"I'm All Over The Place" Rev. Reginald W. Sharpe Jr Wednesday August 3, 2022

2:05 to this story about Joseph. And let's hear Pastor Sharp's sermon, I'm All Over the Place. I'll see you after the message. Peace, peace. I want to go ahead and jump into this word today. God has given me a unique word to deposit into your spirit and I don't want to take too long but I want to take long enough for this message to come alive in all of our hearts today. Come with me to the book of Genesis chapter 39 and I want to read about four verses scattered verses into your hearing. I want to read Genesis chapter 9 verse 2 verse 3 verse 21 and then I want to verse 23 verse 2 verse 3 verse 21 verse 23 out of genesis chapter 39 if you have your iphone or your android or your tablet or you just have the bible you know old school like me just have the book come with me to genesis 39 verse 2 3 21 and 23 our youth were fantastic last week i mean they saying come on y'all show some love to the to the youth ministry amen the children's ministry kids on the youth ministry i absolutely enjoyed you all thank you for that genesis 39 verse 2 reads like this the lord was with joseph and he became a successful man he was in the house of his Egyptian master verse three his master saw that the lord was with him and that the and that the lord caused all that he did to prosper in his hands let me read that again verse three his master saw that the lord was with him and that the lord caused all that he did to prosper in his hands verse 21 but the lord was with joseph and he showed him steadfast love he gave him favor in the sight of the chief jailer verse 23 the chief jailer paid no heed to anything that

4:12 was in joseph's care because the lord was with him and whatever he did the lord made it prosper I want to talk today from this thought I'm all over the place I'm all over the place I'm all over the place Can you just say that with me Because for some of you all There's your testimony like mine I'm all over the place Come on say it one more time I'm all over the place This story of Joseph arrest me It's one of those popular stories that we learned about in vacation Bible school. We learned about this story in Sunday school. This story of Joseph has always arrested me because it is a perfect narrative to display ups and downs.

5:08 It is a perfect story to display wins and losses. It's a perfect story to display pluses and minuses. It's a perfect story to display the ebbs and flows of life. Ups and downs. It takes no rocket scientist. It takes no deep theologian. It takes no biblical scholar to look at the life of Joseph even on the surface and realize that it was a life filled with ups and downs. Yeah, he was up when his father Jacob showed him favor and gave him a coat of many colors. but the jealousy of his brothers would in turn knock him down and it would not just knock him down it would take him down literally into a pit and it would be out of that pit that he's lifted back up but then sold back down into slavery he sold down into slavery but then the favor of god was on his life and potiphar in slavery ends up making him second in command over all of the slaves and all of the property so he gets promoted goes back up but then potipha's wife tries to realize you know she she you know she throws it at him right there in the house right there in the kitchen one day in the middle of him eating some eggs and grits can't you see it she said why don't you know why don't we take this thing to another level and she tries to drag him down but he's so up that he doesn't want to go down because when you're really in an up season you try to avoid folk that's trying to pull you down he said no i'm up and i'm and and your husband trusts me i have leadership responsibilities i'm trying to stay up i'm trying to sit and let me just warn you right here i'm gonna park the car but we're not gonna stop the car you you really have to watch it when god takes you up because up is always an indication that there's some gravitational pull trying to bring you back down it might come from a thing it might come from a person it might come from an experience but down is always lurking in the shadows every time the spirit takes you up she tries to bring him down and since she couldn't take him down she lied until he until the lies

7:15 knocked him down potiphar throws him down in the prison now he's in prison but then he's lifted up again because no matter where you put a person with favor on them they're always going to shine i told you recently you don't need a spotlight because you just light up whatever spot you're in he's in prison and he's shining he's he's incarcerated and he's shining some of you all have lost your jobs and you're still shining some of you've been through divorce and you're still shining people trying to figure out how in the world is she still shining still succeeding it's because no matter where you put me when god's favor is on me it has not yet there is no weapon strong enough there is no lie that's efficacious enough there is no demon that's powerful enough to stop what God is doing. He's down in prison, but God lifts him up to start interpreting dreams and literally his faithfulness to his call, his faithfulness to his gifts lift him back up out of prison and he becomes second in command with Pharaoh and there he remains up.

8:17 It's a story of ups and downs, ebbs and flows, W's and L's, wins and losses, pluses and minuses, winters and summers. He's up and he's down. And the reason God led me here, literally Joseph is all over the place because the truth is for the last two or three weeks, hadn't that been our experience as a people living in America? We feel like we're all over the place, just up and down. We've just been up and down. We don't know whether to laugh or to cry. We don't know whether to run into safety or to come out in the streets and enjoy life in the summer of 2021. What do you do when life keeps taking you up and down? If I'm already in your Kool-Aid and stirring around in your flavor, somebody just write, you talking to me. Up and down. We were down just a few weeks ago when the assassination of those Asian Americans happened in Atlanta.

9:14 We were down when we got word of the mass shootings that were taking place across this country. But then we came back up around Easter when the versus challenge happened with Earth, Wind and Fire and the Isley Brothers. You remember that we were up with Easter ecstasy. We were up when we were celebrating resurrection. But then right around the corner from resurrection in Chicago, we went back down because a seven year old was killed at a drive through. literally seven to eight bullets struck that seven-year-old's body took us back down and then the trial of Derek Chauvin the man who had his knee on George Floyd's neck for nine minutes we discovered more than nine minutes that whole trial I couldn't even watch it some of y'all watched it we were up and down we were down and up depending on who was talking on the stand we went up and down and then we went back down because while the trial while the trial while the trial was going on a 20 year old named Dante Wright was shot and killed with a routine traffic stop we went down but then we came back up because we learned the verdict of Derek Chauvin and we were so happy to learn that every count all three charges Derek Chauvin was proven guilty and it wasn't no shock to us with eyeballs in our heads i mean if you got eyeballs in your head you knew he was guilty last summer when you saw the video we went up in ecstasy but the moment we went up we went right back down because over in another state a young girl named micaiah bryant was killed that same day because she had a knife in her hand and an officer did not know how to de-escalate the situation other than pulling out a gun i hear you some of you are down right now because you're trying to figure out did it take all of that others of you said well she shouldn't have had a knife well i have seen at least 15 videos when white people were pulled over white people who attacked police officers didn't get shot white people who struck police officers didn't get shot white people who

11:24 were mentally deranged and out of control who didn't get shot it's just so ironic that when it comes to black people you don't know that you have a gun in your hand and not a taser i don't understand when it comes to black people you can't stop a 15 or 16 year old girl from fighting somebody with a knife other than shooting her four times in point blank range we went down we went down i surely went down when i did a little more research and revealed that the harvard School of Public Health says black people are three times more likely to be killed during a police encounter than a white person. I went even further down when I discovered that a black person in Chicago is 650 times more likely to be shot by the police than a white person right here in the city of shook i went down even further when i realized that 571 000 people in the u.s have died from covid alone just the other day i got a call from the mayor's office as a pastor to encourage my members to go get vaccinated because the numbers are rising again and then we go up because you see people with covid who survived then you go back down because you see people of COVID who died how do you survive when life is taking you all over the place am I talking to anybody who can admit you felt what I feel you've seen what I've seen you you have lived what I've lived and sometimes life just takes you up and down it feels like a roller coaster you didn't sign up to be on and that's what I felt like over the last few weeks I felt I've told people It feels like an emotional roller coaster And the truth is I ain't like some of y'all I've never liked roller coasters Grew up in Atlanta, Georgia Six Flags is right down the street from me And anytime I would go to Six Flags with the church Or with a youth group I was the main one asking Could we go to the kiddie side of the park I was 16 years old asking

13:30 Can we go get on the kiddie rides Well, Sharp, what's wrong with you? You scared? Yeah, I'm scared I ain't about to pay nobody to scare me I can walk on the west side of Atlanta If I want to be scared I can walk down some streets in Chicago At the right time of the night I ain't going to pay to be scared I've never liked Roller coasters And I feel like life sometimes Straps us in for a ride We didn't sign up for And up you go, down you go Twists and turns And jaunted and jawed How do you survive? Because if you be real I don't care how much you like worship I don't care how much Rich Talbot and Javante Patton I don't care how much J.J. Harrison I don't care how much Anita Wilson I don't care how much gospel you listen to The truth is Life has thrown you up And life Has jolted you back down And that's the story Of Joseph's ups and downs Sold into slavery Up and down Bought by Potiphar up and down lied by Potiphar's wife up and down thrown into the prison up and down used his gifts in prison and ultimately got him out of prison he became the second in command with Pharaoh up and down how do you deal with all of this?

14:53 how do you deal with all of this? first I need to tell you something first thing can I just throw it at you I don't have nothing deep I don't have no alliteration today but I just I'm all over the place in this text because maybe God needed me to be all over the place in the text to show you that sometimes you can survive all over the place in your life. Number one, you got to learn how to ride the wave. Tell somebody, ride the wave up and down. The worst thing you could do is fight what life is throwing at you. Anybody would tell you if you start drowning, if you find yourself in a riptide, if you find yourself being carried out in the waters of life, literally, if you're in the water, the first thing they tell you to do, don't fight the water you wear yourself out trying to fight water that's actually designed to carry you oh did i say it too fast your body can float if you just stop moving if you stop fighting the water and get still enough that literally your body has anatomical buoyancy that is built to go with the flow whenever somebody dies whenever somebody transitions i always tell them advice I heard from Tyler Perry.

16:05 I don't know where I was. I don't know how it got to my ears. But when my grandmother died in September 9, 2018, I heard Tyler Perry say, whenever it comes time to grieve, you got to ride the wave. He said, when you're up, be up. When you're down, be down. When you're having a good day, have a good day. When you're having a bad day, have a bad day. And don't feel the need to be what you're not. Don't feel the need to feel what you don't feel. Just feel it all. If you're crying, cry. If you're sad, sad. If you need to holler, holler. If you need to go out with friends to get away, get away. Do whatever you got to do because sometimes you're up, sometimes you're down and you just got to learn how to ride the wave. While that advice was given to me on grief, I think it's advice that everybody needs through life because that's not just for the grieving. that's for those of us who are going to live lives where we protect our mental and emotional health you got to learn how to just ride the waves the truth of the matter is you ain't always gonna be up and the truth is you won't always be down but when you're up be up laugh while you're up enjoy your friends while you're up get you some saved to drink while you're up wink yeah enjoy yourself while you're up but when you're down don't try to run from it don't try to smoke it away don't try to drink it away don't try to get high it away don't try to eat it away we got to learn that when we're down we're down and you got to feel what you need to feel so you can heal like you need to heal but you can't heal it if you won't feel it tell somebody ride the wave when joseph was in prison you don't see him fighting it when joseph's uh had to deal with potter but you don't see him fighting that season when his brothers threw him in the pit you didn't see him fighting that he just had to ride the wave it hurt him it didn't feel comfortable he was concerned but he had to ride the wave and just watch his life how he rode the wave because if you keep on riding it God will literally carry you where God wants you to be because if I don't go to the pit I won't go to prison if I don't go to prison I'll never meet Potiphar if I never meet

18:14 Potiphar then I can't get to prison if I don't get to prison I won't make it to the palace but if I resisted the wave I would have also resisted my favor God is not trying to take you somewhere God is trying to allow life to float you somewhere you gotta let the wind of the Holy Spirit float you where you supposed to be am I talking to somebody how am I gonna handle this when you're all over the place first of all stop resisting this season stop running from I know it hurt you, let it hurt I know it wounded you, let it be a wound Don't try to fight what you're feeling Embrace the fact that this thing did hurt you Embrace the fact that this did knock your breath away Embrace the fact that that negro did break your heart Embrace it, because if you feel it That's the moment God can heal it Look at somebody and say, ride the wave But number two, can I give you another one?

19:16 Can I give you another one? you need to embrace the withness of god embrace the withness of god it's not in the dictionary i you know when you when you get to a certain moment in your ministry just make up words somebody say withness yeah not witness withness w-i-t-h uh apostrophe n-e-s-s somebody say withness did you read what i read to you earlier yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah i i don't know if you heard it i don't know if you're paying attention but i read some to you that actually has the power and the potential to radically change your life the bible says in genesis 39 verse 2 verse 3 verse 21 verse 23 the lord was with him uh-huh uh-huh i i know i said it too fast i know i said too fast now what really makes you shout is where the lord was with him he wasn't just with him when he got the coat of many colors the bible says when he was sold into slavery he was with him the bible says when he got thrown into prison he was with him the bible says when life was at its lowest he was with him i don't see it say he was with him when he went high but i do see it say he was with him when life was low and some of y'all around this house i know you all over the place but one thing you ought to hold on to is that you've got the withness of god tell somebody around you he's with me and i've been low but he's been with me life's been uncertain but he's been with me i had to push through depression but he's been with me my money got funny but he's been with me i've been real sick of this pandemic but he's been with me i didn't know if my loved ones were gonna survive but he's been with me i had to bury some loved ones along the way but he's been with me my children have gone cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs but he's been with me the person I love and invested the most time in betrayed me and let me die but God was with me and I don't know if that's your testimony but it ought to be

21:23 your testimony you don't need a whole lot of stuff just relish in the fact that you got God with you yeah I know we're at a new age church and we want to shout over breakthroughs and blessings and we want to shout over increase and we want to shout over big words that give material blessings but y'all forgive me i got a little old school in me and i still get happy over the fact that he's emmanuel and emmanuel means god is with us somebody take three seconds and i'm gonna take two and a half and just thank god for being with you you would have lost your mind months ago but the fact that god was close it was the fact that God was with you.

22:09 Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil because thou art with me yeah yeah tell somebody around you he's with you he goes to work with you rides down to dan ryan and lake shore with you travels with you through the darkness hangs out with you in the midnight goes to chemo and treatment with you walks the hall of the of hospitals with you anybody know he's with you I never will forget a few years ago I went to a conference and we were out there taking pictures and I just knew that the people I invited to be in the pictures were the only ones in the picture and so you know how it is you're out in a big group setting and y'all trying to capture the moment you want to capture some pictures so you say come here y'all and three people walk up come here y'all let's take a picture and three of y'all get in the picture one, two, three, cheese, take the picture two more people walk up and you take the picture one, two, three, let's cheese, take the picture And it wasn't until I got back to my room that I realized I had been photobombed.

23:20 Y'all know what photobomb means? It literally means that somebody is in the back of your picture who you did not invite into the picture. But they just took it upon themselves to jump in the picture with you. It's called photobombed. Whenever somebody gets in the picture that you didn't initially invite into the picture, but you look back at the picture later and you see somebody that you did not initially invite into the picture. So I've been photobombed. I think a couple of y'all have been photobombed. But can I tell you, God is the ultimate photobomber. Because every time I look back over my life and flip through the files of my life, I see God in some pictures that I didn't know he was present in. I thought I was going down. I thought it was all over. And there goes God in the background of every picture Saying though you walked through the valley You've never been alone I was with you Somebody ought to thank God today He been photobombing you And he photobombed you through college Photobombed you through raising those kids Photobombed while you were surviving a pandemic Photobombed you when you were sick Photobombed you when you didn't know what was next Thank you.

24:33 I'm glad he's a photobomb cause while you all over the place guess what he's right there with you all over the place you can't get so up that God can't go up with you you can't get so down that God doesn't get down with you that's why I'm glad the Bible says that he's a very present help in the time of trouble yeah yeah yeah I'm all over the place you got to ride the wave somebody say ride the wave tell somebody you got to embrace the withness of God but thirdly and finally you got to understand that evil intentions will be overshadowed with eternal interceptions evil intentions will always be overshadowed with eternal interceptions. You heard me but you ain't hear me. I said evil intentions will always be overshadowed with eternal interceptions. Joseph you were up and you were down.

25:56 Joseph you had good days and you had bad days. Joseph, you had some W's and you took some L's. Joseph, you walked through winter and you sure walked through summer. After all of that, your brothers let you down. Potiphar gave up on you. His wife lied on you. The prisoners forgot about you after you helped them interpret their dreams. Some of them who you helped forgot to turn around and help you. Yet, God still took you to the palace. then if you keep on reading through Joseph's story now that he's second in command something interesting is going to happen there's going to be a famine in his hometown where his brothers and his father still reside they're going to have to show up to Egypt to find food because there's no longer any food in the land they live in guess who they have to go find to supply them with food they gotta go talk to Joseph they don't know it's him they don't know he's alive they don't know that the favor of God has literally ushered him and floated him into his purpose into a position of prominence and then Joseph gets to the end of the book in Genesis chapter 50 verse 20 and he says this and if you don't shout I'm gonna have to check how saved you are he says this Genesis 50 verse 20 you meant it for evil but the Lord has used it to work out for my good can I prophesy for a minute every evil intention that has ever been released over your life it shall be overshadowed by the eternal interceptions of God I don't care what the enemy tries to throw God can intercept it yeah yeah yeah yeah I never forget when I really became intimate with that scripture

28:04 I was in Birmingham Alabama and I stopped by the 16th street Baptist church if I'm saying the name wrong forgive me but I believe it was the 16th street Baptist church where the bomb detonated in September of 1963 and they killed those four black girls while they were sitting in Sunday school. Researchers say they were actually studying a lesson that day about loving your enemies. And while they're in there learning about loving your enemies, white men set a bomb off at the church. I was there in the summer of 2015, June, I'll never forget it. I was in Birmingham preaching for Reverend James Mason. He was sick. I was there to fill in for his Bible study. And I asked my brother, Devin Crawford, take me by the church. I just want to see the church where the bomb went off in 1963.

29:01 He took me to 16th Street Baptist Church. It might be 16th Avenue. Forgive me for messing up the name. I believe it's 16th Street Baptist Church. He took me to the very spot on the side of the road. I said, let me out. I got to get out. I walked up to the church to the very spot where the bomb detonated. And right there at that spot, if you go visit it to this day, there's a plaque with the scripture, Genesis 50 verse 20, that says what you meant for evil. God is used for good to save many people. That's the whole scripture. That night after I viewed that plaque on the church, the Emmanuel 9 massacre happened the same night. The same night after I had just witnessed where the bomb detonated in 1963. Emmanuel 9 happened.

30:02 2015, June. and I had to wrestle with why would God let me see that the same night that the Emmanuel 9 takes place. The Lord took what was meant for evil and made it work out for good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. To save many people. I know this is going to be some hard preaching right through here but I'm about to do it and I'm going to take my seat. George Floyd was evil. It was evil how he died. But the Lord has intercepted what was evil and made it work out for the good of many people. Do you know right now in the U.S. Capitol they're working on the George Floyd Policing Act that will radically change how police officers officers are supposed to deal with civilians you ain't listening to me because although he died his death is creating life same thing that happened to Jesus they thought when they killed him it was all over but they ended up making a mistake and created a fountain of blood and now we can sing on communion Sunday around Easter there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins sinners can plunge beneath that flood lose all their guilty stain what if I told you every evil intention God has the power To intercept it And make some good come out of it I know I was talking about social things But now can I talk about personal things Whatever is in your life Right now that looks like It's not going to work out Just wait till God interrupts it Just wait till God intercepts it And it ain't just going to bless you It's going to be for the good of others Andre Crouch wrote a song many years ago

32:09 and it's one of my favorite songs he says I've had many tears and sorrows I've had questions for tomorrow there have been times I didn't know right from wrong but in every situation the Lord gave me blessed consolation he let me know that my trials only come to make me strong verse 2 says I've been lots of places and I've seen lots of faces and there have been times when I felt so all alone but in those lonely hours those precious lonely hours he let me know that I was his own but it's that third verse that carries me because it starts talking about up and down He says, I thank God for...