They Can Take the Coat but Not the Anointing

Sermon outline

For every new season God prepares a garment of anointing made to fit you alone, and though people may strip the coat off your back, they cannot take the anointing that now lives inside you, so step into it, develop your gift and keep serving.

1. Character cannot be bought

   The world celebrates results but not consistency, yet it is character that gives a person success and character that sustains it. The drug dealer looks on top of the world with the cars and the gold, and is alive for two years. Joseph reported his brothers' wrongdoing, which was not popular, but character stands up for what it believes in.

   Illustration: People decorate their phone covers with diamantes and sliding gel, but carry the Bible with no pride at all. Carrying it shows yourself and others that it is important.

   “Character is what you cannot buy.”

   • Genesis 37:2

2. Loved, and given a coat of many colours

   Israel loved Joseph and made him a coat of many colours, and his brothers hated him for it. In every new season there is a new enemy, perhaps from your own household, but God also provides someone you did not even know to love you and promote you. The coat was a mantle, and its wearer stood out in any crowd: you were never meant to be ordinary, and when you stand out, people will hate you.

   Illustration: He calls three members dressed in bright colours to the front and asks what the church notices. They stand out.

   “You were never meant to be ordinary. You were always meant to be extraordinary.”

   • Genesis 37:3-4

3. The colours of the throne room

   Ezekiel saw a whirlwind and fire with the colour of amber, and John saw a rainbow round about the throne like an emerald; two men in different ages went into the throne room and both described colour. The Lord is clothed with honour and majesty. So Joseph's coat speaks of the glory of God, an anointing and a mantle, and the rainbow is God's own promise never to flood the earth again, which the church should be vocal about.

   “The colors represent an anointing. The colors represent a mantle.”

   • Ezekiel 1:4
   • Revelation 4:3
   • Psalm 104:1
   • Genesis 9:13-15

4. They stripped the coat, but the anointing is inside

   The first thing the brothers took was the coat, and they dipped it in a goat's blood; Potiphar's wife grabbed Joseph by his cloak. Both thought that taking the garment would take the anointing. It does not work, because the mantle God gives now dwells on the inside: greater is He that is in you, Christ in you, the hope of glory.

   “Greater is he that is in you. Not on you. In you.”

   • Genesis 37:23
   • Genesis 37:31
   • Genesis 39:12
   • 1 John 4:4
   • Colossians 1:27

5. Your gift makes room for you

   A man's gift brings him before great men, not average ones. God heard you praising Him alone in an average car, with only the dog or the plants beside you; the worship team worships at home before they worship on the platform. Joseph developed his gift in prison and was made ruler over Egypt with Pharaoh's ring, fine linen and a new name, and David developed his in the field. God gives each of us a coat made to fit, as Jonathan gave his royal robe to David because he loved him.

   Illustration: He puts the same coat on two young people: on one it looks wrong, on the other it fits and is comfortable. Someone can steal your mantle, but it was custom made for you and will never fit them.

   “We're not waiting for your applause, we're waiting for his approval.”

   • Proverbs 18:16
   • Genesis 41:40-45
   • Matthew 25:14-30
   • James 1:17
   • Romans 12:3
   • 1 Samuel 18:1-5

6. The garment comes with dignity, consecration and serving

   The priestly garments were made for dignity and honour, and to consecrate Aaron so that he could serve. People want the blessing, the favour and the contracts but have stopped serving in the house of the Lord. The garment of praise replaces the spirit of heaviness, and like the garment Shem and Japheth laid over their father, it covers your nakedness and your weakness.

   Illustration: When he is invited to minister abroad he arrives a day early, and on the day he is the one carrying the worship leader's Bible or the water.

   “The minute you stop serving in any area of your life, you already lost the thing.”

   • Exodus 28:2-3
   • Isaiah 61:3
   • Genesis 9:23

7. The mantle passes on

   Elisha asked for a double anointing and was told it was a hard thing, but he saw Elijah taken up, tore his own clothes, picked up the mantle and struck the Jordan, and it parted. At the cross the soldiers cast lots for Jesus' seamless robe. Through the Holy Spirit we have been given the coat, so we walk into any room with power and victory, no longer needing man's approval.

   “It's no longer Adrian that's fighting, it's God fighting on my behalf.”

   • 2 Kings 2:9-14
   • John 19:23-24

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