on his coat and his dreams, they threw him, the Bible said when they saw him, they wanted to throw him in the pit. And what I love about favor is favor. It is not fair, but favor ain't free. See, somebody, some people look at your favor, but they don't understand what it takes to walk in your favor. You see, you're not responsible for your favor, but you forgetting your favor, but you are responsible for rightly stewarding your favor. And some people don't understand that the favor on your life came with a cost. The favor on your life, you had to pay for your favor. You had to go through your favor for your favor. And that's why I get. I don't understand how people get mad at folk who are anointed. Y'all think this anointing is free. While you were partying, I was studying. While you were in the club, I was on my knees when you were saying yes to everything and giving your body, socking it to whoever you wanted to sock it to. I said, no. And now God has stopped blessing me and anointing me. And you want to hate on me. Baby, you didn't go through what I went through, through to get this anointing. So I don't care if you hate on me. Look at your name and say, hate on. Hate on. I had to cry over this anointing. I suffered over this anointing. I lost some stuff over this anointing. Favor ain't fair, but it ain't free. Free ain't free. They free. Bible said they intended to kill him. Show you how favor worked. They intended to kill him, but favor, God intervened in the form of favor when he had Reuben to intervene and say, y'all don't kill him. Y'all just throw him in the piston. And I want to tell somebody, y'all ought to shout over the fact that the enemy wanted to kill you. But because of the favor on your life, God Intervened and said, I'm gonna let what wanted what wanted to kill you be a pit stop. And what should have killed you is gonna be preparation. What should have killed you, I'm going to design it to. But this is what they said, Corey. They threw him in the pit where they stripped his coat from him and they threw him in the pit. But this is what they don't understand. Understand. This is what people don't understand about favor. They thought the coat was favor. The coat one favor, it was just an extension of God's favor. So when they took the coat off of him, they thought they were taking the favor. But what they didn't know, the favor one on him, it was in him. And when you got favor in you, no matter what they take off of you, it's still in you. And when they threw him in the pit, what they didn't know, favor fell in the pit with him. And I don't know who I'm talking to in this morning, but you ought to thank God that when you fell in the pit, favor fell in there with you. And favor will keep you from falling in the pit. But how many of y'all know favor will keep you in the. Threw. Threw Joseph in the pit. And this is what's so amazing about the pit, because the Bible gives us what seems to be some arbitrary, out of place information. At the end, they say they threw him in a pit, but when the water in, because the pit was a well or a cistern that normally and should have had water in it. So what the brothers were intending on doing was to drown Joseph in the pit. And what God does in the text and what he does in our life is sometimes when it don't look like God is present, he's behind the scenes orchestrating some stuff. He's behind the scenes working some stuff out. So what was intended to drown us don't drown us because God keep them from putting water in the pit. And how many of y'all know that some of us are still walking and some of us still in our right mind because what should have drowned us didn't drown. You should have been drowned. Should have been drowned. Not only should there have been water should water be in the pit, but whales and cisterns were deep. And so if no water was in it when they threw Joseph in, he should have broke something. But what they didn't know is favor breaks the fall. The favor don't let you fall as hard as you. You. You should have failed. Favor won't let life break you. Like it should have broke you. And the truth of the matter is, you've been through some stuff that should have broke you. People walked out of your life that should have broke you. You lost some stuff that should have broke you. But because God got favor on your life, he didn't let the fall break you and you. So they threw Joseph in the pit. And I believe, as believers, if we are to endure or properly manage our pit experiences, we have to develop what I call a pit theology. A pithyology is nothing more than a faith framework that gives us the right understanding and perspective to rightly interpret the pits that we in. So a pithyology give us the right perspective. Because sometimes we don't have a pit problem. We have a perspective problem. The pit ain't our problem. The way we see our pit becomes our problem. See, the enemy wants you to see the pit as prevention, while God wants you to see it as preparation. The enemy wants you to see the pit. That God's saying, no. It may be God saying, yes, but not now. And so the first thing you got to do if you're going to have this pit theology is we got to understand that pitch, that the pit is a process for purpose and development. In other words, pits have purpose. Somebody say, pits have purpose. God ordained pit processes or pit stops, because he's trying to process or he's trying to develop us. And what happens in the process is God connects the proclamation to the promise. The process is what connects what God said to me. Possessing or walking in what God said. And the problem with many of us is we want to take what God said, but go around the process and what God is saying, no, no, no, no, no, no. If you want this, you got to go through the process, because the process is designed to do something in you that gonna enable you to stay in the promise. Because sometimes we get the proclamation and we go to running and we're not properly processed, and we can't stay in our promise. But God say, I'm using the pit to process you, because you do know diamonds don't start out as diamonds. Y'all do know that, right? The diamonds have to go through a process. They start out as a lump of coal that has to endure the process of the pressure and the heat of the earth's core. And after submitting to a process, they come out as fine gems. In other words, sometime being able to survive your pit is being able to survive your cold phase until God turn you into a diamond. Come on, look at somebody and say, you in your Cold phase. Now you in your cold phase. And just because you can't see your value, just because you can't see you a diamond, I want you to know that there's a diamond in you. And sometime God has to process you and send you through the process, take stuff out of you, put stuff in you, get you around certain people, put you around the right people, get other people out of your life, hurt you, away from people that you don't have enough sense to walk away from in order to process you. It's pit is a process for development. Second of all, if this PIT theology, you got to understand that pit is a place of divine positioning. Oh, y'all, I love this. I love this because when the brothers saw Joseph, they stopped plotting. And what God would do is God will take the enemy's plot to position you to where he wanted you to be in the first place. Can I let y'all know? Some of us, we owe our haters an apology. Some of us been too mean to our haters. We done mad. We done got mad at them, want to fight them. And rather than wanting to fight them, you ought to write them a thank you note. You ought to write them a text, a thank you text to say I thank you. I've been thinking, Pastor Dudley, he had me to see that if it never was for you hating on me, I never will be in the position I am right now. God put you on divine assignment and deputize you to hate on me and betray me in a way that pushed me to a place in him that I never would have got into it if it had not have been for your hate. I got Bible. Look at your neighbor say he got Bible. I know who house I'm in. I got Bible. Come here. Samuel. Hannah. The Bible said Hannah was barren and could not have any children. And she had a handmaid or who El Cana had other children by. And the Bible said this woman name was Peninnah, which literally means adversary or opposer. And she would mock Hannah because Hannah couldn't have any children. She would agitate Hannah because Hannah wouldn't have. He couldn't have any children. And rather than find a woman, the Bible said Hannah went to the Ten temple and she began to pray so much. She began to pray so intensely that her lips were moving when none come out of it. And the man of God thought she was drunk, but the woman said, no, man of God, I'm not drunk. I'm a woman of sorrowful spirit. I need the Lord to do something. And I'M praying in a way that I never would have prayed if Panino wouldn't have pushed me. Some of you ought to thank God for your Panino. This is what I learned. This is what I learned, y'all. You don't have haters. You have elevators. You know, an elevator, they can take you down, but I'm talking about the elevator that take you up. You see, some haters are elevator that take you up to your next level. And God say, this hater is to take you to the next level. This hater is to take you up. So the pit is a process for purpose and development. The pit is a place of divine positioning. And the last thing I want us to understand about pit is the pit is a place for promotion, for your greater. If you look at the narrative of Joseph's life, he had a lot of down seasons. He went down into the pit, got him up out of the pit. He went down into Egypt. He went down into Potiphar's house. He went down into prison. And he went through all those downs before he got into the palace. And I just remember when I was in school, I paid attention to Newton's laws. I think it's Newton laws of physics. And one of the laws of physics says that what goes up. But Joseph teaches us a spiritual law of physics that says what goes down. Oh, I wish that y'all ain't shouting good enough. Because some of y'all must ain't had a down season. Some of y'all must have had a down experience. Some of y'all must have had a season where your finances were down, your relationships are down, your mind is down. And I just come to encourage somebody that your down down season is over, that sometime God take you down in order to take you up. And I don't know who I'm talking to in the house this day, but look at your neighbor and say, it's up from here. My joy. Finn to go up. My peace. Finn to go up. My happiness. Finn to go up. My understanding. Finn to go up. I've been down long enough, and I feel like God is getting ready.