The Chapel Official Message Podcast

Bitterness | Temptations - The Story of Joseph | Part 4

There is a famine in the Promise Land, so Jacob sends his sons to Egypt, hoping to buy grain. When they arrive, the brothers bow before Joseph and beg him for food. Joseph recognizes them and remembers his dream from 22 years prior. Joseph has every right to be angry, vengeful, and bitter at that moment – but he’s not.

Joseph recognized that God was with him. He didn’t get stuck asking why things happened the way they did or why God didn’t rescue him sooner. The truth is, the answers to these questions won’t bring peace; only the presence of God can satisfy us. 

Joseph confronted the pain of his past and allowed himself to grieve. Joseph was a strong and powerful man who gave himself over to grief. Tears are an essential part of healing. We can be tempted to run past or sit in pain, but the Holy Spirit invites us to walk through it and experience healing with him. 

Joseph pursued generosity that brought about revival. Joseph could forgive his brothers and bless them because he allowed himself to grieve the pain of his past and knew God was with him. Forgiveness doesn’t happen in the pit; forgiveness is an outpouring of your healing. We don’t forgive to be better. We forgive because we are better. We don’t forgive to be restored. We forgive because we are restored.

Success & Distress | Temptations - The Story of Joseph | Part 3

In Genesis 40 & 41, Joseph has been falsely accused of adultery and is in prison. Although God’s presence is with him, there is nothing he can do to change his circumstances. After two years in prison, Joseph is asked to interpret a dream for Pharaoh and, in doing so, he is taken out of prison and brought to the palace. Soon he becomes the most powerful man in the world. Joseph experienced both distress and success. On the surface, they can look very different, but the temptation in both is the same – to focus on our circumstances over God. When we live a circumstances-directed life, we seek to avoid distress and increase success. When we find ourselves in difficult circumstances, it feels like God isn’t working, and when we experience success, we can judge God’s right to have expectations on our life. A God-directed life recognizes that God will use distress and success to build character. He cares about who we are and who we are becoming. He wants us to grow to be more like him. As we shift our focus from our circumstances to God himself, we realize the presence of God is the most important thing in our lives.

Sexual Temptation | Temptations - The Story of Joseph | Part 2

Genesis 39 tells the story of Joseph being tempted to compromise his sexual integrity with Potiphar's wife. Shame and fear are often used as motivators to guide us toward a life of sexual purity. We are told to fear the consequences of disobedience or risk being seen as shameful. The problem with this way of thinking is that fear and shame are tools of the enemy. They may bring about behavior modification for a time, but when the fear and shame wear off, so does the desire for purity. God is not looking to scare us into choosing purity. Instead, he invites us into a new way of living where our motivation for purity is centered on the deep love that God has for each of us. When we realize nothing can separate us from his love, we will stop settling for less than his best for us. We are all sinners, saved by grace. When we sin, we go against who God has called us to be and our identity in Christ. The more we fill up on the love of God, the less likely we will be to settle for less than his goodness in our lives.

Pride | Temptations - The Story of Joseph | Part 1

Temptations are anything that lead us away from God or the life he has for us. It’s been said that pride is the root of all other sins because it changes our orientation away from God. Pride believes that we are superior to and more important than others. It is rooted in self-centeredness and causes us to want to control other people. The lie behind pride is that life is a competition, and we don’t have value or worth till we distinguish ourselves. Pride can also show up in feeling insecure and inferior to others. The truth is our value and self-worth are not obtained through competition or distinguishing ourselves. You are valuable because you are the son or daughter of the king of the universe, and you are made in his image. He is willing to sacrifice anything and everything for you. There is nothing you can do to make him love you more or anything you can do to take away his love. When we understand and live in our identity in Christ, pride loses its power over us. God wants to invite you into a whole new way of living. One where you lay down pride and choose humility instead.

The Way of Self-Denial | The Way of Jesus - Part 5

In Mark 14, Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane, deeply distressed and overwhelmed with sorrow. He knows the unspeakable horror awaiting him, and he’s not hiding that he would prefer another way to save humanity. Jesus doesn’t pray once; he comes before God three times, begging him for a different plan. But there’s no other way. After pouring his heart out, something shifts, and he is filled with resolve and courage as he goes to the disciples saying, “Rise! Let us go!” 

The world says that in order to have your best life, you need to “follow your heart.” When you go after what you want and achieve everything you desire, you will find happiness and fulfillment. Jesus offers a different perspective. He shows us that in surrendering control, we are able to experience the fullness of God's plan for our lives. Most of us would say we want God’s best for us, but we also don’t want to give up control. We fear that God’s plans for our lives won’t be the same as our plans. And the truth is, they won’t. It’s in this very tension that God loves to work. When we acknowledge that we want to control but still choose to surrender to God, these moments become catalysts that open the floodgates of God‘s kingdom in our lives. Come before God and invite him to be King of your time, marriage, career, heart, sexuality, and finances. In doing so, you will experience true peace, joy, and fulfillment in your life. 

The Way of Freedom | The Way of Jesus - Part 4

In Luke 8:26–39, Jesus encounters a demon-possessed man. Jesus called the demon out of the man, and his life was transformed as he experienced freedom. What would it look like for you to be free? Free from sin, the brokenness you experience in your humanity, and the evil forces in the spiritual realms. When you become enslaved to something that’s not of God, it can get ugly very fast. You can feel incapable of living any other way, see the things that enslave you as part of your identity, and believe the lies that God does not want you. But no matter how ugly it’s gotten, none of us are so far gone that Jesus can’t bring us back. The moment the demons saw Jesus, they fell to the ground and asked Jesus to stop tormenting them. Jesus’ presence made all the difference in this man’s life, and it makes all the difference in our lives as well! The presence of God breaks bondage, binds up our brokenness, and drives the darkness away. No matter what bondage you are experiencing in your life, the presence of God is the path to freedom.

The Way of Justice | The Way of Jesus - Part 3

In week three of our series, The Way of Jesus, Freddy preached about Biblical justice. Oftentimes when thinking of justice, we say things like, “justice was served.” In other words, someone got what they deserved. But this isn’t the type of justice we read about in scripture. Biblical justice is focused on restoring all things back to the beauty of their original design in God’s kingdom. Jesus cares deeply about justice. He declared in Luke 4:18 that he came “to proclaim good news to the poor… freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free.” Most of his ministry focused on serving those overlooked and set aside in society. This is the ministry he passes on to us who follow him. Micah 6:8 gives us a recipe for justice: act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly. If we seek justice without mercy and humility, we are missing the heart of God for what justice looks like. The justice God desires to bring out in our world is rooted in love, not self-seeking. Therefore we can’t act justly without first loving mercy. When we have experienced God’s mercy, we are forever changed. His mercy gives us a new lens to see the world through, one that knows we are saved by grace and not our own works. Mercy is rooted in humility. Justice is about not looking to your own interests but looking to the interests of others (Philippians 2:3-4). This type of humility is found in depending on Jesus, not our own strength. When we put these three things together, justice, mercy, and humility, we can pursue justice the way Jesus did.

The Way of Mercy | The Way of Jesus - Part 2

In week two of our series, The Way of Jesus, we looked at Luke 15, where Jesus told three parables. The first parable is about a shepherd that goes searching for a lost sheep, leaving ninety-nine others behind. When he finds the sheep, he calls all his neighbors to rejoice with him. In the second parable, a woman has ten coins and loses one. When she finds the missing coin, she invites her friends to come celebrate with her. The last parable tells the story of a son who demands his inheritance, leaves his family, and squanders everything. When he returns with nothing, his father runs to meet him and throws a party in his honor. All three stories push against our natural instincts of what is right and fair. No one in these stories got what they deserved – and that’s the point. Jesus is building a church, not of people who have gotten it right, but of people who have gotten it wrong and have received his mercy. The world will not change by being well informed or through understanding the consequences of their actions. The world will change through people who have experienced God. In order to offer mercy to a hurting world, we must first be recipients of that same mercy.

The Way of Dependence | The Way of Jesus - Part 1

We were created to have a life of impact that bears fruit. A branch cannot bear fruit if it’s cut off from the vine. In the same way, we must stay connected to Jesus so that our lives can grow and flourish as God intended. Much like an extension cord becomes full of power when it’s plugged in, when we are connected to Jesus he empowers us to do the impossible and sets us free to be who God created us to be. We must be on guard, though. We have an enemy who uses distractions, busyness, sin, and shame to get us to disconnect from the vine. No matter where we have been or what our lives have looked like up till now, we can “plug back in” to God. God loves us, and he wants a relationship with us. When we stay connected to God, we will see lives changed, relationships mended, marriages strengthened, sickness healed, and hope restored. 

ChristiSanity - Part 4

Denvil Lee