Keith Battle - The Gift of Favor - Part 4

I’m going to be in part four of our series, «The Gift of Favor,» and I want to pick up where we left off talking about Joseph and the favor in his life. For the sake of simplicity, I will only read the first four verses of the chapter today for context. If you are with us at one of our physical locations and are physically able to stand, would you please join me in standing and honoring the reading of God’s sacred word? We stand to honor His voice as He speaks to us through His word. How many believe God speaks to you through His word? Amen! Job says, «I treasure your word more than my daily bread.» That’s how much I want your word! Amen. So, we stand in attention to His word. To everyone joining us online, please do me a favor: you still have time to share this service with someone. You can go into the chat; they’ll put up the invite link, and you can invite people. If you’re on Facebook or YouTube, if you just hit that curved arrow, you can click on it and text or email people the link to this service or send it to them. You can tweet it or send it out on Facebook. You can actually invite people to virtual church with just one button push. Amen! All right, are you all ready? I’m reading from Genesis 39, beginning in verse 1. The New International Version says, «Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Israelites who had taken him there.» Verse two: «The Lord was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes, and he became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household and entrusted to his care everything he owned.» Amen, you may be seated.

I’m going to make six observations about this passage, this 39th chapter, as it relates to Joseph and favor today. The first is: when you have favor, you skip levels. I hear somebody got that over there—when you have favor, you skip levels! Let me show you what I’m saying. If you go back to verse 1, the Bible says Joseph was brought—he was taken down to Egypt. When he was taken down to Egypt, Daryl, he was bought there, which means he’s a slave. Now, keep this in mind: he’s a slave at this time when he gets down to Egypt. He’s bought by a man named Potiphar to be a slave. But by the time we get to verse 4, he’s running everything the man owns as a slave. Now, watch this. Every male slave, when you… So let me set the context for you. The reason I’m going to say the point again is because I’m prophesying to somebody in here: your favor is going to make you skip levels. There are certain levels you’re not going to have to go through because you have favor! Now, I need to understand—here’s the context: Potiphar is a man of great means. He is an official in Pharaoh’s court; he’s the captain of his guard. The Bible describes in Genesis 39 his staff. He has people working for him in his house, on his property, and in the fields. He has staff both inside his house and for field service. Are you all tracking with me? This is not the same as his work staff; this is his household staff. That’s how big-time he is. When he hires Joseph, Joseph doesn’t just move up the ladder from being at the bottom of the totem pole. He doesn’t start as a field worker, then become a shift leader, then move up to middle management in the field. No! According to verse two, Joseph is living in the Egyptian’s house. He comes in, and not only is he in the house, but we also find out that Potiphar has made him his personal attendant. Verse 4 says he’s running everything the man owns, even though he’s a slave. And he’s not an old slave; he’s not a veteran. He hasn’t worked for Potiphar for years and worked his way up. He’s new, and he’s in charge! I don’t know who I’m talking to today, but God’s about to bless you so much that you’re going to be new and in charge! You’re going to walk into places, and they’re going to have to amend the process. They’re going to have to make HR amend the requirements! Joseph hasn’t even received his one-year certificate from HR yet, and he’s running the whole operation. When you have favor, you skip levels. Some of you are about to find yourselves in situations where you jump over obstacles like they aren’t even there because you have favor. You’re going to be interviewed over coffee and lunch, and HR’s processes are going to be circumvented! Some of you already know what I’m talking about because it’s already happened to you, but if…