Feet Like Joseph 2

[Speaker 1] The church of Jesus Christ cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God-given words of restoration and instruction in righteousness from Family Tent Ministry. May you be blessed as you listen. [Speaker 2] Start up this morning. We are trusting the Lord that it has always been Him. Even now, it will still be Him, and it will yet be Him in the name of Jesus Christ. We are trusting the Lord that in His mercies, He will meet us at the various points of our needs in the name of Jesus Christ. In the month of August, we started "Feet like Joseph," but for September, we couldn't continue with that. We looked at preparing for the future. So now, we want to pick the matter of "Feet like Joseph," which we started in the month of August. We have done "Feet like Joseph 1." We want to do "Feet like Joseph 2" today. And if we can conclude everything about Joseph, we may not look at that again in the month of October. We want to take time out to pray. Let’s pray. Let’s pray this morning. Our Father, we thank You for Your love. We thank You for Your mercies. We thank You for Your goodness. We thank You for Your grace. We appreciate You for all who You are. Meet with us this morning in a way that it will be a blessing to us. Lord, our eyes on You. Our brethren who are on Telegram, our brethren who are on Mixlr, Lord, we pray that You will meet with us in the name of Jesus Christ. Almighty God, we look up unto You, that Lord, meet with us in a way that we will understand You very clearly in the name of Jesus. Thank You, eternal Father. Blessed be Your holy name, our God, in the name of Jesus Christ. In the name of Jesus. "Feet like Joseph." As we consider this topic this morning, we are asking that You will speak to us in a way that will come very clearly to us. Now, "Feet like Joseph." We have been able to look at the matter such that what Joseph stands for is uncommon life. What Joseph represent—that was in the month of August—so many things have been said about Joseph. We saw how uncompromising Joseph was in his lifetime. We saw how he was able to live a life that ordinarily, one would be thinking that maybe Joseph was acting out a script like in a drama where you know that everything is being recorded, and so you are trying to live correctly. You are trying to live in a way that it would meet the intended line of drama. In the case of Joseph, he was not acting a script. He was just living his life, not even aware that everything would be recorded like this for us to read. So, we have seen the life of Joseph. And then we got to the point in the month of August where we concluded. We were trying to look at: what is it that made Joseph to be this uncompromising? What is it about his life that made Joseph to be this uncompromising? And we said that there are three important things to look at in the life of Joseph. Of those three important things, we have been able to look at one of them in the month of August. We mentioned three things. We said the first one is: Joseph had shared intimacy with God that was manifested in loving righteousness and hating wickedness. Number two: a clear understanding of the principle of faithfulness. And then number three: earnestness to be a positive influence. So, in the month of August, we have been able to look at the life of Joseph, and we have been able to look at one of these three qualities that is in the life of Joseph that made him to be a very, very different person. So, we want to continue from the second. That’s where we left the matter in August, which is: Joseph had a clear understanding of the principle of faithfulness. And we want to look at what is it that Joseph clearly understood that made him to live the life that he lived. And I pray that as we look at this principle from scripture, comparing scriptures with scriptures, it will become a matter that will be clear to us too. It will become a matter that we too want to put in our own life, and we want to live on, and we also want to live by. In the month of August, I took us to the first scripture about this matter, which is in Luke 16, and that is where we will be starting up today. Luke 16. Let’s see that scripture together. Luke 16. I will take my reading from around verse 10. "He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? If you have not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give you what is your own?" (Luke 16:10-12). We are trying to look at exactly what Joseph understood that made him to live the life that he lived. A clear understanding of the principle of faithfulness. How do we know that Joseph has this clear understanding? You will see that in what Joseph said in that Genesis. When you look at that Genesis 39, Joseph made a statement, a statement that made us to see that this understanding of this principle was very clear in the heart of Joseph, such that it is not something that is not clear in his heart. Look at what happened in that Genesis 39. The Bible says that, let’s look at it from verse 6, talking about Potiphar. Let's take it from verse 7. "And it came to pass after these things that his master's wife cast longing eyes on Joseph, and she said, 'Lie with me.' But he refused and said to his master's wife, 'Look, my master does not know what is with me in the house, and he has committed all that he has to my hand. There is no one greater in this house than I, nor has he kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?'" (Genesis 39:7-9). Are you seeing something? So, Joseph was standing for the cause of his master, though the master was not there. Something was opening up for him in his favor: a quick sexual pleasure, to court the master’s wife's favor. There was an opening for him. But that opening would be against a trust that had been committed to him. And so, the Bible says it is required that a man be faithful. So, Joseph knew that there is a requirement, a requirement to be faithful. I'm talking about the qualities, what made Joseph who he was. And I'm trying to make you see that Joseph had a clear understanding of the principle of faithfulness. It is something that is clear to him. And I want to tell you something. When you see a young man who is not sincere and transparent as a Christian, the problem that person is having is the person does not understand the principle of faithfulness. Faithfulness is a principle that if you truly understand it, you cannot compromise it. When you see men who live anyhow, they don't understand the implication of what it means to be faithful. They think it's just something anyhow there. No, it is not. That's what I want to show you today. I want to show you what this principle, how it operates. The implication of not being faithful. The adversity that you can bring into your life by not being faithful. In fact, many people in different ways have cut or had cut their lives short because of this. What many people are suffering today in their lives and it looks like every door is closed against them is because they didn't know that at a point in their lives, they did not live by the principle of faithfulness. And that is what I want to make you to see. You are not aware that when the Lord begins to see that in small, small things that you are saying it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter, "He will understand now, he will understand. My husband will understand, my wife will understand. The fellowship will understand. They will understand," and little by little, you are doing a lot of little things. "This is just a small thing now. How many did I take out of... I took only one out of 200. What is one in 200? I just wanted to enjoy myself." They look little, little. A small lie to your mother. A small lie to your father. "It's not that I wanted to lie, I just don't want them to understand." And it looks like you are escaping. You are not escaping. You are digging your grave. You are gradually destroying yourself. It's like the smoker who takes the stick of tobacco and it looks like he’s enjoying every second. But science says for every in and out of tobacco, a second has been deducted from the lifespan. So every second, one, one second. Before you know it, it accumulates to several years. It is the same thing. Every time you act against faithfulness, every time you are not sincere and true—and let me try to define this being sincere and being true. I want to take you to something in the book of Proverbs, and I will be reading the Amplified version. Something in the book of Proverbs. I want to show something about understanding this matter of faithfulness. The practical things that we are calling faithfulness. Practically, what we mean. Now, when you read the King James version in Proverbs 3:3-4, it says, "Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart: So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man." That is King James. Now, when you look at the way King James puts it, one thing that is clear is there is something you must do. It says don't allow mercy and truth to forsake you. Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart. That is what I want to read to you in the Amplified version. "Let not mercy and kindness," that's the first one. Let's look at first: mercy. What does it mean when we're talking about mercy and kindness? What does that mean? Amplified: "Let not the shutting out of all hatred and selfishness..." Mercy is the ability to shut out hatred from your heart and to shut out selfishness from your heart. Don't let it forsake you. You are writing it on the tablet of your heart. The other one: truth. Amplification of truth. Look at how it puts it: "Shutting out all deliberate hypocrisy and falsehood." When we are talking about being truthful, to be truthful is that you are shutting out on one hand, you shut out all hatred and selfishness from your heart. That is what it means that mercy or kindness, you don't allow it to forsake you. You are writing it on the tablet of your heart. The other one that is now truth is that you are shutting out all deliberate hypocrisy and falsehood. Now, when we are talking about faithfulness, faithfulness is the ability of an individual in relating to his neighbor—and when I say your neighbor, I mean anybody that you are relating with: your parents, your wife, your husband, your employee, your employer, your students, your teacher, your patient, your client, your workers, whichever way. All your network of relationship. To be faithful to people is that you deliberately shut out hatred and selfishness from your heart. You can see how Joseph was not selfish. The door was something opening for him. Pleasure with the master's wife. After all, the master doesn't know what goes in or goes out. He would just be enjoying himself. And I see how the master's wife too will now have special love for him, and she will be speaking well about him with Potiphar. "You know that boy is a very, very good boy," because now they have emotional connection. Joseph was looking at all those doors, but no. Selfishness would not take over him because he’s realizing that, "But this is somebody else's wife. This is not mine. No, I must not be selfish. I must not be selfish. This is not correct. This is not correct." I'm telling you, if you don't learn to live like this, you are digging your grave. It may look as if you are enjoying, but I will soon show you. You are the one who is the architect and the chief pilot of your destruction. Your woe and your doom, your weeping and your sorrow, is what you are carving out if you don't know. You may think, "Ah, I've taken advantage of them." It's because you are blind. I want to show you what Joseph understood, what made him uncommon, uncompromising. You see, when men understand this thing, they don't live anyhow. Because faithfulness is a matter that the Lord raised in Luke 16, and He’s making us to see it: that number one, the Lord wants us to understand that faithfulness is not only in big things. It's not when you want to say, "This one is a serious matter, I must be faithful." No. As far as the Lord is concerned, "He who is not faithful in little is not faithful in much." So faithfulness cuts across whichever level of life you are today. And the reason why you may not come to much in your life is how you have handled little. The reason why you may never come to much in your life is that you were not faithful in little. Because if you are not faithful in little, much, the Lord will not organize much for your life. Because the Lord knows that you can never be faithful. You will dig a bigger grave for yourself. And because the Lord does not want you to be destroyed, the Lord will keep dealing with your life on that little until you become faithful. He deals with us as a father. It's like a child that the father has so much, and the boy is just 11 years, and he says, "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, I want to drive this limousine car too." Because the father loves the child, he knows the child cannot handle a limousine car. He may not be able to handle that thing. It is something that can destroy him. He needs to grow up a little and become more mature to be able to handle such a thing. The father will not give him. Not because the father did not want him to have it, but the father knows that giving him at that very, very young age will destroy him. That's what I'm trying to say. The reason why God may never organize much for your life and leave you at the level of little is that Baba sees clearly in your life that you are not faithful over little. And so to keep you from greater destruction, Baba still begins to deal with you until you can pass the elementary exams. Baba says, "No, don't take him to advanced courses. If he cannot handle elementary exams, it will not be good to give him advanced statistics." He who is faithful over little will be the one that will be faithful over much. So, when you see a man who is not faithful in little, why he will be thinking that he’s taking advantage of people, he’s cutting himself short from the flow that could have come to his life. He’s cutting himself short of several doors that Baba could have opened for him. He’s cutting himself short of blessings that could have flowed. So while you may be thinking sometimes that, "Yes, I took advantage of him. He didn't know. I was able to get it, I was so smart." You were not smart. You were only stupid and foolish. Unfaithfulness is not smartness. Unfaithfulness is foolishness and stupidity. Please hear me well. Unfaithfulness is not smartness. Unfaithfulness is foolishness and stupidity. Unfaithfulness is not smartness. That's what this generation call unfaithfulness. "I hammered the person. I got him." You didn't get anything. Rather, you shot yourself in the leg. Every unfaithfulness, you are shooting yourself in the leg. So, what is it? I'm trying to properly operationalize what it means to be faithful. What it means to be faithful is the ability of an individual to shut out selfishness from the heart. And number two: to shut out deliberate hypocrisy and falsehood. You will never, ever, to the slightest imagination, practice hypocrisy or falsehood. You will never do it. It can never be something you do in life. I'm showing you what Joseph understood. What Joseph understood. Now, unfaithfulness and faithfulness. We have seen that the Lord said he who is not faithful in little cannot be faithful in much. So little decides much. Please don't shut the door of God against your life. Now, look at verse 11. Having said that little decide much in verse 10, in verse 11, the matter now said, look at what our Lord said. "Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?" So it is like they will first test you with little, little things. The unrighteous mammon. What is not the real one? I remember what we still do now with a child in KG. You know, you will notice that they will give them pencil and eraser. They will not give them Biro first. They will not give them the true riches. They will allow them to be using pencil and eraser so that when they mistake, when there is a mistake, when any mistake is made, what happened? They can easily erase and clean. They will not start with Biro with them. They will first start with the unrighteous mammon. That is not what they will be using to write in life. What they will use to write in life is Biro. But they will first start with them with pencil. It's as they begin to master the art and grow and become more mature, by the time they cross to higher classes, they now say, "Ah, by now he should be able to handle Biro." So they now put Biro into their hand. That is what I'm trying to say. Before they give you what you will need in life, they will first give you what is not the true riches. They will first try to see how you will be faithful. May the Lord grant us a strong spirit of faithfulness. Faithfulness is a fundamental thing in life. May you not have destroyed your future before you get into that future. Last month, it was preparing for the future. May you not have destroyed that future before you get there. Some young people have destroyed their future before they enter that future. They now begin to think, "It must be this. Maybe my brother-in-law's cousin is the one behind my suffering. Maybe my wife, since I married, it's like I'm not making progress. Maybe it is my wife. Maybe it is my husband. Maybe it is this." They begin to run from pillar to post. Sometimes, let us be careful. I'm not saying that we don't have adversaries. There are battles. The enemy sometimes wants to take advantage of us, but we must fight and live in the liberty wherein Christ has set us free. But I'm talking about where we sow seed of corruption. Because the Bible says that do not be deceived, God cannot be mocked. If we sow to the flesh, we will of the flesh reap corruption. We will of the flesh reap corruption. And if we sow to the Spirit, we will of the Spirit reap eternal life. So I'm talking about we must be careful not to sow to the flesh. Because if we sow to the flesh, it says of the flesh we will reap corruption. So that what you may be seeing in the future may not be reaping what you have sown at a particular time. So let us be careful how we live. Young man, young woman, let us be careful how we live. Let us be very careful. Before the original is given, before they give you Biro where you are going, they will first give you pencil. Then they want to see how you are doing, how well you are able to fare well with pencil, before they now bring Biro your way. If all your life you don't fare well with pencil, you may never get Biro. You may never get Biro. That's what we are looking at in this place. So let's continue with that reading. Verse 11: "Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?" That is one. The second one in verse 12. It says, "And if you have not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give you what is your own?" Have you seen that? Number one is that before they give you the reality, they will give you what may look like a miniature, a picture of what is to come, what will look like the shadow before they now give you the substance. Then another very serious thing is that before they will give you your own, they will first give you what belongs to other people. They will want to see how you will handle it. If you handle it faithfully, then you will get your own. If you don't handle it faithfully, you will never get your own. I'm showing you the matter that surrounds the principle of faithfulness. The implication and the consequences of not being faithful. What Joseph understood that made him to do what he did in the house of Potiphar. I said Joseph had a clear understanding of the principle of faithfulness. It was something he was very clear about. And so, you notice that because Joseph had a deep realization that although this woman belongs to my master, she was placed around me—you know, Joseph will always be in the house with that woman. She was placed around me for God to see how I will handle what belongs to other people. And many times, many sisters have been placed around your life like that. Many brothers have been placed around your life like that. Were you busy fornicating? Were you busy pressing breast here and there? Were you busy in some form of immorality? You think it was a silent, a quiet enjoyment? You don't understand that Baba was placing what belongs to other people around your life to know whether He will need to make you sleep so that they can carve out Eve for you. They can carve out your own Eve. But what Baba saw in your life was that you were not faithful what belongs to other men. So when you got to your own junction of marriage, you didn't get favor to marry the right... to marry the person who is your own. You married, but you didn't marry your own. It's like wearing oversized shoe because you were not favored. Because I must tell you, the battle is not to the strong, the race is not to the swift. It is the mercy of God that help us. If not for God, we cannot build our life. Look at what the Bible says. "Except the Lord build the house, they labor what are they doing? They labor in vain. Except the Lord watch over the city, the watchman what do they do? They lie awake in vain." What I am saying is that it is not how strong, it is not how well, how swift and strong we are that make us to always get things right. It is because God Himself also watches over us. The Bible says He is the one who is able to keep us from falling. He is also the one who works in us, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. So if God don't help us, if God don't work in us, we are doomed. If God don't help our infirmities, we are bound to err. So when He says he that finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains what? Favor from God. So finding a good thing in a wife is on account of the favor of God. If God don't favor you, you cannot find a good thing in a wife. You may find adversity. The same thing in a husband. You may find adversity. You may find all kinds of things. Because you were not faithful. The same thing happens with money, with riches, with opportunity. And you can see that in the life of Joseph. Before he came to that of the woman, which was the second level, marital testing, before they will now give him his own, there was also financial, career, occupational testing. You notice that he was first managing all the master's property, and he was faithful. And God was blessing the man because of Joseph. The man now left everything in the hand of Joseph. And Joseph still remained faithful. That was why he could say that everything my master has is in my hand. He does not count what is here and there. So before God eventually brought Joseph to be managing riches of Egypt, God had first made him to manage what belong to other men to see how faithful he would be. That was why he was able to manage when he entered into his own office. Do you know that it was that prison that brought Joseph to that office? If he didn't go through that prison, there would have been no office of Prime Minister for him. That is why I'm still coming to that anyway. But what I just want to make you see now is that one thing about faithfulness that you need to understand in terms of implication and consequences is that you are first given what belongs to other men, what belong to other men at different times. Their money, their riches, whatever. The way you handle those ones will tell whether you will get your own, whether you will enter into your own type of job, your own type of career, your own type of wealth, what will be exactly aligning with your own purpose and plan for your own life, what is customized for you. See, your life is customized. You are wonderfully and fearfully made. You cannot just take anything and anything. No. There is a job for you. There is wealth and riches customized to your own purpose in life. You are not supposed to enter into some kind of wealth or some kind... God has a plan for your life. I mean you are uniquely made. There are no two you. So if your size is 42 and you go and wear size 45, what will happen to your life? I'm talking about maritally, career-wise, riches, all of that. If you enter into size 45, the thing will be dropping from your leg. You will not be able to do well in life. Do you know that even riches that you don't need can make you not to do well in life? So, young people, I'm begging you to listen to me. These are very, very crucial things to note. So be noting the point as you have started. The first thing, having operationalized what faithfulness means, we saw that little brings to much. We saw that you are first given what is not real before you get what is real. Then another very serious thing is that you don't first get your own. You first get what belong to other men before you now get your own. And then I want to move further. Do you really realize that faithfulness is actually step in the ladder of life? Faithfulness, they are like the steps in the ladder of life. Faithfulness is like those steps. Now, when you look at a ladder, you have the vertical log to both sides. The vertical one, long, that determines the length of the ladder. Then you now have the vertical short, short ones. They join the two long ones together. Those ones form the step: step one, step two, step three. As you climb each of those vertical ones, you are going higher. As you go higher and higher until you get to the end of the ladder. That's what I'm trying to say. Faithfulness is like those steps. And you know that when you want to climb a ladder, what do you do? You first look down before you look up. You look down to place your leg on the first step. You don't look up to... you must look down. You are first looking down before you now look up. The looking down in the ladder is actually the matter that we have been discussing. You are not first given your own. You are given what belong to other men. You first have to look down. You first have to submit yourself. You first have to humble yourself. You first have to go down. You first have to die before you live. You first have to deny yourself. You have to shut out. You have to do all of that. You first have to go down. The way up is first to go down. Are you understanding me? You first have to look down what belongs to other people, what is not the true riches. Little, little. Be faithful first in little because step one, step two, actually, they are little, little steps. They are not very high. You can replace them with a stool. You can put other things if that is all the height you want to go. You can even put two or three chairs together and climb it. It will give you the height of those steps. So they are little, little things down. But you know as you step higher, that's when the ladder now becomes very, very useful. At the lower steps, they are not so useful because something else can replace them. That is the little, little things that you are first given. So you first have to look down. I'm talking about faithfulness as the steps of life. Nobody starts climbing a ladder by looking up because you will miss your step down. So you look down: step one, step two, step three, step four. At some point, you will notice your focus will start changing from looking down to looking up. From looking down to looking up. You now start looking up. Now what I'm trying to say is this: if you remove those steps from the ladder, the two vertical long logs, the woods to both sides, they will fall off. There will be no ladder again. That's number one. Number two, even if those two vertical ones, if they remain standing, there's nothing to climb to go up. Are you understanding me? There's nothing to climb. So, actually, the height that God intends for your life, it is the step of faithfulness that help you to climb the ladder. I'm trying to make you see what Joseph understood. It is that step of faithfulness that you begin to climb: one, two, and then you are going up, up, up. That is what you saw in Joseph. It was the ladder of faithfulness that helped him to climb. When he entered Potiphar's house, he was just like any other servant. When the master saw that he was different, he committed more into his hand. When the master saw it again, he left everything in his hand. Including his wife. Joseph managed everything, but he’s not to touch the wife. Every property Joseph was became like the lord of the house. He was a servant like every other servants. He was lifted high above all of them. He was exalted. I pray for you, may you be distinguished among your equals. May you be separated among your equals. But I'm showing you the principle. Joseph rose above his equals. Joseph became the commander of his equal. He rose. I'm showing you how God—faithfulness is God's principle of lifting you up. If you rise by unfaithfulness, let me tell you one thing. That is the prosperity of fools, or prosperity of the wicked. You know what the Bible says about that prosperity? It says He made them prosper so that He may destroy them. That’s another nature of prosperity. I'm talking of prosperity in which God sustains a man. It is by faithfulness. When you rise not by faithfulness, you know what is happening to you? They are lifting you up on a balloon. And you are going up, and you are thinking you are going up. By the time you get to some height, they will now puncture the balloon. Puh! And then you know what that means. But when a man is rising by the principle of faithfulness, that is God's method of lifting up His own. Every step is sustained. It is not being put on a balloon. So you need to understand this. You need to get this very, very clear and understand it. Now, faithfulness. If you look at it, Joseph began to go up. Up, up, up. Then there was the problem of the wife. He remained faithful. He entered into prison. But the prison is part of the place because he must become Pharaoh's second in command. So how will he get there? So Joseph actually did not regress in life. The imprisonment was a progress in life. And what was to bring him there was suffering for being faithful. Do you understand me? What I'm trying to make you to understand. When you are faithful, there are some sufferings. But those suffering have been arranged to be part of what will bring you to the path that will bring you to your greatness. But sometimes because you don't want to suffer for being faithful, that's why you deviate. And as you deviate, you also lose the next step and the next step to the next step that will bring you to where you are supposed to get to. May you not miss your step in life in the name of Jesus. So you notice that there is no way to get to Pharaoh. He needs to get to Pharaoh. He needs to interpret somebody's dream. That person will now at some point raise up his matter. So how will he meet that person? The person was in Pharaoh's prison. He must go to Pharaoh's prison. The way God have designed it is by being blackmailed for being faithful. So when you suffer for being faithful, count it all joy. God is taking you somewhere. God has not abandoned you. God has not left you. Faithfulness can bring us into suffering. It can bring us into imprisonment. You remember that of Job too? Faithfulness brought him into serious loss. Do you see what Job left in a day because he was faithful? So the faithfulness of God upon our lives can bring us into some kind of suffering. But those suffering they were... they are part of the way to greatness. Look at faithfulness in the life of our Lord Jesus. He suffered, suffered, suffered, suffered, suffered. But the Bible says for this reason, God highly exalted Him and He gave Him a name that is above every other name, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow. How did He get there? The suffering that came in faithfulness. But I see a generation today that don't want to suffer for faithfulness, so they deviate from faithfulness. I see a generation say, "Ah, if I don't manipulate and look for a way to pass this exam and get a first class, I may not do well in life." So they quickly do some 419. They quickly do some sit-in exam practices to get a first class. Mind you, what God may need for their life is the faithfulness to get a 2:2. And with that 2:2, God wants to do something to bring them somewhere. I'm trying to use practical things to illustrate these things for you. Whatever you get by unfaithfulness, I'm telling you, you will actually close a door, the correct door that you are supposed to take to where you are going. There is a door for you to take. There is a path for you to follow. And faithfulness is that step, is the step-by-step ladder you need to climb. This is what Joseph understood. And he understood this clearly. And that was why we call him uncompromising Joseph, because he understood the principle of faithfulness. As we close this morning, I want to call your attention to something that I'll just mention. Just to make you see it somewhere again, that faithfulness is a very, very strong thing. You remember Mordecai? Mordecai was like a security man, a security man for the king. He got to know that some people were planning some things against the king, and he acted faithfully: reported them. When he reported them, it looks like no reward, nothing for that faithfulness. It was now much, much, much, much later in life when Haman had concluded every plan to finish Mordecai. The plan had been concluded. He was to just come and finish up the plan with the king. The Bible says that night the king could not sleep. Somebody had been faithful, and he must be rewarded. May your record be straight in the name of Jesus. Wherever you are listening to me this morning, I pray may your record be straight. May your record be straight. May your record be straight. That by the time we open the books, it will be: he had been faithful, he needs to be rewarded. May that be your case. May that be your story. May your story not be otherwise in the name of Jesus. A man had been faithful, so he cannot die like that. He cannot die like that. That night the king could not sleep, and God began to control the king's heart. "Open book and be reading for me, maybe that will make me to sleep. Open the book and be reading." And they read. "Heh! Oh! This case, this case, that they reported then. What have we done for the man?" They said, "Nothing had been done." "Oh, I need to reward that man! Why at that moment?" I'm talking about faithfulness. At critical junctions in your life, your record will speak. May they speak good for you and not evil. Critical junctions in life. Critical junctions. Record of faithfulness spoke for Mordecai. So that as we... therefore, as we pray this morning, look at Proverbs 11. Proverbs 11. As we pray together. Proverbs 11. Proverbs chapter 11. Look at what the Bible says from verse 1: "Dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord. Be careful don't test your scale. Don't practice dishonest scale. But a just weight is His delight." Be just. Be true. Be true to man, be true to God in whatever you are doing. Dishonest scales are an abomination to God. Don't become abominable to God. Live your life in a way that God can favor you. You need the favor of God at every junction. The battle is never to the strong, the race is never to the swift. Please, let your scale be just. "When pride comes, then comes shame." When you lift yourself against the principle of God, you only come to shame. It will only bring you to shame. Submit yourself under the mighty hand of God. Choose to be true, even when you have to suffer for it. Submit yourself. Avoid that arrogance. Don't try to escape. Agree with God. Submit to God. Don't lift yourself against His principles. Don't imagine things that are above the knowledge of God. Submit yourself to the truth of God. Submit yourself to the truth of God. It says, "But with the humble is wisdom." Please, please stay with the Lord. That is wisdom. Verse 3: "The integrity of the upright will guide them." Are you seeing it? "The integrity of the upright will guide them. But the perversity of the unfaithful will destroy them." Are you seeing this thing? I believe you are following these things. The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity. Young man, young woman, duplicity will only destroy you. It will only destroy you financially, maritally, career-wise. Duplicity will only destroy you. Run away from duplicity. Become an uncompromising Joseph. Have a feet like Joseph. A feet, a feet. Let your steps be like that of Joseph. Feet like Joseph. Feet like Joseph. Make up your mind. Make up your mind. We'll not be able to take the third principle. That will be in the month of November. The third principle about the life of Joseph. Earnestness to be a positive influence anywhere you are, it will be next month. We are looking at... we'll conclude with that of faithfulness today. It says, "But the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity." Look at verse 5: "The righteousness of the blameless will direct their way. But the wicked will fall by their own wickedness." There was no "Thus says the Lord" to Joseph. "Joseph, Joseph, don't do this thing because if you do it, you will not get into prison and from there become prime..." There was no prophecy. There was no prophet. There was no Holy Ghost. There was no one thing speaking here and there, or signs in the world. It was just: your word have I hidden in my heart that I might not sin against You. Your word is sharper than two-edged sword. You are a consuming fire. That was the way of Joseph. "Lord, Your word have I hidden in my heart." Your word says I should be faithful. And that word was hidden in his heart. He refused to allow truth to forsake him. He held to the truth. It is not every time that there will just be "Thus says the Lord, thus says the Lord." No! One way the Lord guide us from destruction is His instruction that we should hide His word in our heart. Hide His word in your heart. Tremble at the word of God. Let the word of God dwell in you richly. And verse 6: "The righteousness of the upright will deliver them. But the unfaithful are caught by their own lust." The unfaithful, they are caught by their own lust. May you not be destroyed by your unreasonable desires. It says the unfaithful, they are caught by their own lust. I don't know whether you have any question this morning. Technical, I believe you already know that you can send in your question by 11:30. I don't know, technical, do we have any question on the screen? Do we have any question already sent to us that we can respond to? Okay, we don't have any question. But if you are there, you have been listening, maybe you forgot you ought to have sent in your question. We are giving you just two minutes. If there's a question you want to send to us, please send it now, place it on the page: the Telegram page or the WhatsApp group page. If there's a question, please do so in the next two minutes before we close. We want to pray. Technical said there is no question as at now. So we want to pray now. Any question? Any question? Please, if they are there, if you are listening to us, please send in your question. Send in your question if there are questions. Send in your question if there are questions. So let us go ahead then to pray. No question is coming. Father, we thank You for this morning. We just commit ourselves into Your hand. Lord, we pray that You will grant unto us a faithful spirit. In all we think, in all we say, in all we do in the name of Jesus. Lord, grant us a faithful spirit. Lord, please help us. Help us. In secret, in open. May we not go the way of destruction. The Bible says there is a way that seems right unto a man, but the end thereof is destruction. Lord, help us to go the way of the Lord. In all we do, Lord, help us to go Your way. Lord, incline our heart to Your fear. Direct our heart to Your love. Lord God, our eyes on You. Let nothing prevail against Your purposes our lives. Thank You, eternal Father. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Let’s share the grace together. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us now and forevermore. Amen. This message is coming to you from Family Tent Ministry. Equipping ministry involved in reaching the lives of singles and married through preaching and teaching of God's word, discipleship, family life enrichment, social and community development, and mission aid. Our regular activities are discipleship class every Monday, 5:00 PM; adolescents and singles club every first Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM; marriage forum second Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM; family life seminars, regular school outreaches, and everyday counseling. For further counsel, you can reach us at our location: Life Camp, by the first bridge, Inere Community, opposite Verity Filling Station along Ijahere Road, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria. You can also reach us through our social media handles: familytent@yahoo.co.uk, familytentministry01@gmail.com, www.familytentministry.org. Our phone numbers are 08033861136, 07033613848. God bless you all.