 If you have your Bibles let us open to Genesis 39 and we're going to read verse 2 to 4 and then verse 9. If you don't have your Bibles the words will be on the screen. I was just going to read them real fast and we're going to go into a few points from the Scripture. Genesis 39 verse 2 to 4 says, The Lord was with Joseph and he was a successful man and he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian. And his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made all he did to prosper in his hand. So Joseph found favor in his sight and served him. Then he made him over seer of his house and all that he had put under his authority. Verse 9, then Joseph says to Potiphar's wife, says this, 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? Tonight I just want to talk to you shortly about a topic called the surrender of Potiphar. It is a very unique Scripture that we need to understand and something that happened. We know that God used Joseph and God did him a lot of favor in Potiphar's lives through the hand of Joseph. But there's something that we need to, I want to take and put our view on Potiphar today because what Potiphar did, something that we can learn from and we can take a few simple things from this story to apply it to our life. First principle I want to share is this that surrender is not surrender if it's not complete. Surrender is not surrender if it's not complete. Potiphar begins to give in charge, begins to see that God is with Joseph. God is moving, favors becoming to come into our house and these are beginning to move. And Potiphar begins to give charge to Joseph over everything except that one thing. And the one thing that Potiphar withheld from access for Joseph is the same thing, the devil creeped in and destroyed Potiphar's house. We have to understand that Potiphar lived a life that says, you know, God is doing awesome thing. God is just moving through Joseph. It's an awesome place to be. But yet he didn't surrender completely everything to Joseph. And the devil used that one thing that Potiphar didn't surrender to creep in the house and to begin to destroy his house. We have to understand surrender is not surrender if it's not complete. You cannot fool God to play church on Wednesday, to be able to play church on Sunday, you know, to pretend but your heart is not in it. You begin to give lip service, you begin to live a life where it says, you know, I'm one person in church, but when I leave church, I am different. It is not surrendered, it becomes partiality. And that thing which you do not surrender, that's what devil begins to use to creep in into your life. We have to understand as a church for the vision that God has for our lives, as individuals, as believers, as children of God, we have to live a life that is completely surrendered to what God wants us to do. I'm not saying that abandon your job and come work at the church. We're not hiring right now. I'm just saying, because everybody's like, I want to work at the church. No, you don't, you know, we're not hiring right now. But it's not about, you know, oh, I'm gonna, from 5 in the morning till 12 p.m. I'm gonna come and I'm gonna spend, no, it's not that. God is not looking for work. He's not looking for you to say, you know, I'm working. He's looking for complete surrendered hearts. He's looking for a heart that says, God, my time is yours. Even as I'm going throughout my day, I'm doing my work. My heart belongs to you. I don't come to church and I pretend to be one person, but I leave and I begin to do otherwise. My heart, I'm completely sold out to everything that you have for my life. We have to understand one thing. If we don't completely surrender in other areas of our life, we will become slaves and we will become under punishment of that thing. For example, if you don't surrender to the laws of driving, you will be a slave to its punishment. Is that true? You can't just say that, you know, I'm gonna obey the speedometer, but I'm not gonna yield every time it says yield. It doesn't work like that. You will eventually you'll get pulled over, you'll get in a crash or something will happen. You can't say that I'm gonna obey the law of physics, so, you know, every time there's a step, I'm gonna walk down the step, but every time there's a one-story building, I'm gonna jump off because I'm gonna surrender to the law of gravity just halfway. It doesn't work like that. You can't say I will be living as a Christian, yet it, you know, it's not fully surrendering your life to Jesus Christ because the part that you do not surrender, that's the part that you're giving devil access to come and to destroy your life. For me, for example, I know one thing is that, you know, I, before, before I was delivered, I would say, you know, I had terrible, terrible habits of driving. I would always speed, always speed, and one thing is this, you don't completely surrender to the rules, to the laws of driving. You'll get a ticket and they'll take away your license. That's how it works. We obey that in a natural, but when it comes to God, we say, you know what, I'll surrender just this part, but surrender is not surrender if it's not complete. God has, that says, you know, give me everything that you have, your time, your relationship, your health, this and that, maybe even your problems, your anger issues. I will take everything and I'll make it better, but we withhold certain things from God saying that, you know, I'll take over it. You know, I'll do it better. And that thing that we withhold, Satan begins to come and enters to that and begin to destroy allies. God is a jealous God. God will not, God will not share his place with anyone. He will not just let you, you know, serve him, you know, at this time and then, you know, Wednesday night, everything will be okay and for you. And you say, you know, God, I'll just give you Wednesdays, but my heart is not in. No, God is a jealous God. God wants the full of you. God will not just settle for half of you and say, you know, at least he's giving me half. Come on, that's, that's even better. No, God says, I want everything that you have. Why? Because God knows that what you have is, it's not, it's not everything's fixed. It's perfect. God knows you are broken. God knows you have issues. God knows you're doing, and God says, give me the full thing so I can help you to elevate your life. So I can repair your relationship. I can fix your broken marriage. I can fix your broken health, your finances, your career, whatever you have in your life, as you surrender your life completely, God says, I'll make a new you. There's so many people that are in this place, and they'll tell you one thing. Plain church has never let them to a good place. Living a double lifestyle of, you know, you know, giving your life to Jesus and just kind of saying, no, God, I'm still, you know, doing this. I'm still going out to parties. I'm still, you know, in front of my friends. I'll act like this. I'll curse all these things. They'll tell you one thing. It always leads to emptiness and to dark days. That same place you are not willing to surrender to God. That is the place the devil will use to enter into your life and to begin to destroy you. Number two, you will become a slave to that which you don't surrender to God. You will become a slave to that which you don't surrender to God. If you don't surrender to good in time, you will become in slavery to the evil. If you don't surrender to the good, it's just a matter of time you become a slave to evil. There's, you can't, how can I say this? You can't display a life where I can do what I want. I don't have to answer to anything. I don't, I live my own life. I have my own rules, you know. I'll do what I want. I'll move out when I'm 18. God bless your heart if you do. You know, all these things, it's not possible to live a life and be a slave to no one. There'll come a time when you either be slave to God's wholeness, God's righteousness, God's peace, God's love, or you'll be a slave to evil, to depression, to sickness, to poverty, to constant curse in your life. You will either be a slave to something, you just need to choose what you'll be a slave to. God would say, you know, I came to give life and life about it. I did not come to, you know, to make you the prison, you know, the child of God that hasn't changed. You're bound. You're not allowed to leave the church premises. You're not allowed to do anything. You're going to carry Bible every day, and that's what's going to happen with your life. No, God came to give you life and life abundantly, but that comes with complete surrender to God in every area of your life, in every area in your finances. God, my finances belong to you. God, my relationships, they belong completely surrender to myself, in that I put myself under your control, and I know that you said that you came to give me life and life abundantly, not a life of torture, not a life of divorce, not a life of depression, not a life of fear, anxiety, and all those things. That's not the life that Jesus Christ died for. But that life only comes when you open yourself up and say, God, do as you will in my life. I surrender myself completely. I know that certain things I do not understand. I know certain things might not work out, but God, my life is completely surrendered to you. Amen, church? Ask Job, and Job will tell you that a surrendered life always leads to multiplication. A surrendered life always leads to multiplication. Same position Job and his wife was. You see his wife was, you know, when all things were going good, his wife was rejoicing. The moment things were taken away and you know that she didn't completely surrender everything, she was the one that came and says, Job, curse God. Where was God when everything was good? Were you worshiping God when everything was good? The moment things begin to take away, Job had a destiny to say, everything is God's and nothing is mine. That's why he was able to get on his knees and says, blessed be the name of the Lord. Why? Because everything that I was taking was actually not mine. Everything that I have in my life wasn't mine. So why do I have a reason to curse God? Was it mine in the beginning? So Job knew that a surrendered life always leads to multiplication. He knew that one thing, it may be lost for a moment, but God is just preparing it for multiplication. Amen, church? It may be lost for a season, but that is a time God is making it ready for multiplication. Job's wife hanged on to the possession and she had to be like, how can you worship God? These are ours things, these are mine. Curse God, no, Job was like, these are not ours. God gives, God takes away. It all belongs to you. Job lived a complete life. I surrendered. That's why he was able to worship God when everything was taken away. Why? It's not mine. Why should I worry about it? It's finance. Yeah, I might lose a job. I might get demoted. Yeah, I might go through a season of pain, but if my life belongs to Jesus, why should I stress? Why should I worry? And as, you know, Prophet Bashir says in our family, we don't stress. We relax. Why? Because our lives belong to Jesus Christ. Amen, church? Come on, put our hands together for Jesus Christ. David begins to live a life where he says, you know what God? Everything that you give me is yours. We take two people, for example. We got David and we got Saul. Saul begins to, he begins to put in a throne and it's given a kingship, but he begins to feel like, hey, this is mine. This belongs to me. So the moment people's opinion begins to change, he begins to go into depression. He becomes a slave to people's opinions that later on takes his life. When David loses his throne, he doesn't worry who takes it or he says God put me in this place. God taking it away. But if it's God's, God will restore it back. That's why David didn't care when he was walking by, you know, lost his kingship, lost everything and people were mocking him and throwing stones at him and he could have said, hey, you know, take off his head. No, he said, you know what, they can say what they want. Throw and belong to God in the first place. God took it away and God will bring it back. Your destiny, your job, your career, your marriage, when you begin to surrender to God, there's a matter this season that you're going through. You'll be at peace knowing this. It belongs to Jesus and if it's his, he'll take care of it. I may lose it for a second for a moment, for a minute, but that means God is ready and getting it ready for multiplication. You will receive a double promotion when you begin to realize that my life is not my own. My life belongs to Jesus Christ. Whatever that I have is God's and God is in control and if God says, you know, I'm in control and whatever begins to come against you cannot destroy you, why? It is not yours anymore. We only begin to fight the battles. We begin to fuss, oh, this thing is, you know, when we say, you know what, this is mine. This is mine, you know, I need to protect it whereas God says the battle is mine, not yours. We are on God's side and if God is for you, who can be against you? Is it sickness? Is it, you know, poverty? Is it curse? What is that? I'm not saying that you should have fight for what belongs to you but I'm saying when you know that God is on your side, you know that nothing will defeat you. You know that you're not going to run from this or to that, you lie, steal or cheat. You know, God is for you and nothing could be against you. Let us put our hands together for Jesus. Potiphar begins to withhold certain things from Joseph. I'm not saying that, you know, I should have given his wife to Joseph, no. Potiphar was given a control, authority to Joseph. You have to see, not as more of a, you have to see it as a something that he was given surrender. Not that, you know, Joseph was going to marry his wife, no. He was given authority and dominion over certain things but he said, you know what? But these things don't touch. And devil said, okay, no problem. And devil begins to creep into that thing that Potiphar with health from Joseph and we see later on Potiphar becomes a slave to that which he should have been controlling. Potiphar begins to do things he didn't want to do. He begins to obey the lies and the deception of his wife. Why? Because it wasn't surrendered to God. The one area that he did not surrender Potiphar becomes a slave to it and begins to do the things that he never imagined doing. Even though he knew in his heart it was alive but once you're a slave you have no control or no option to dictate and to tell it where to go. The place that you don't surrender to God, you don't say, God, this is yours, I'm not going to worry about it. God, this is your, I know you're fighting the battle for me. I'm standing on your promises. I'm not going to, you know, to begin to steal. I'm not going to go cheat. I'm not going to go begin to cut corners to help God solve my problem. I'm not going to, you know, go and become angry with my family because they don't understand God is not fixing it on time or, you know, my wife is not listening. I need to make sure she understands the word of God. You know, all these things, no, if you know that God is on your side you stand on his promises and proclaim what God said for your life. When you see the pain it begins to increase in your body and you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. You'll stand in the scripture and says, the bystripes, I'm healed. When you begin to see shortage in your bank account, you don't see the money coming in. You begin to stand on God's word that my God shall supply all my needs according to his riches and to his glory. Not that, you know, you have to go and beg people for money or begin to cheat or begin to do that thing. You stand on God's promises, what he said for your life. When you begin to see, you know, certain bondages begin to repeat in your life. You stand on the scripture says who in the sun says freeze free indeed and you do not worry why because God is on your side and he's fighting your battle for you. In our family, we don't stress. Come on church, re-relax. Somebody put your hands together for Jesus Christ. Last point is surrender first comes as a choice but in time it becomes a force. Surrender first comes as a choice but in time it becomes a force. Some people in life, they choose not to surrender their life to Jesus Christ. They begin to live their life and say, you know, as time comes, I'll surrender to God. But you have to understand that part. Holy Spirit gives us always a choice and says, you know, surrender. He doesn't force himself and say, you got it, you got it, you know, do this, this is no. He says act like a gentleman begin to surrender your life to Jesus Christ. If you begin to ignore the invitation of Holy Spirit to really put Him in your heart, give Him your all. As time goes, there will be certain circumstances that will force you to get down on your knees. There will be certain family problems that begin to force you to pray whereas it's not supposed to be forced, it has to be enjoyment. There are certain things that, you know, certain family situations may be a marriage or maybe crisis in your finances being laid off will force you to come and it begin to get down on your knees and beg God for mercy. It first comes as a choice. It's God. My life is here. Yeah, I'm not perfect. I have certain issues, but this is why I'm giving my life to you completely because I know I cannot fix it by myself. I know that if I don't surrender to you completely, I'll become to a slave to that thing which I will hold back from you. Ask as Judas and he will tell you one thing. That thing that he withheld became his prison and his deathbed. Judas said that the money area that he began to withhold from Jesus he began to hide it is the same place where it took his life. Same thing happened with Joseph. He was presented a temptation or to begin to surrender and to either to fall for the temptation of Potiphar's life but he was already surrendered to God's holiness. That's why he had power to run away from it. When Samson was presented with the same temptation he surrendered to Delilah's lap and that was his suicide. You will surrender to either good or to you. You will surrender to something. The thing is, are you going to willingly surrender or you're going to be forced to do it? What is the life about? Is it all about Jesus and everything that we do? Many times it feels like when we first started Mima when we got married and with finances and there were certain times where it felt like we were surrendering everything completely to God. It felt like this is the time we won't make it. We won't have enough. We're just getting married. But yet we didn't know that thing that we were surrendering God was making it ready to multiply. Sometimes it feels like all the time that you're given to God it's like, what am I, a slave or what? But yet you do not know what God is preparing you for glory, for glory, for glory, for a higher level, for a bigger outcome to take it to a place where other people only dream of. Surrender will come. You will not live a life of just do what you want, whatever you want. You will be a slave to something. You'll either be God's child, you'll be enslaved to his righteousness, to his holiness, to his peace, to his joy or you'll be a slave to fear, anxiety, poverty, depression, fear, depression and all these things that begin to crumble in your life and begin to destroy your life. You will surrender to a greater power or you'll be surrendered to an evil power. The choice is yours. As we read from the Scriptures where Portafar begin to withhold certain things and you still have to understand with Portafar's he saw God's favor in his life and as he begins to let Joseph in he saw God was with him. God was doing things. By the end there was one thing that Portafar did not want to give up. Did not want to just give God full control of and that is the same place that the devil slowly but surely creeped in and later on was a slave to that thing which he would have held from God. As we're going for this vision, as our church is headed and we're praying for revival to take place, we begin to pray for thousands, for masses. The pastor there was talking about that we were raised through the we have to understand in that place it's only complete surrenderance they'll be able to see God's will be accomplished. You can never tell me that God will use a person that's not fully surrendered to him. It is if you ask Prophet Shepard Bashir his life is completely surrendered to the will of God. God whatever you want this is where I'll go. God this is where I want and we begin to learn from so many characters in the Bible of God and that is the place where it cost him the whole life. We have a choice as a church to live a life of God whatever you want me to do I'll begin to do. God I know my health, my time you know sometimes we as God begins to bless us we begin to become busy and it's sometimes it's like well you know I don't have time to come to church yet no you have time just sleep less you know if you don't have you know I have family time or this thing it's that sometimes we begin to sacrifice family time for God and you will see that later on family thing becomes that thing that begins to trap us begins to give us sleepless nights begin to give us depression worry anxiety and later on we at the end of that we still will run to God to say God fix it whereas in the beginning we say God take control take control my life belongs to you I know you know when you know when when we got married you know looking from from my wife's side of the family we are really dedicated to church you know Sundays all these things were all about church all about church and I know in the beginning it didn't make sense to certain people I know in the beginning it didn't like how why is this you know why is it always about church why are you always always doing this for God why are you always doing that for God you know why don't you have some time with family why don't you have some time with this this little do they know that complete life that is surrendered to God will be a life that later on will give bread like Joseph and deliverance to that family Joseph look like he lost it all because his life was completely surrendered to the will of God by the end of the day he was the one that was given bread and life to the whole nation in the beginning you might feel like you know if you know some people like go pursue your career why are you always a church and all these things why are you witnessing why are you praying you know for your life you know you know begin to climb up on this and that and then they don't give everything to God I'll tell you what a person who is completely surrendered to God will always outrun those who keep that little from God and and and time is time is the real revealer it's not going to be God friends or anything but time is the real revealer of if you completely surrender to God six months from now a year from now we'll be able to tell who really gave their all to Jesus Christ it's not about jumping here and say oh hello the God sees the heart God wants you know are you are you completely sold out to see people saved are you completely sold out to to see people being healed cancers and tumors tuberculosis mental disorder epilepsy every sickness being healed in this place or are you just coming because you know they got nothing else to do God wants to see are you completely sold out to see the greatest revival happening through this church and what was prophesied to know this will take place but God's looking for those who said God my life is not my own you know I had I tried living my life it didn't work out you know I'm going to stop here this is everything that I have there's sometimes I look at people on there what what they've been set free from and what God has delivered them and it's like you see them doing worship they're like their mind is somewhere else and on business on shopping and kids and all these things they're like God holds the very breath that you're breathing he gives you the ability the strength the wisdom and the grace to do what you do why not completely surrender to him why not give him the heart that begins to breathe it's lasting means say God whatever you want me to do I'll do if you want me to to become a doctor be a doctor if you want to be the lawyer I'll be the lawyer but my heart is completely yours nothing I would hold back and you'll see how God will begin to take you from glory to glory to glory he will take you to a place where other people only dream of come on church