And the name of the sermon is Branches Running Over the Wall.
Branches running over the wall and if you have bullets in here today,
you can see this picture I have of this brick wall, this red brick wall,
and yet you see all of these branches that are just climbing over the wall.
And that's the sort of image that the Bible was trying to let us know about Joseph
when it says his branches run over the wall.
I had a house in Sacramento before and we had this big tree
and you know what, the tree was really great.
We loved it.
When we moved into the place, we thought this is awesome.
And it was nice to sit underneath the shade on a hot day and things such as that.
But you know, the branches grew very quickly.
And we had a wooden fence that separated us and our neighbors
and then the branches would just climb over that wall.
So, you know, I'd be up in the tree with a machete just cutting down branches and everything.
And it got to the point where there is too big of a tree.
I couldn't reach everything.
So we had somebody at our church helped us.
But it just kind of gives you this image of how branches find a way to get over the wall.
And if you own a house, that's not actually a good thing.
It's kind of a distraction.
But what the Bible is saying with Joseph is it's a good thing
because a wall is like an obstacle you have in life.
And he's saying Joseph found a way to get over those obstacles.
Joseph found a way to get over the wall.
Okay, now chapter verse number one.
Genesis 49 verse one says this and Jacob called on to the sons
and said gather yourselves together that I'm going to tell you that
which I will follow you in the last days.
Gather yourself together and hear these sons of Jacob
and hearken unto Israel your father.
And so Jacob's going to talk to his sons about what will happen in the last days.
And it kind of gives the characteristics of many of his sons.
He talks about all of the problems with Reuben
because Reuben was a pretty bad guy.
He did a lot of bad things in the Bible.
He talks about Joseph though, and he has good things to say about Joseph.
He says in verse 22, Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well
whose branches run over the wall.
Now look, if you're going to be a tree that's going to be successful,
if you're going to be a plant that's successful, you need to have water.
And what it says is a fruitful bough by a well.
A well is filled with water.
So because of the water, it's what helps, you know, this tree grow.
It's a fruitful bough because it's by water.
And the result of that is the branches end up going over the wall, okay?
And point number one is this, in our life,
there is a reality of walls and obstacles in our life.
Your life is going to have walls.
Your life is going to have obstacles.
Your life is going to have difficulties.
Now look, we've preached against a lot of the false philosophies out there,
and it seems like all of these philosophies are trying to come up with this magic trick
of how to remove walls.
But it's not possible to remove walls.
The fact is there's a reality of walls.
It can't remove it.
You got to get over it.
That's what the Bible teaches.
You will have walls and difficulties and obstacles in your life
that God expects you to climb over, okay?
Go to Genesis 37.
Genesis 37.
In fact, when you look at Bible characters,
you might be able to say that Joseph had more walls
and more obstacles than pretty much anybody.
He had a lot of difficulties in being successful in life.
A lot of obstacles.
You know, at the age of 17, we're going to see that he was sold into slavery.
That's a pretty big obstacle.
I don't think any of us have had that big of a wall that we had to climb,
but that's what happened to Joseph.
It says in Genesis 37, verse 28,
Then there passed by many a knight's merchant men,
and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit,
and sold Joseph to the Israelites for twenty pieces of silver,
and they brought Joseph into Egypt.
Joseph is sold into slavery.
Now, eventually, he's going to go to the house of Potiphar.
Go to verse 36.
Verse 36.
And the many knights sold him into Egypt onto Potiphar,
an officer of pharaohs and captain of the garden.
So, what happened to Joseph in his life
is he is sold into slavery to Potiphar.
This is the first wall that he has to deal with.
Now, look, Joseph's dad was a successful dad.
God had blessed Jacob.
He was successful.
He was financially successful.
Joseph had a great future ahead of him,
and then as a teenager, he had sold into slavery.
He has this major wall that he has to overcome in his life.
Joseph wasn't expecting this.
Joseph wasn't expecting to have to deal with this
or have to overcome it,
but you know what? In life, when you have walls that come up,
oftentimes, they come out of nowhere.
You do not expect them to happen, okay?
Go to Genesis 39, verse 17.
Genesis 39, verse 17.
Joseph sold him to slavery, and he's successful.
He's successful in the house of Potiphar,
and Potiphar ends up really trusting him and respecting him.
Now, for Joseph to be successful,
it tells you a couple things.
Number one, God was obviously blessing Joseph,
but it also teaches you
that Joseph was a very hard worker with strong character.
Now, the reality is, if you're not a hard worker
and you don't have strong character,
God is not going to bless you.
But I want you to realize that Potiphar really trusted Joseph.
How is that possible?
Because Joseph worked hard, and he has strong character.
Because look, being sold into slavery,
it's not like you're the first candidate
to move up in that company, right?
It's not like this would be Potiphar's first choice
to make a leader at his house,
but Joseph proved himself by hard work,
by character, in the worst situation imaginable.
He's successful.
What happens?
Well, Potiphar's wife wants to sleep with Joseph,
and she tries to trick him or force him,
and it happens day after day, day after day,
and eventually he's caught in a situation
where he's basically alone with her,
and she grabs him, and he runs out of the house.
And I'll tell you what.
The Bible says, flee fornication.
You that are single, flee fornication.
Avoid it, run away with it, run away from it.
Don't get into that sort of position, right?
Joseph runs away from the situation,
but Potiphar's wife lies about Joseph.
She says, he tried to force me, and what happens?
Well, Potiphar believes his wife.
Genesis 39, verse 17.
And she spake on him according to these words, saying,
the Hebrew servant which now is brought onto us
came in on me to mock me,
and it came to pass as I lifted up my voice in pride
that he left his garment with me and fled out.
And it came to pass
when his master heard the words of his wife,
which he spake unto him, saying,
after this manner did I serve him to me,
that his wrath was kindled.
And Joseph's master took him and put him into the prison,
a place where the king's prisoners were bound,
and he was there in prison.
Joseph is thrown in prison, okay?
And I want you to realize that in our modern day,
you know, I'm not really sure necessarily about here,
but, you know, in the U.S.,
oftentimes people that go to prison,
they get nice meals.
They get to work out for a couple hours a day.
I mean, it's really not that bad of a line, right?
But during these time periods,
if you were thrown in prison,
you're probably not going to get out.
It's probably like a dungeon setting.
You probably have a terrible place to sleep.
You have a miserable life,
the worst life you could possibly imagine.
And Joseph, you know, he gets sold into slavery,
but then he's successful.
He gets past that one wall.
Then all of a sudden he's got a bigger wall
after he gets to the first wall.
Now he's sold into slavery, okay?
Go back to Genesis 49.
Genesis 49.
And we're going to look at the life of Joseph here real quickly.
Once we get through the life of Joseph,
I'm going to make some applications to us in our lives, okay?
Number one, there's a reality of walls in our life,
but not only is there a reality of walls,
there is resistance to climbing the wall.
It's not just that we have a wall that we have to conquer,
but when we actually start to climb that wall,
there's a lot of resistance to climbing the wall.
You say, well, how do you know that?
Well, what does it say in Genesis 49, verse 23?
Verse 23.
The archers have sorely grieved him
and shot at him and hated him.
So you see, the Bible says Joseph
is like branches going over the wall,
and it says the archers are shooting at him.
I want you to realize that in the past,
archers were used primarily to protect people
from entering into the city.
So if you see somebody climbing a wall as an archer,
you're going to shoot at them to prevent them
from coming in to your city to try to attack.
And what the Bible's trying to give you
in a symbolic way is this,
that you've got walls,
you've got to get over those walls,
but as you climb those walls,
the archers are shooting at you,
meaning there is resistance.
It's not just that we have obstacles
and difficulties in our life.
It's actually hard to climb the wall and overcome it.
Verse 24.
But his bow of oath and strength
and the arms of his hands are made strong
by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob,
for thence is the shepherd of the stone of Israel.
Okay?
His bow of oath and strength,
he found a way over that wall.
Go to Genesis 39.
Genesis 39.
As I said, Joseph was sold into slavery.
Terrible position.
Probably something that none of us
have ever dealt with anything that extreme,
that bad before.
But what does it say in Genesis 39, verse 2?
And the Lord was with Joseph,
and he was a prosperous man,
and he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian,
and his master saw that the Lord was with him,
and the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand.
See, the Bible says the Lord was with Joseph.
And look, as I said,
if you want to be successful in life
and you want the Lord with you,
you need to have strong character
and you need to work hard.
If you don't work hard,
you don't have strong character,
the Lord is not going to be with you.
But what this shows us is
even if you're in the worst position,
you still have an ability to be successful in life
if the Lord is on your side and he blesses you.
Look, when it comes to a church setting,
we come from a lot of different backgrounds.
All of us work different jobs,
we have different skills.
Some people have jobs that pay more money than other people.
You know, I'll tell you what,
people, regardless of what your job is,
let me tell you something,
like somebody who's successful in life,
they're successful because the Lord's blessing them
and because they're working hard.
And look, maybe you don't have the greatest job in the world,
but I believe that if you work hard,
God will bless you.
I'm not saying you're going to be the richest person in the world,
but I do believe that God will provide your needs
and he will bless you if the Lord is with you
and that the way that happens is by working hard,
having good character, right?
The Lord is with Joseph in the worst possible situation.
Verse 21,
after the rape accusation comes from Potiphar's wife,
it says in verse 21,
but the Lord is with Joseph and showed him mercy
and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.
Look, if you're thrown in prison,
people probably aren't going to trust you very much.
And yet Joseph got favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.
You say, how does that happen?
The Lord is with Joseph.
God was with him.
And if God is with you, you can be successful.
Verse 22,
and the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's hand
all the prisoners that were in the prison
and whatsoever they did there,
he was the doer.
So Joseph is basically the most trusted man in the prison, okay?
Verse 23,
but the keeper of the prison
looked not to anything that was under his hand
because the Lord was with him
and that was the gift the Lord made to prosper.
Now go to Genesis chapter 40.
Let's move on to the story.
Genesis 40.
Genesis 40 verse 6.
And Joseph came in unto them in the morning
and looked upon them and behold, they were sad.
So Joseph comes in and he's gonna see
that the baker and the butler
who had a great position in life,
they get thrown in prison
and you know, they're very sad.
They're very miserable, right?
What does it say in verse 7?
And he asked Pharaoh's officers that were with him
in the ward of his lord's house saying,
wherefore look he so sadly today?
And Joseph is like, why are you so sad?
Why are you miserable?
Here's a man who was thrown into prison
and he did nothing wrong
and yet you know what?
He was actually in a decent mood.
He said, my life's not perfect.
It's difficult.
But he said, why are you looking so sad today?
He's like, it's okay.
Life is not that bad.
And I'll tell you what,
in the last year and a half,
a lot of people complaining
about how bad life is.
But I'm here to tell you today,
life is not that bad.
Yes, I understand.
It's more difficult than it used to be.
I get that.
I understand that.
But you know what?
Our lives are not that bad.
We weren't thrown into prison like Joseph
and Joseph, when he was in prison,
you know what?
He said, why are you so sad?
It's not that bad.
Life is not that awful, okay?
It's going to be okay.
It's not that bad, right?
Go to Genesis 40 verse 21.
Genesis 40 verse 21.
And Joseph predicts
what's going to happen to the baker and butler
and he tells the butler
that he's going to be restored to his position.
And it's funny, you know,
because the Bible is a very serious book.
And so when you read things
that are just kind of humorous,
they really make you laugh a lot
and at least to me in this story
because the butler is like,
wow, I'm being restored again.
And then the baker tells Joseph,
hey, can you tell me
what's going to happen to me?
And Joseph is like,
well, you're going to be killed, right?
But it says here in verse 21
and he restored the chief butler
onto his butler ship again.
And he gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand,
but he hanged the chief baker
as Joseph had interpreted it to them.
Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph,
but forgot.
And see, Joseph told the butler,
just remember me.
But you know what you see?
You see that the butler forgets about Joseph.
Now, Joseph was, you know,
sold into slavery.
Joseph was lied about
and thrown into prison.
And Joseph might be thinking now,
well, this butler is a person
in a powerful position.
And he says, you know what?
Remember me.
Don't forget me.
And then all of a sudden
the butler gets out of his position
and he just kind of forgets about Joseph.
This is often the way it is in life
that when things are going well for people,
they just kind of forget about other people.
Now, I don't believe the butler is a bad guy.
We're going to see here
that he'll remember about Joseph later on,
but he forgets about him initially.
Go to Genesis 49.
Genesis 49.
Genesis chapter 49.
See, point number one,
there is a reality of walls in your life.
Now, a lot of times
you'll see people complain about the walls
and the difficulties they have.
But wait a minute.
We all have walls.
We all have obstacles.
We all have difficulties.
Your wall might be different than my wall.
Maybe your wall is taller.
Maybe it's harder to climb.
Maybe it's different than mine.
But all of us have walls.
All of us have obstacles.
And instead of saying
it's not fair that I have this wall,
you need to find a way over it.
There's a reality of walls in your life.
There's also resistance to climbing that wall.
But I want you to realize
the result of getting to the other side of the wall.
Yeah, you've got walls and there's resistance,
but if you get to the other side,
the result is a blessing on the other side.
Genesis 49 verse 25.
Even by the God of that Father,
who shall help thee,
and by the Almighty who shall bless thee
with blessings of heaven above,
blessings of the deep that lie under,
blessings of the breast and of the womb.
It says in verse 26,
The blessings of thy Father have prevailed
above the blessings of my progenitors
onto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills.
They shall be on the head of Joseph
and on the crown of the head of men
that was separate from his breath.
So it speaks about the blessings.
And the reason why is because Joseph
was like branches going over a wall.
And yes, the archer shot at him.
Yes, there was resistance,
but you know what?
He found the way to the other wall
on the other side of the wall
and the result is a blessing in his life.
Go to Genesis 39.
Genesis 39.
Genesis chapter 39.
Now I'll tell you what about Joseph.
You know, Joseph,
for most of his life, you know,
I mean, he's really living for God.
He's doing what's right,
but Joseph is not perfect.
We see him making mistakes
and committing a few sins in the Bible.
He makes some mistakes.
He's not perfect.
You know, what Joseph was,
was a man who didn't let
tough times get him down
and he worked hard.
And that is why he was successful.
Look, none of us are perfect,
but I'll tell you what.
If you love God,
you have a good attitude
and you work hard,
I believe God is going to bless you
and you're going to be successful in life.
Genesis 39 verse 4.
And Joseph found grace in his sight
and he served him
and he made him overseer over his house.
And all that he had he put into his hand.
And it came to pass from the time
that he had made him overseer in his house
and over all that he had.
The Lord blessed the Egyptians house
for Joseph's sake
and blessed the orders upon them.
All that he had in the house and in the field.
And he left all that he had in Joseph's hand
and he knew not he had,
all he had,
save the bread which he did eat
and Joseph was a goodly person and well favored.
Joseph ends up being in Potiphar's house
and he works hard
and he ends up being successful.
Now, sometimes people have this attitude,
well, you know what?
I'm not going to work hard
unless it benefits me in some way.
It talks about being, you know,
working hard as men pleasers
with, you know,
basically with eye service
where basically what Bob was saying is
you work hard when the boss sees you.
You work hard when it benefits you.
But if nobody's watching,
you don't work hard at all.
You're lazy, right?
And there are a lot of people that are like this.
You know, Pastor Min has made a joke recently about,
you know, kind of mentioned in the sermon,
not really a joke,
but he said everybody's on their best behavior
when they're around me.
So he says I don't always know,
you know, what people are like
because around me they act one way
and then you hear about other stuff they do
and it's like, man,
I have no idea that they did those sorts of things.
And a lot of people do this on the job
where they don't work hard
but when the boss sees them,
they work hard.
But you know what?
As a Bible believing Christian,
that is a foolish attitude
because the Bible says promotion
cometh from the Lord
and the Lord sees the things that you do.
And you know what?
If you're lazy when the boss is not watching,
guess what?
The Lord sees that.
You need to work hard
whether people realize it or not
and trust in God to bless you in life, okay?
Go to Genesis 41.
Genesis 41.
You know, another thing we see in this passage
is that Joseph has this major wall in his life.
He finds a way over that wall.
He gets over that wall
and then all of a sudden he's got another wall.
And look, I'll tell you what,
I'm trying to motivate you
to be a branch going over the wall
but I want you to realize here today,
you are going to have an endless stream
of walls and obstacles and difficulties
in your life.
There is no magic formula
to getting rid of the walls.
You must find a way over the wall
but you know what?
There's going to be more walls after that.
If you're successful in life,
it's because you climbed
and fought over difficulties.
That is reality.
Genesis 41.
So the chief mother ends up
finally remembering him
and then Pharaoh has a dream
and then Joseph is asked to interpret this.
Verse 32.
And for that the dream was doubled
unto Pharaoh twice.
It is because the thing is established by God
and God will shortly bring it to pass.
Now therefore let Pharaoh look at a man
to scream wise and set him
over the land of Egypt.
Now in verse 33,
Joseph does not do any sort of indication
of asking Pharaoh to choose him to be selected.
Joseph doesn't say pick me, choose me.
You say why?
Well I don't think Joseph thought he was a candidate.
He said he's a prisoner.
I mean a prisoner would not be a very well respected person.
It's not going to be someone that the Pharaoh,
the most powerful man in the world
is going to make number two
in all of the world.
Now maybe there was a small part of Joseph
on the inside that was kind of hopeful.
Here's my chance.
Maybe God's going to use me in this way
but you know I don't think he really thought
that he was going to be selected.
He's just interpreting the dream
and saying it belongs to God
and doing what's right
but we are going to see that God blesses him.
Verse 34,
Let Pharaoh do this and let him appoint officers
over the land and take up the fifth part
which is 20% of the land of Egypt
in the seven plenteous years.
So preparing for the famine
and let them gather all the food
of those good years that come
and lay up corn under the hand of Pharaoh
and let them keep food in the cities.
And that food shall be first stored in the land
against the seven years of famine
which shall be in the land of Egypt
where the land perished not through the famine.
On a side point let me just say this
that we're seeing the principle that
you know what you should actually prepare yourself
financially for difficult times.
You don't know what the future holds.
None of us know if we might end up
losing our job one day
or you know what difficulties come.
You know we have things that cost
a lot of money or something we have to deal with.
Instead of spending up all of your money
you should work hard and save up money
for a rainy day.
You don't know when the famine is going to come.
Okay.
Verse 37.
And the thing was good in the eyes of Pharaoh
and in the eyes of all his servants.
And Pharaoh said unto his servants
can we find such a one as this in whom
a man in whom the Spirit of God is?
And Pharaoh said unto Joseph
for as much as God hath showed thee all this
there is none so discreet and wise as thou art.
Thou shalt be over my house
and according unto thy work
shall all my people be ruled.
Only in the throne will I be greater than thou
and Pharaoh said unto Joseph
see I have set thee over all the land of Egypt.
And so here we see
that Joseph is actually chosen.
Joseph is actually selected.
And you know what?
Sometimes you're reading the Bible
and if you're like me
you kind of wish you could see this on video sometimes.
I would love to see the reaction of Joseph
as out of nowhere Pharaoh says
you're going to be the second most powerful man in the world.
I'm choosing you.
You are the wise person that I'm trusting.
I mean I can just imagine Joseph being like
so excited you know he's been waiting for a long time.
It started at the age of 17
and this is the age of 30 we're going to see here in the Bible.
From 17 to 30 for 13 years
he's climbing these major walls in his life.
He doesn't give up.
He just keeps fighting through it.
Okay.
Now turn to Genesis chapter 3.
Genesis 3.
Genesis chapter 3.
Let me make some applications for the life of Joseph
because the Bible is intending us to realize the life of Joseph
and realize the walls he had
and how he was a branch that climbed over
and we're supposed to make applications from this.
When it comes to a man
what is a big wall or obstacle in our lives?
Well a big wall or obstacle is financial
or career walls in our life.
And see the Bible says this in Genesis 3 verse 17.
And on Adam he said
because I was hearkened unto the voice of thy wife
and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee
saying thou shalt not eat of it.
Cursed is the ground for thy sake
and sorrow shalt not eat of it all the days of thy life.
Thorns also and vessels shall not bring forth to thee
and thou shalt eat the herb of the field.
So what God says is the ground is going to be cursed
because of your sin.
Because of what you did
the ground is cursed.
That's a wall.
That means it's going to be hard to provide financially.
Not only that there's thorns and thistles coming forth.
So there's resistance if you're trying to fight over that wall.
And let me tell you something
it doesn't matter who you are as a man
it's going to be difficult to provide in 2021.
You say why?
Well because of what Adam did.
And you can complain about something that happened
6,000 plus years ago
or you can just realize
I've got to find a way over the wall no matter what.
No matter how tall the wall is
no matter how difficult I must find a way.
Verse 19
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread
till thou return unto the ground.
For out of it wast thou taken
for thus thou art
and unto thus shalt thou return.
The Bible says in the sweat of thy face
meaning hard work
it's going to be difficult to provide your daily needs.
It's not easy.
Look I wish I could give you that formula
for an easy life
and just blessings coming down from heaven.
It's hard work.
That is how you're going to be successful in this life.
Go to Proverbs 31.
Proverbs 31.
Now I'll be honest with you that
when I first moved here
and I talked to people
I used to be a little bit more sympathetic
to people that were struggling financially.
But you know what?
I'm not as sympathetic anymore as I used to be.
And you know the reason why I used to be sympathetic is
I do believe that here in the Philippines
if you have a college degree
it can give you opportunities
that other people might not have.
Right like
and you know if you're going to go to college
you know get a degree that's going to make you money.
But you know what?
If you have a college degree
it opens up a lot of doors.
It opens up a lot of opportunities.
And you know what?
But there's a lot of people that don't have a college degree.
And I used to be kind of sympathetic
because I thought well you know what?
You know they're in a tough situation and everything.
But you know
I've met people
that do not have a college degree
that are very successful.
And you say well how is that?
Well because they work hard
they have good character
and God bless them.
And then I run into other people
that just complain and complain.
It's so tough.
It's so terrible.
You don't understand.
It's different than in the U.S.
But yet I find other people
that find a way to open that wall.
Right?
I mean the way you're successful in life
is by working hard.
And look I'll tell you what.
People that graduated college
and got a good degree
they also worked hard to do that as well.
Maybe they had more opportunities than you
but you know what?
They worked hard to finish it.
And then there's other people
they have opportunities in life
but it's too difficult.
Oh I can't do it.
Right?
They start working a job
they're like oh I can't do it.
They last like a week or two.
Oh it's so difficult.
So stressful.
Working through the night
I can't do it.
And yet there's many people
at our church that work through the night.
There's many people at our church
that are just working hard
and are successful.
So if they're able to find a way
over the wall so are you.
And instead of complaining
about the walls you have
just find a way over the wall.
You say what?
The Bible says
in the sweat of thy face
shalt thou eat bread.
Don't get mad at me
for preaching what the Bible says.
This is what the Bible says.
And look we need to find a way
over that wall.
But I'll tell you what.
It's not just for men.
There are a lot of walls
when it comes to being a lady as well.
Right?
Let's say you're a stay-at-home mom
or let's say you're raising kids
and you're a mom.
There are a lot of walls
and difficulties as well.
I mean think about all the things
that you need to do.
I mean there's cooking,
there's cleaning,
teaching the kids manners,
you know homeschooling
if you choose that route,
you know potty training
when the kid's asleep,
the spills, the messes
and all this stuff.
Sometimes you can feel overwhelming.
Here's the thing though.
Every mom and every parent
has to deal with the same things.
Right?
And what is the answer?
How do you get through that?
Well, Proverbs 31 verse 15.
Proverbs 31 verse 15.
She rises also while it is yet night.
Now saying it's yet night
would indicate the sun is not outside.
So if you assume the sun rises at 6 a.m.
Same before 6 a.m.
Right?
And so basically
because you know during these times
people work very hard.
So basically the men were out
working in the fields
right when the sun is up.
Okay?
So basically she wakes up
maybe an hour before that
to put the food for them to eat
before they go out to work.
So she rises also while it is yet night.
Now why would she do that?
Well and give it meat to her household
and a portion of her maintenance
because she's cooking the food.
She considers the field and abiath it.
With the fruit of her hands
she planted the vineyard.
She girded her wounds with strength
and strengthened them into her arms.
She perceived that her merchandise is good.
Her candle goeth not out by night.
Now what does that mean?
It means that once the sun sets
and her husband comes home
she doesn't just kind of sit around
and say well it's his job to do everything.
No actually she's still working hard.
And I'll tell you what
especially during these times
men and women were forced to work very hard
just for survival.
Anyway in some ways it would probably be a good thing
for us to go back to those sorts of times
where life wasn't that easy.
Because nowadays we don't work 72 hours a week.
Most people work 40, 50 hours
and they're like oh I'm so tired.
Life is so hard.
I only went on a couple of vacations this year.
I only you know just got to lounge around
for 20 hours this week.
Look you know God did not intend you
to just hang around on your cell phones
and your computers for hours and hours
and hours and hours.
He meant for you to work hard in life.
Verse 27, verse 21.
Verse 21.
She is not afraid of the snow for her household.
For all her household are clothed with scarlet.
You say why does it say she's not afraid of the snow?
Because the snow is the most miserable thing in the world.
Now people in the Philippines do not understand this.
People are like I would love to see snow.
It would be so great to be out in snow.
Well that's because you've never been around this.
You think the rain is bad.
The snow is 50 times worse.
I hate cold weather.
It's not just that it's cold.
Driving in cold weather,
driving when it's snowy is very dangerous, right?
It's dangerous when you're driving a car when it's raining,
but when you drive and there's snow,
your car just slides all over.
You've got deer that are running down
in front of the car sometimes.
It's very, very dangerous, okay?
And during this time period,
it's not like she's driving a car.
You know I assume she's probably hiking in distance
and maybe they had you know,
I don't know what sort of ways
they would transport back then or whatever,
but it was not easy to get around
and just get the groceries
and get the supplies you need for the house,
but it says she's not afraid of the snow.
She just says I love my household.
I'm going to find a way.
I don't care if there's snow.
I don't care if there's bad weather.
I'm going to find a way to get it done.
Verse 47, she looked at well
the ways of her household and notice this,
and eateth not the bread of idleness.
Now idle would basically be like a car in neutral
or an idle or not moving.
What I'm saying is she's not lazy.
She's not just sitting around, okay?
Verse 31, give her up with fruit of her hands
and let her own works praise her in the gates.
Once again, it mentions her own works
and see what I want you to understand is
when it comes to the walls in our life,
the way over whether you're a man or a woman
or whoever you are is by hard work.
Work hard and that's how you get over the wall.
There's no way to avoid the wall.
There's no way around the wall.
There's no special little path
that is dug out where you walk through.
No, you've got to climb over it
and there's going to be resistance.
This is how you're successful at anything.
You say, Brother Stuck, you know,
how do you end up learning the Bible?
What's the secret to really knowing the Bible well?
Here's the secret, spend a lot of hours studying it.
Read it every day, memorize it, study it.
When you listen to preaching, take notes, remember stuff.
The secret is spending a lot of time.
Anything you're successful at is going to be
because you put in time, you put in effort.
It doesn't come easy.
It's hard work.
And look, as a church,
we are going to have a lot of walls and difficulties.
Sometimes you get over one wall,
you get over one obstacle, you get over one problem
and you feel relieved, I get to relax,
but then there's another wall.
There's another problem.
There's another difficulty.
I mean, in today's world, churches around the world,
there's a lot of difficulties in serving God.
We've got a lot of difficulties now.
You know, there's a lot of restrictions and things are tough.
And you know, you got situations,
you have to learn to adjust to stuff
and then figure out a way over those walls
and still serve God and still do what is right.
Look, but that's how you're successful.
And even if we didn't have all these restrictions going on,
there would be other walls.
Church problems and things take place
and you know what, the secret is a church.
It's just find a way over the wall.
Now turn to one last place, Genesis 41.
Genesis 41.
There's also a principle that I want to give you
with the life of Joseph, just one last verse here
of working hard.
See, the Bible says,
it's good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth.
At a young age, it's good to work hard.
And there's many reasons for this,
but no, we should try to teach our kids
at as young of an age as possible to learn to work hard.
Now it starts with very basic stuff, right?
Like here at our church in Pampanga,
my son helps me turn off the lights.
He helps throw away trash, smoke, little stuff like that.
It's not major, but I want to teach him
the importance of work at a young age.
And as he gets older, I want to take the time to teach him
and he's working harder and doing more
and volunteering more rather than just doing nothing, right?
He needs to learn to work hard
because we want to start at as young of an age as possible
because we live in a day
where people don't take life that seriously
and then they get a rude wake-up call
when they're 25 years old
and they're like, what am I going to do in life?
And if I'm honest with you,
I didn't take life as seriously when I was younger here.
I didn't work as hard as I needed to.
And all of a sudden you start realizing,
man, I'm not going to be successful
unless I work hard and find a way over that wall.
And we have this principle in Genesis 41 verse 46
where it says,
and Joseph was 30 years old
when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt.
And so Joseph is 30 years old
when he finally gets over this major wall in his life
and now he's going to be successful financially.
He's going to have a much nicer house,
obviously than prison.
He's going to have a much nicer life.
And you know what?
It was at the age of 30 that this took place.
He sold into slavery at the age of 17
and at the age of 30 is when he's finally really successful.
And the principle I think what I was trying to tell you is this
or what I would say to young men is this,
basically age your life until you're 30 years old
so you can have a successful future.
Basically work very hard at a young age,
work hard, rise up in the company
and then by the time you're 30, you're going to be successful.
You say, why is that, brother?
Because here's the thing,
companies do not want to hire someone
who's 35 years old with no work experience.
They want you to have experience in the field.
You have to have a valuable skill at that age
and they're going to say,
hey, we're going to hire someone who's 20, not 35, right?
Work hard at a young age
and then you can rise up in a company,
you can build up your skills
and that way you have a future ahead of you.
Because if you wait in light,
you can reach the point where it's almost too late.
It's going to be very hard, right?
Now I still believe that if you start late,
whether you're 30, whether you're 40 or whatever,
you can work hard and God can bless you.
But I'm saying it's better to start at a very young age.
And I'll tell you what,
all the men in the church would say the same thing.
All of us that are older, that, hey, you know what?
We wish we had put in the effort and time
even more when we were younger
and that could have really prepared us.
And you know what, if we didn't prepare ourselves,
we've got to adjust to the situation.
But those that are in our church under the age of 20,
be like Joseph, work very hard when you're young
because the Bible says it's good for a man to bear
the yoke in his youth, you say why?
Because you know what, it's going to be a lot easier
to climb over that wall when you're young
than trying to do it a lot later in life.
So what's the point of this sermon?
Well, here's the point of the sermon.
We all have walls in our life.
There's a reality of walls and obstacles and difficulties.
And you know what, there's no way around that wall.
There's no easy path through that wall.
The only way over this wall is to climb over it.
And you've got to be like a branch
that finds its way over the wall, okay?
But see, when you're trying to climb this wall,
you're going to have resistance.
Because some people are going to hear this sermon
and say, man, I needed that.
I'm going to start working hard.
I'm going to find my way over the wall.
And you're going to get to this point
and then you get a little bit of resistance
and then he quits.
People try to start serving God.
They're zealous, they're excited.
Then all of a sudden their family
starts criticizing them and then they give up.
Their old friends start criticizing them,
they give up.
They get made fun of, they give up, right?
You've got to just find a way over the wall.
And you know what, it's going to be tough and tough and tough
because the archers are shooting at you.
But you know what, there's resistance.
There's reality.
Find a way over that wall.
And you know what, why is that?
Because the result of getting over the wall is lessons.
That's what the Bible teaches.
So let us all just, instead of trying to avoid these walls,
let us find a way to get over those walls.
Let's go to the word of prayer.