Positioned at the Right Time: Joseph and the Year of Abundance

Sermon outline

Believers are called to grow, not to strive or survive: like Daniel and Joseph, those who refuse to defile themselves in a hostile system find that the Lord is with them, makes whatever they do succeed, and positions them at the right time for abundance.

1. No more striving, no more surviving

   Strive means to devote serious effort, to struggle and contend, and comes from the same root as strife; if we have to struggle for it, is it really God? Survive means to stay alive where others die and to cope well with difficulty, moving from one crisis to the next without ever growing beyond it. We all start as survivors, but when Jesus comes on the scene we begin to grow even through difficulty, because He has already paid the price and the Holy Spirit is our comforter, strength and standby.

   Illustration: He has heard "Hey, pastor, I'm surviving" too many times this year, and he does not like the word.

   “They have learned how to cope in difficulty, but they never grow beyond the difficulty.”

2. Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself

   Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalem and brought young men of royal and noble families to be trained for three years in Babylonian language, literature and culture, and renamed them. Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the king's food, though it could have cost his life, and God gave him favour and compassion with the chief official. After a ten-day test of vegetables and water they looked healthier than the rest, God gave them learning and skill, and the king found them ten times better than all his magicians. In 2026 God will put us in places, but we will not compromise.

   Illustration: The king's table was the best of the day, whatever the equivalent of bacon and eggs, lamb on the spit and Christmas gravy was. Daniel asked for vegetables. In 2026, he says, we have to learn to eat healthy.

   “God will put us in places, but we will not defile ourselves.”

   • Daniel 1:1-20

3. In any circumstance God can still use you

   When Nebuchadnezzar demanded that his wise men tell him both his dream and its meaning and ordered them all killed, Daniel did not panic but asked why, told the official to put the execution on hold, and gave the king what no man on earth could. Later the wise men he had saved plotted to have him thrown to the lions, and Nebuchadnezzar saw a fourth man in the fire with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and acknowledged the God of heaven. Sometimes God is training you not for you but for a people, a community or a country. If you work in a toxic environment, you are there for a purpose.

   “Sometimes God is doing it not for you, but he's doing it for a people.”

   • Daniel 2:1-24
   • Daniel 3:24-28

4. A blessing becomes a curse only where there is no character

   If God gave it to you, how can it turn into a curse? Only when there is no character. We can carry gifts and anointing into a place like Daniel and his friends, but the minute we compromise we lose the authority, the favour and the power. When we hold on to the principles, virtues and precepts of God, favour abounds.

   “The minute that we compromise, we lose the authority, we lose the favor, we lose the power.”

5. The Lord was with Joseph

   Joseph dreamed that everyone would bow to him, and even his father rebuked him; not everyone in your family will understand what God is doing in your life. Betrayed and sold as a slave, he was bought by Potiphar, and the Lord was with him and made all he did succeed, so that Potiphar's house was blessed for Joseph's sake. God will bless the companies you work for because you are there. He refused Potiphar's wife out of honour for his master and his faith, was falsely accused and imprisoned, and still the Lord was with him and showed him steadfast love. Stop trying to fill the void with people and things.

   Illustration: Put your own name in the verse: and the Lord was with Wesley, and the Lord was with you.

   “God is going to bless the companies that you work for because you are there.”

   • Genesis 37:5-10
   • Genesis 39:1-23

6. Positioned at the right time: the earth produced abundantly

   The cupbearer whose dream Joseph interpreted forgot him for two more years, until Pharaoh dreamed of seven fat cows eaten by seven thin ones. Joseph gave the interpretation of seven years of plenty and seven of famine, and Pharaoh asked where they could find a man in whom was the Spirit of God, then set this prisoner over all Egypt with his signet ring, at thirty years old. Because he was positioned at the right time in the right place, the earth produced so abundantly that they stopped measuring it, and that is the abundance he sees for the church in 2026.

   “So he was positioned at the right time, and when he was in the right place, the earth produced great abundance.”

   • Genesis 40:1-23
   • Genesis 41:1-49

7. Not because you are cute, but because He is Lord of your life

   The abundance will not come because of plumped lips, concealer and foundation, but because the Lord is the Lord of your life. If you live any old how, with one foot in the world and one in the church, do not expect God to work on your behalf. Put your stakes down in the house of the Lord and make Him your number one priority, your king, ahead of a boyfriend, girlfriend, husband or wife.

   “The king and queen of your life is the Lord.”

In this message