 Alright, I'm going to read to you from Genesis 48, 8 to 20, this is a little bit of a longer reading than I normally like to read, but sometimes a longer reading is good, especially if it's a part of Scripture where you have not read for a while, and especially if you want to see what I want to pick out here in the context of how it happened. So we're going to parachute in for a few moments to this episode in Joseph's life. This by the way is, it occurred to me, a great half-time message. We're in half-time in 2018, June 2018. This is a great half-time message because this particular moment that we're going to read from in Joseph's life was in his midlife. He's at his literal numerical, physical half-time in his life when we read this story. So bear that in mind as we read this passage today. It says, when Jacob saw the sons of Joseph, he asked, who are these? They are the sons God has given me here, Joseph said to his father. Then Jacob said, bring them to me so that I may bless them. Now Jacob's eyes were failing because of old age and he could hardly see. He was about 137 years old, by the way, at this time and didn't have spex-avers. You may not know that chain, that a famous chain in Europe that provide glasses, there was no glasses in those days. So Joseph brought his sons close to him and his father kissed and embraced them. Jacob said to Joseph, I never expected to see you again and now God has allowed me to see your children too. Then Joseph removed the boys from Jacob's knees and bowed down with his face to the ground. Joseph took both of them, ifram on Jacob's left hand and Manasseh towards Jacob's right hand and brought them close to him. But Jacob reached out his right hand and put it on ifram's head, though he was the younger. And crossing his arms, he put his left hand on Manasseh's head, even though Manasseh was the first born. Then he blessed Joseph and said, may the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked. As God has been my shepherd all my life to this day, the angel who has delivered me from all harm, may he bless these boys. May they be called by my name and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, may they increase greatly upon the earth. When Joseph saw his father placing his right hand on ifram's head, he was displeased. So he took hold of his father's hand to move it from ifram's head to Manasseh's head. Joseph said to him, no my father, this one is the first born. Put your right hand on his head. But his father refused and said, I know my son, I know. He too will become a people and he too will become great. Nevertheless, his younger brother will be greater than he. And his descendants will become a group of nations. He blessed them that day and said, in your name will Israel pronounce this blessing. May God make you like ifram and Manasseh. So he put ifram ahead of Manasseh. The title of this message is the Adjustment Bureau. The Adjustment Bureau, Heaven's Alteration Service. This title I got from watching a movie called this some years ago. If you haven't seen the movie, try and have a look at it and think about it in light of what I've said to you today because the movie is about a politician, a young guy played by Matt Damon, who was running for Senate in America. And he is up and coming, he's very popular, and he's giving a speech at a hotel on his way to the Senate. Just before the speech he goes to the bathroom in the hotel and in the gents bathroom in the hotel is a girl called Elise, played by Emily Blunt. She's hiding in the men's toilets because she gatecrushed a party and the hotel security are chasing her. So she hides in the men's bathroom and Matt Damon's character comes in, bumps into her and he's instantly smitten and falls in love with her. After that moment these strange people begin to appear, these men begin to appear wearing Trilby hats and trench coats, and their job is to make sure they don't get together. And these are angels that have been sent from Heaven's Adjustment Bureau because it was his destiny as the film explains, as the film unfolds, it was his destiny to be the president of America. He didn't know that, but this was God's destiny for his life. And Heaven knew that if he fell for this girl that she would distract him from his destiny and he wouldn't make it to the White House. And so Heaven sends these angels to stop him and her getting together. And the movie is about whether Matt Damon's character settles into a predetermined destiny that does not include Elise or he fights to be with her and defies this destiny that the angels are trying to keep on track. That's what the movie's about. And it occurred to me when I saw the title of the movie, I never thought of it in that terms, but I've always believed in my own way, now I have a language for it that Heaven has an adjustment bureau. What's happening in this story here, just to give you the context, remind you what we're dealing with here. If you remember Joseph when he was 17, shared a dream with his siblings. It didn't go down well at all because the implications that the dream were that his brothers were somehow going to be subservient to him, were somehow going to be beneath him, and the dream somehow made it sound like he was going to be in charge of them in authority over them at some point in life. And of course siblings never like a younger sibling telling them that. He was already the favorite child of his father, Jacob, and Jacob to demonstrate how he preferred him to the other children bought him a very expensive dream coat, it's we call it now, multicolored dream coat, we call it now, but it was a very expensive, very carefully tailored garment, and Jacob gave it to Joseph because he was his favorite son. So he didn't hide how much he favored one over the other, not very good parenting. So his brothers hated him already for that reason, then on top of that they hated him even more when he tells them the dream. Two days later they were out in the desert herding sheep and they plotted to kill Joseph, to get rid of him. At the last minute they changed their mind about killing him, instead threw him into a pit in the ground where they knew he'd die anyway, and they got an animal's blood, put it on his expensive coat that I just mentioned, took it back to Jacob and said to Jacob a wild animal killed him. Jacob grieved over Joseph all his life, of course convinced that he was dead, as were his brothers because they knew he would die in the pit in the ground where they left him. While he was in that pit in the ground, a caravan came by of travelers and they got him out of the pit and the human trafficked him, we'd call it now, they sold him into slavery in Egypt. He was bought by a man called Potiphar who was senior in the Egyptian military and he began to work as the steward, the chief steward, the manager of Potiphar's house. And in Potiphar's house he was loved, he was brilliant at what he did. Then one day something went wrong, Potiphar's wife accused Joseph of trying to rape her. He was innocent of that but he still finished up in prison and so Potiphar had to send him to prison and it stays in scripture. He went to the prison that was especially reserved for people that were in the king's employment and the king's prisoners were sent there. So you were there if you displeased the king or any of the king's team and staff that you worked for them as did Joseph with the general, Potiphar. You went to the king's prison. Now let me just say before I go any further, in my opinion what makes a movie outstanding and what makes a movie average is not the plot but the sub-plot. What makes a great movie or a great book or a great story is not the plot you can see. It's the sub-plot you can't see. And let me also say when we read scripture we can't really appreciate the suffering, the loneliness, the agony, the discouragement, the depression, that the Bible characters went through because we read scripture from completion. In other words we know how it ends. And so to remind you this morning you do know, don't you, that the people in the Bible did not know they were in the Bible. It seems an obvious thing to say to you but it's not because I think we think that Joseph knows it ends well because we know it ends well. I think we assume that the people in the Bible was kind of playing and acting out some part as if they knew it all ends well. Joseph had no idea that this would end well. No more than many of you here this morning know that what you're going through will end well. And so we read the Bible retrospectively which gives us rose colored spectacles as it were. And so we have to pretend we don't know it ends well and we have to put ourselves in the shoes of Joseph who is going through the worst nightmare of his life. And so Joseph is now in the king's prison. What we now realize is that Joseph being in the king's prison is all part of God's subplot. When God writes the story of your life you know he writes it before you're born. Psalm 139 tells us all the days ordained for us were written into God's book before one of them came to be. So God wrote the story of your life before you were born and what God does he starts at the end of your life and he works backwards. That's why when God enters your present he always enters your present from your future never from your past. And so God writes your life from the end backwards and God starts with the subplot. And sometimes the pressure that we're under in life, the sense of confusion we have in life, the dichotomy we feel in life is that our head is involved in the plot we can see but your soul is involved in a subplot you can't see and don't understand. And that agony of seeing something but it makes no sense because you can't see the something it's rooted in is hugely frustrating in life because destiny cannot be understood unless you're looking back on it. You look back on your life don't you and think oh now I understand what that meant now I understand why that had to happen but you don't know that at the time no more than Joseph did. So him getting to the king's prison was part of the subplot because if you hadn't gone to the king's prison he wouldn't have met the cup bearer who was close to Pharaoh and this cup bearer's role in his life becomes strategic if he'd have gone to the normal prison the cup bearer wouldn't have been there and the relationship he built with the cup bearer would not have happened and the relationship with the cup bearer was the key to him getting released from prison later on. So he languishes in jail perhaps for 10 years or more and then one day if you remember Pharaoh has a dream that none of his counselors his spiritual advisors can answer. Pharaoh knows the dream is troubling and so he wants to know what it means and because no one can help him the cup bearer says to Pharaoh I am reminded today of a guy that I'd forgotten about his name is Joseph I was in prison with him and he's a genius he is brilliant particularly at the interpretation of dreams I think he can help you so Pharaoh said go and get him so this then for Joseph Joseph comes walks into a room I suppose full of the great and the powerful of all of Egypt all of Pharaoh's political counselors were there all of his military people were there all of his spiritual advisors were there and here comes this young man that walks straight in from 10 plus years in prison accused of rape and walks into the midst of these who's who of Egypt and he begins to interpret exactly what Pharaoh's dream meant and he said when you saw the seven fat cows in your dream it was forecast in seven years coming in this country of massive boom of flourishing of great economy of massive growth in the crops it's going to be seven years of plenty seven years of blessing the seven thin cows are representing seven years that will follow that of famine that's what this dream means Pharaoh was impressed that he knew the interpretation but even more impressed with what Joseph did next because what next Joseph did was he said and by the way if you don't mind beyond me interpreting the dream I have an idea I have a 14 year economic plan if you don't mind me suggesting it and all of Pharaoh's economic advisors that were stood there listening to this Johnny come lately show up from jail young man that says I have an idea why don't we in the seven years of plenty store up the grain warehouse it so that when the seven years of famine come we will be the richest nation in the world in terms of grain we will monopolize the grain market so that we can feed our own people and we can export grain to the world will be billionaires and Pharaoh said I like him I think we should keep him out of jail in fact I like him so much I'm going to put him in charge of running this whole thing in fact I'm going to put him second only in authority to me to Pharaoh he said the first thing I'm going to do is change your name and Pharaoh changed his name from Joseph to an Egyptian name the name he gave him was Zafanathpaneer Zafanathpaneer means savior of the world imagine being called savior of the world when all you did was come out of jail interpret a dream and have an economic idea so Pharaoh is seeing something in him much more significant than what the pages are telling us called him savior of the world you wouldn't you wouldn't you wouldn't want to have an opinion would you in Pharaoh's war council or Pharaoh's economic meetings with his government heads you wouldn't want to have an opinion would you after the savior of the world just spoke how intimidating would that be not only did Pharaoh change his name he said I'm going to give you a beautiful girl for your wife and Pharaoh gives him the high priest's daughter who was a babe and he said here you can have her for your wife not only that Pharaoh said beyond that I am going to dress you in the finest clothes that I myself would wear my own tailor is going to dress you out in the finest cloth and the finest clothes not only that is that Pharaoh covered him in gold and silver and jewels he looked like a gangster rapper when Pharaoh finished with him he was dripping with gold and silver and beautiful clothing and he had the babe and not only that Pharaoh said I'm also going to give you a beautiful vehicle I'm going to give you one of my own chariots and it's going to be pulled by horses from my own stable so he gets a pimped out chariot pimp your ride he has horses from Pharaoh's own stable not only that Pharaoh said and I'm going to have 30 men that whenever you're riding in your chariot through town 30 men were on ahead of you on foot shouting make way make way Joseph the man is coming through a bit like Kim Jong-un's guys that run alongside his limo he wasn't the he wasn't the first to think of that Pharaoh was so Joseph fortunes talk about changing drastically dramatically overnight years later is where we came to years later now that in the seven years of famine maybe two or three years in Joseph's own family are starving and Jacob sends his sons down to Egypt who is the only nation that has grain Joseph's brothers come into the place where the grain has been distributed and sold and Joseph's in the room he instantly recognizes his brothers but of course they don't recognize him because now he walks like an Egyptian you're welcome so they don't know who he is you would anyway between 17 and maybe late 40s he is now changes would be enough to make it hard to recognize someone without him also dressing like and behaving like an Egyptian and of course they all thought he was dead anyway on the second or third occasion of them coming up for grain Joseph can't bear anymore to not tell them who he is so he asks all the Egyptian staff to leave the room and he reveals his identity to his brothers and the moment he says to them I am Joseph your brother they fall on the floor terrified because now they believe payback is about to happen now they believe that Joseph who now has the power as the dream at 17 years old forecast the dream that he told them is now a living reality in this room now they're literally bowing down on the ground to him as he said they would when he was 17 none of them knew it would be like this and they were convinced that their lives are going to be taken from them instead Joseph no no no don't don't bow on the ground I'm not angry and he begins to tell them how he viewed his life it's the first time we ever see how Joseph viewed his life and he said you meant this for evil but God has used it for good begins to tell them how God has used him in Egypt how he's come to a place of prominence so that he can now provide for the world and provide for his family and so he asks is my father Jacob still alive they say yes he said you must go and bring my father here I must see him and so they go and get Jacob so Jacob comes and Jacob comes into Joseph's home and Joseph brings the two boys to meet their grandfather and Joseph said I never dreamed I'd see you again let alone I would be able to bring my two children your two grandchildren to see you and Joseph is so happy to see his father as is Jacob to see this lost son that he thought was dead then the two boys come Jacob's heart must have just melted at the possibility of even seeing Joseph not just these two beautiful boys now if at this point I can have my two sons up here so I can demonstrate to you what's going on here I've arranged two sons this morning and two seats for them to sit on what are they coming from the behavior like ninjas these are my two boys yes maybe you can just put your two stools here boys these are my two boys very proud of these two boys behave yourselves today don't be naughty come and sit down facing the people so what Joseph does is he puts his two boys Manasseh and Ephraim in front of Jacob his father now he arranges them so that all Jacob has to do is put his hands down on the boy's head now Manasseh his firstborn goes underneath Jacob's right hand because in in that time and in and the custom of that of that culture and still many around the world by the way the right hand the right hand was only to be laid on the firstborn because the right hand was the blessing of power and legacy and prosperity and the name of the family and all that the family had gained to that time was passed on through the right hand to the firstborn son the blessing of the right hand it was called so the right hand went on the firstborn Manasseh Ephraim was the secondborn so Ephraim would be under Jacob's left hand so as as Joseph arranges the boys and the last minute as Jacob leans in he does this with his hands and crosses his hands and puts the right hand on the secondborn and puts the left hand on the firstborn and Joseph is not happy Joseph thinks his father's eyesight is so bad you know you had one job you had one job Jacob one job I made it so easy for you so Joseph thinks his dad is not getting the idea so he gets hold of his dad's hands and begins to uncross them and Jacob says no it's okay son I know exactly what I'm doing and if Jacob would have been on this platform today he would have said it's okay Joseph I am here on behalf of heaven's adjustment bureau to adjust the narrative of the way that you see your life so what's going on is that Manasseh was Joseph's firstborn Ephraim his secondborn now they gave names that meant something significant in that culture and still in some cultures of the world today the name summed up the name memorialized forever that season of your life that you felt that child was born in you passed on to that child in the name of that child now Manasseh means God has delivered me from all my troubles Manasseh means deliverance God has made me forget all my troubles and he'd had nearly 20 years of heartache and trouble so when he has this boy to this beautiful woman in his prime ministerial season in Egypt he's like God has been so good to me God has delivered me from prison delivered me from all my troubles Manasseh God has delivered me will be your name years later he has Ephraim Ephraim's name means God has made me fruitful so Ephraim means fruitful so the way Joseph saw his life was this he saw that God first delivered him and because God delivered him he was able to become fruitful this is how he saw his life and in his midlife Jacob comes in at half time Jacob comes in and crosses his hands on behalf of heaven's alteration service because now God wants to edit how he perceived his life because the way he was reading his life was wrong because the way Joseph saw that God worked was that God first delivered him and then he was able to be fruitful when Jacob crosses his hands God was saying that is not how your life has worked because as far as God's concerned deliverance does not precede fruitfulness as far as God's concerned fruitfulness always comes before deliverance this is huge because many of us live our lives believing that until until God does something for us until we get a breakthrough until we get a healing until we have more money until we have a better job until we are more educated until they apologize until they admit they were wrong until the government changes the interest rate until I get a promotion until until until we have this belief that until God steps in and delivers us from what's stopping us being fruitful we can't be fruitful until all of our lives God is doing this on behalf of the adjustment bureau God is saying to humanity not just to the church God is saying to humanity that as far as he's concerned always fruitfulness always precedes deliverance so Jacob did this and Jacob's saying on behalf of heaven's adjustment bureau God sees your life Joseph differently God sees that you were first fruitful and then because you were fruitful you got delivered from prison because think about it now he was fruitful in Potiphar's house he was a genius in Potiphar's house then he went to prison and in prison he was so fruitful because in prison he was so brilliant the guy that ran the prison slept late took weekends off because Joseph did a better job than he did the guy that was the chief jailer was so happy to have Joseph in his jail because Joseph loved the prisoners he had this natural pastoral care for them he helped them with their problems he helped them in one instance if you remember the baker and the cupbearer both that were in jail for upsetting Pharaoh both of them that the baker had a dream and he interpreted the baker's dream it wasn't a good interpretation by the way for the baker but that's beside the point but he's so interested in helping people in the prison when that wasn't his job and by the way he's the only one in prison that shouldn't have been there he's in there for a crime he didn't commit and yet despite all of that despite him being bitter and twisted and resentful who could have blamed him for that he didn't instead he prospered and he was fruitful in prison and his fruitfulness and his happiness and his serving of the people in the prison is what got him brought to the attention of Pharaoh had he not have helped the cupbearer with a difficult time in his life the cupbearer would never have remembered him to Pharaoh so it was his fruitfulness in prison that got him sent for to come out of prison to come to Pharaoh and he'd forgotten that and you forget that you think that you got where you got because God delivered you I want you to retract your life because if anybody was if anybody was going to intervene in this narrative about wrongly naming your sons Jacob was the best one because Jacob all of his life suffered by being the second born in his own mind the Bible says when Jacob was born he was born grasping the heel of his twin brother Esau trying to drag Esau back into the womb and get born before him because he wanted the blessing of the right hand Jacob wanted to be first born and even in the womb there was a war going on between these two boys for who would be born first who would have preeminence and because Jacob was born second he plotted early on in life with his mother he plotted to steal the birthright from his brother Esau and you know the story so there was no one better than Jacob to come and intervene on Joseph repeating the mistake that his own life had been caught up in and passing on this wrong narrative to another generation Joseph is about to pass on this narrative this legacy of a wrong seeing of his life he's about to pass it on to his two boys who would pass it on to their children so God at the back end the very the very last few minutes the last few days of Jacob's life he died not long after this comes in and crosses his hands and I want to say to you this morning that God is crossing his hands in your life and you must stop trying to uncross them as if God is senile as if God doesn't understand as if God needs your help to edit your life accurately and some of you are struggling in the first half of your game the first half of this year you're struggling because you're still waiting for God to deliver you and it's the middle of the year and you're losing in the first half because you're waiting it's like you sat on the bench waiting for something to happen and it hasn't happened yet and I've got news for you it's not going to happen because God is not going to deliver you so that you can play better in the second half you have to deliver you fruitfulness fruitfulness is self-deliverance fruitfulness is your own off-ramp from the tragedy and the difficulties of your life and I tell you this because I know I'm not minimizing the difficulty of some of your lives some of you are going through terrible things I understand that but I got to say to you if you can if if Joseph could prosper and have a great attitude and a great heart in jail for a crime he didn't commit if Joseph can do that then you can prosper in anything you're going through today some of you are just convinced and you have a theology for it and I'm about to do this on your theology because it's not working the first half you're losing because you're still waiting whilst you're watching other people playing and making a difference what you should be noticing is that many of the people that are playing and making a difference also could have been waiting for deliverance because their lives also have difficult things in them but instead of waiting around for Manasseh they've decided to become Ephraim and they're getting up and they've been fruitful when others would think they can't be fruitful because they haven't got the money the education the experience the connections the contacts the opportunity the time's not right they don't live in the right area they're from the wrong social economic background you might look at them and think until that all gets fixed you really can't give more serve more help more contribute more so you're waiting for something to come together this message is to say to you today you have to stop waiting take your life out of a holding pattern stop waiting for Manasseh so waiting for deliverance it's not coming and go ahead and start being fruitful where you are God is always in your life and in humanity God always sees your life this way you had difficulty tragedy this is Joseph this is us a different times in life our churches our businesses our countries tragedy followed by deliverance is what Joseph thought followed by fruitfulness God sees it this way tragedy difficulty loss lack problems difficulty loneliness fear rejection failure mistakes tragedy this is how God sees it that's all needs to be followed by fruitfulness then fruitfulness lead your life to what you could be called deliverance now now my life has changed now I'm in charge of Egypt now I'm living a dream life that was not started by God it was started by you God didn't start Joseph's turnaround Joseph started Joseph's turnaround by being fruitful in a place where nobody believed anybody could ever be fruitful some of you don't believe that people can be fruitful going what you're going through but they can and they are and many people listen to me many people are doing far better than you are who don't know Jesus they don't have a church they don't know God they don't have this awareness of divine assistance they're outside of Christianity they're not walking with God and many people outside the church are prospering in the midst of tragedy better than we are with all that stuff going for us so we are without excuse here we are without excuse we're going to wait another day another moment you two boys can go sit down you've been very good this morning I'm proud of you both my two boys uh years ago late 90s 17 years into my leadership in the church our church was stuck turning inward we were having a great time our worship was great our preaching was great our relationships were great but in this building we were a mega church as far as England was concerned we'd be about 700 people that's a mega church in England or Europe seriously the average size church in our country is 20 people that's of the 2% in our country that do go to church 98% don't and a quite anti-church so we were doing great is my point compared to what goes for church in our country but our church had got stuck and we got stuck because we forgot that it was not about us as we sang this morning that we've made worship about us instead of him and we sing in the song we're sorry about that and our church made Christianity a made church about us and we forgot that we were supposed to be reaching the city and especially the poor and the forgotten and the leftovers and the discarded people in our city and I began to send in buses to reach into these communities and bring these people in and half of our church left within about two or three years half of the white middle class people left because they must have decided that we can't prosper here we can't be fruitful here anymore because you're bringing in these people that are making us unsafe and we feel intimidated and fearful and uncertain and this church doesn't feel safe anymore comfortable anymore which we should never have become in the first place so I'm bussing in these people now we reach in many of the homeless people in our city we started doing in the late 90s I tell you this to tell you that one of the one of the worst-looking homeless people you could imagine the classic stereotypical homeless down-and-out look was this young man that came into our church on the buses called Steve he had a long straggly beard long straggly hair matted filthy unwashed his face was filthy his skin was was damaged and dirty and cut and he was an alcoholic all of these stuff and he smelled terrible Steve and every few months we had a special event where we brought in the homeless we fed the homeless every week but every couple months we put on a real big banquet for them and we also made sure that on that day we provided for them basic healthcare medical care haircuts shaves showers and we bought portable showers on site get them a great meal and then finally we had a room that was full of clothing that was donated by people in our church good clothing that we that we encouraged them to go in and choose some clothing and what I did deliberately I made sure every wall in the room was covered with floor to ceiling mirrors because homeless people don't look in mirrors they avoid mirrors I wanted I want I hope that someone may get a glimpse of themselves in a mirror after a shave and a makeover I wonder if they might get a glimpse of another version of themselves so I put mirrors all around the room I happened to walk into that room Steve the guy I'm telling you about was in a suit had a shave had his hair done you would not talk about before and after you wouldn't have recognized it and I said to Steve wow Steve you look like you're going for a job interview teasing him and he paused and looked at me and said I might just do that and he did and a few days later where in the same clothes I saw him in he went to a local garage and applied for a job washing cars so they gave him the job washing cars we vouched for him that we knew him that he was trying to recover his life and get off drink and get off the streets and so we we encouraged the garage to give him a chance and he started washing cars for just minimum pay within within six months they'd given him a full-time role and he was on salary within a year he was promoted to be in charge of the whole valet department of the dealership now Steve is coming to work in a suit every day that he bought himself now he is in charge of other people now he has got money to rent his own apartment his life like Joseph's is beginning to look very different to how it did a few months earlier and I remember seeing Steve after he got the job I could either recognize him coming to church now he's got enough money to buy his own car I remember seeing Steve you know a couple of so years later and talking with him and teasing him and I tell you this to tell you that what turned Steve's life around was not Manasseh it was not God's deliverance it was Steve decided that day I am going to do something to take my life out of where I've got stuck I am going to be fruitful he decided to apply for a job to change his life and to be fruitful and and it was Steve's fruitfulness in the midst of a non easy non fruitful not good outcome addicted stuck homeless life in the midst of that he decided I'm gonna go and apply for a job despite all the fees he must have had of rejection he decided to go and take a chance it was that moment that day that his life turned around and yours too and I remember saying to Steve years later you know if you hadn't that day said to me I just might do that when I teased you if you hadn't said I might do that then you went to do it you'd still be homeless still on the street something that day occurred to you when you saw yourself in that mirror you saw another version of you and new possibilities came to your mind and you decided that day that you were going to be fruitful and your fruitfulness is what triggered what came next so is yours our family have gone through a tragedy this last 18 months a week before Christmas 2017 our youngest grandchild a little girl called Harlow she was just one years old was diagnosed with cancer we're now 18 months into the regime of treatment the chemotherapy the drugs the steroids it has been very difficult for us all as it is for some of you that are battling similar issues but I have watched my daughter her mom my youngest daughter Esther and her dad Mitchell I have watched them step up and become like super humans in the way that they have loved and parented and taken on that difficulty my daughter Esther in the midst of that it's like your life was picked up put in a blender and someone handed it back to you saying figure that out that's what happens when you get news of that kind my daughter has stepped up my daughter at school was terrible my daughter Esther has a terrible memory she can't remember anything she forgets where her shoes are all the time still but she has got a forensic memory for medications dosages names of the medicine so I've watched her speak to the medical staff they're so amazed at how much she knows like she's a doctor herself and she has stepped up and she has become such a source of strength and encouragement to other parents in there who are battling the same thing but are not doing as well as she is she has decided to be fruitful in the midst of her tragedy she's decided to give something back to other parents that are in the same situation as she is and I honestly believe that her fruitfulness that their decision as parents to do this well to love that child and to love other people that are in their circle of difficulty are honestly be their decision to be fruitful and to be a blessing and to make a difference and to add value to other people honestly believe that is the key to why little harlow now is doing so well it's not just the medicines that are the reason because other kids are on the same medicines that are not doing so well I don't know physiology is different for all the kids but I believe that you stepping up in the midst of your tragedy because this is very close to home for us as I'm telling you that we could have we could have curled up and said well like the Israelites did in captivity in Babylon Sam says that they hung their harps in the willow tree saying we can't sing the Lord songs we can't sing we can't sing Hillsong we can't sing city harvest songs we can't sing our songs because we are in captivity in Babylon that was their mentality so God sent Jeremiah to say to them hang on a minute do not have that mentality Jeremiah went to tell them they're in this place of difficulty in this place of confinement in this captivity God sent me to say to you settle down build houses farm plant crops have children get married have grandchildren because God said to them if you prosper here then the whole community will prosper so God sent Jeremiah to say to the captives stop waiting for the 70 years to be over when you get good to go back to Jerusalem that you must be prosperous and successful even in the midst of captivity in Babylon God said to them stop having a temporary bailout stuck on Paul's mentality in Babylon in the midst of Babylon God said to them I want you to be fruitful and prosperous because your fruitfulness will be the key to your deliverance it always has and it always will be so on behalf this morning of heaven's adjustment bureau I am coming to you and I am telling you that God is doing this to your life and you must stop telling God he's got it wrong and stop uncrossing his arms he knows exactly what he's doing fruitfulness always precedes deliverance fruitfulness then deliverance fruitfulness then change fruitfulness then progress fruitfulness then prosperity fruitfulness then turn around fruitfulness then breakthrough that is how your life will go and any of you in here that are waiting still for God to deliver you from something in this second half you have to play differently in this second half you got to come off the bench in your mind and start waiting for divine intervention and start being fruitful in the midst of the place where you telling yourself God can't use me I can't make a difference I can't be a player I'm waiting for something no no no no we're all to go home today when you're on your own because people that weren't here won't understand this and in a mirror do this it's not the X factor or you know what maybe it is do this for the next few days physically some of you especially for the next few days physically every morning several times in the day do this physically do this posture to remind yourself fruitfulness comes before deliverance remind yourself I am not waiting for God God is waiting for me let's stand together come on