Use what's already in your hand

Automatically generated from the video captions and lightly tidied, so expect the odd misheard word.

Social media is it good or bad? As in a net, Is it a net positive or a net Net negative. Net negative. Anyone else? Depends how you use it. Depends how you use it.

Any takers? Net. Good or bad? Good or bad? Good or bad? Both.

Okay. Interesting. Interesting. So, all right. I'll tell you. So, for me as a pastor, I love social media.

I try to be on the gram. Is that what you young people say? The gram. Instagram. I'll be like on Instagram. And it's encouraging because I can look and see what other pastors and churches are doing and get fresh ideas from them.

So, it's encouraging, but it is also discouraging because I can see what other pastors and churches are doing. So, it's just discouraging. So, I'm like, is it good or bad? Check out these verses. These proverbs on the next slide they say do not answer a fool according to his or you yourself will be just like them so let's pause there let's pause there let's pause there proverb is just wisdom do not answer a fool right don't do it don't answer a fool like why you arguing with a fool you're just going to look like a fool Right? Don't do it.

But check out what he says on the next slide. That's why I was like, we needed to pause, right? Answer a fool. So this is literally the next verse, right? Look, don't answer a fool. The next verse says, answer a fool according to his folly or he'll be wise in his own eyes.

Right? He's just saying stuff against you. And you're like saying nothing. And people are like, man, what's wrong with you? You're like a dummy. Right?

So should you answer a Yes or no? Right? It's both. So when we come to social media, is it good or bad? It's both. It's both.

So you need wisdom to know how to use it. You need wisdom to know what's good about it and what's bad about it. So, one of the things that's really bad about social media is the comparison game, right? Like for I've say this in the past, like on growing up, we were good. Like we were good, we were bowling, we were good. Like, but now when I reflect, I'm like, "Oh man, we were poor." But I didn't know it.

I didn't know it, right? We didn't have social media, you know, by standards of here, right? You could say we were poor maybe. But growing up, I certainly felt we were good, you know, went to good schools and all that stuff. Yeah. Some days we didn't have like you know, we didn't have like money for food and all that stuff, but that's all right.

But I was okay. We didn't have the comparison game, right? But I think for us now we're living at a time where social media is exacerbating the comparison game. So we are looking at what other people are doing. And by the way I do this too. So it's it's not a shade on anyone.

You only put up Kodak moments, right? Kodak was a company that did photographs back in the days for you young people, right? You only put birthdays, weddings, you know, engagements, you know, promotions. You put good stuff, right? You're not putting up things that are not good, right? You're putting good up stuff.

And that's what we're using to compare. So now when we look at our own lives, you think to yourself, I should be married by now, right? I should have kids by now. I should be playing for Arsenal by now, right? I should have you know that high-end job by now. Whatever it is, as you look around you, you see things that you say to yourself, you should have that thing right now.

Why? Cuz Sally has it. Cuz John has it. You look at other churches, you're like, we should be the same size as that church. Because what? Because you've looked at social media and you have seen it.

And the comparison game is killing us. It is killing us. And this is where just think about it. If Joseph think about if Joseph had like people look at Joseph's story and be like, "Oh, it's a success story." But think with me. If Jesus had social media back in the days, right, when he's when he's languishing in prison, right, he's just looking and he's seeing his buddies he went to school with, you know, they're doing well in Canaan and right and he's in prison, right? You be going like, "Oh man, he is not doing well, right?

He's not doing well, right?" Because we are comparing. But Joseph's track is not his buddy's track. Your track is not the same as Sulli. Your track is not the same as Jean. It's different. So instead of playing the comparison game, what is Joseph doing?

So in the next slide, what's Joseph doing? So let's flick again to figure out what Joseph is doing. So he is he is in there. I'll read these verses. So, and it happened after these things. The cup bearer of the king of Egypt and his baker did wrong against the Lord, against the king of Egypt.

And then the second one and Pharaoh was angry. The two officials the chief cup bearer and the chief baker and the next one and it was put in custody. Right? So, so what is Joseph doing? Joseph is just stewarding the gift that God has given him. So I'm going to explain that term.

I hope it's on the next slide and I didn't mix it up. Yeah. So a steward basically a steward is a person who's employed to manage another person's property, right? So a steward is a manager, right? So if you have a pension or anything like that, right? You're not actively trading stocks and bonds and all that stuff.

You've got someone who's doing that for you. That person is a steward. And what the Bible says is you are God's steward. You actually do not own your gifts. You do not own your money. You do not own your time.

I know we act like we do, but it's not like Messi was just born like he was born with a gift for football, but I'm I'm not saying like he did something to be born with that, right? It was given to him. The time are you going to die when you're 10? Are you going to die when you're 20? Are you going to die when you're 50? I know it's extreme.

It's not on you, right? It's given to you. So time, talent, treasure. Even the money you have is given to you. So you are to steward it. So then my So instead of playing the comparison game, because the comparison game is crazy.

I'll give you this example. When I was in uni, there was this test. It was a mathematics test. Maths is hard. And I did bad. I mean, I did bad.

Like, I had 29%. That's quite bad in a test, right? And this is like my fourth year or whatever it was. But guess what? I was not mad at all. I was okay.

Do you know what? Cuz everybody else in the class failed it except for Allan. Allan was a genius like you know think Sheldon Cooper that was Allan. Allan passed it but everyone else failed and I was okay with it cuz I'm playing the comparison game. Isn't that sad? Like I should be destroyed that I'm failing the test but because everyone else is failing I'm okay with it.

Instead, I should be stewarding what God has put in my hand. So, on the next I'm going to be asking you, okay, maybe we're not going to go there yet, but the thing is, God has given stuff in your hand. What are you doing with it? Like, are you fixating on what other people have? Are you on the future and actually not stewarding what God has given you? Actually not being faithful with what is in your hand.

So for instance, maybe your God-given dream is to be married at some point, right? That's the dream God has put in you. And all you think about is I want to be married. Is married. I want to be this. I want to be this.

I want to be. But in the meantime, what are you doing? What are you doing? Are you taking your friends out for coffee? Are you mingling with people? Are you actually paying for some of these meals?

So that you learn to be selfless thinking of other people. You want to have children rather than focusing on I don't have kids. I don't have kids. I don't have kids. What are you doing now? Do you volunteer in kids church?

There are kids there. Do you child mind for your friends? They need I'm taking some babysitters if anybody wants right. They need help with some child minding. But you get what I'm saying? Like it's like you want this thing here, but right now you're not stewarding the thing.

What makes you think that when you get there in 10 or 20 years time that you'll be happy there if you cannot do it now? You want a fancy office in the corner. But in the courage job, that's not your dream job. Yes, you don't like it. Yes, you're coming late. You're not reliable.

How are you going to get from here to there? Or one day you want to be in ministry. Maybe you want to be a missionary. You want to be a planter, a church planter, whatever it is. But right now, you cannot even send somebody a Bible text. You cannot mentor something.

It's like what's in your hand right now? Are you stewarding what's in your hand, Tony? I'll need your help now. So, so I'm gonna I'm gonna show you how this is important because I want us to think Joseph's story, right? So, stewarding what's in your hand. All right.

Thank you. Thank you, Tony. I'm going to think of Joseph's story and first what I'm going to So this is opportunities here and here you've got the thing that you're actually stewarding the gift. Let me call it the gift. And here All right. So life, the gift here, opportunities.

By the way, gifts go into something that I call the three T's. Ma, can you find a slide that says three T's? Yeah, you got it. Just put it up there if you can find it. But anyway, so three T's are talents, treasure, time, right? That those are the things you're to get you're to steward, right?

Your talents. What are you doing with the talents God has given you? What are you doing with the money God has given you? Like I hear this all the time. People would say, "Oh, what would you do if you win the lotto?" What does everybody say first? No, no, no.

The first one is always, "I will give to charity." No, it's not. It's always the first one. I will give to charity. It's always there or even if it's not first, it's somewhere there. Nobody goes, "Oh, I've got to spend it all on myself." Nobody says that. People will say, "No, people will say, I'll give to charity." Right?

But here's my thing. If you cannot give now, I guarantee you when you have 100 millions, you will not give to charity. Right? If you will not steward what's in your hand now, you will not steward it by giving it to charity. Same with time. Like if the time here is all to yourself, it's you're not going to magically start sharing time with other people when you've got all of it supposedly, right?

Any but back to my flip chat. So gift is the three T's, right? Gift is the three. Can we can we all see this? All right. All right.

All right. All right. So here we go. I'm going to parents house. And then we've got palace, right? Parents, Palace.

So, I'm going to look at the gifts. This is gonna be crazy. I was talking to my wife. She doesn't agree with me here, but I'm I'm I'm gonna go for it. I'm gonna go for it. Right.

What is Joseph when he gets to What is Joseph when he when he when he gets to He's second in command, right? Joseph is second in command. Oh, guess where else he was second in The prison. In prison. Guess where else he was second in Pifer's house. Guess where else he was second in command?

That's everywhere. Like his dad, Jacob, would what? He would send who? Joseph to go rat on his brothers. He would send Joseph to go check on his brothers. He was the second in command.

So the link I'm trying to say to you is he stewarded what was in his hand here. He brought him here. He brought him there. He brought him. So steward the gifts God has given you. Right?

But we're not done. Okay. We're going to be there. Okay. Okay. We're going to look at opportunities.

We're going to look at opportunities. Think about because he was stewarding his gift here. It got him the opportunity to be sold into slavery. I know we don't call it an opportunity, right? But there's actually a verse there that says they wanted to stop his dreams, right? Because he was such a goody second in command.

So they sold him into slavery. That would not have happened if he was not a good steward here, right? And then when you get to Portifer's house, guess what? He gets the opportunity to be sold into to be put in prison. Why? Because he was such a good steward here.

And we talked about this last week. It wasn't just any other prison. It was the prison, Pharaoh's prison where he got to meet the two people. If he So, if he doesn't steward here, that opportunity doesn't come. Right. I know we they're kind of negative opportunities.

So it's it's weird way to call them opportunities but in God's sovereignty they actually were opportunities you know given time in prison how did the opportunity to interpret dreams for Pharaoh come from him stewarding the gift and interpreting the dreams for the two jokers here a pet the baker and wine the connoisseur so from there it's all stewarding what is in your hand Tony. Thank you. All right. So, so guys, so here's the This is the main point here. I can't hear the main here. This is the main point.

Oh. Oh, sorry. I didn't have my mic. I thought I was loud enough. Sorry. Okay.

Is what prepared right? And provided the opportunities. So, Joseph, we meet as a 17-year-old, could not have been the person who was going to save Egypt and rescue all the people, including his brothers, the people from Canaan. Like, at the end of this story, it's a spoiler alert. At the end of this story, God's going to say all the no, Joseph himself is going to say all this happened so that many people could be saved. But it could not happen could it could not have happened if Joseph was not a good steward at each and every level.

So for you guys, what is in your hand? Can you steward it well? Do not despise things of small beginnings. So right now you're in a job maybe you do not like. You're doing things that you do not like, but at that stage steward it well. I'll just finish with this story.

Believe it or not, my daughter doesn't believe me, but believe it or not, I'm an introvert. Shocker horror. I am. I am. People scare me. People they really do.

They really do. You should see me on Sundays. Like I'll pre like I'll preach like this and then I'll go home and I'll like be like on my own for like 5 hours, you know, because I'm an introvert, right? I'm an introvert. So I know myself. But when I started working after college, I was in this job I was an underwriter in this job and they would send me out to conferences to meet people.

These were things that were outside my comfort zone, you know, like the sch smoozing and the networking and all that stuff. Like you would fly out somewhere and then you have to meet people and try and be charming and all that kind of stuff. Oh man, that stuff like man like it would like it would knock me out. But I decided to steward it well like I mean a thought had kind of a thought did cross my mind I was like you know I can just kind of go to these conferences and just stay in my hotel room like I mean who knows like it's you know like this is a conference there's going to be many people like no one's going to know I was just in my hotel rooms but I went and I did the smoozing I did the networking I met people I was outside my comfort zone but I stewarded the gifts that God had given me the stage that God had given me. But now that I'm in ministry guys there's a lot of conferences like there's a lot of people to meet it is exactly the same stuff that I was doing 10 15 years ago but you see God was preparing me then for now a in that period of delay you shouldn't complain about the forgotten season because for Joseph it was tough. It was 22 years, right?

It was 17 when God put a dream in him. It was 30 by the time he became second in command. But his brothers only came 9 years later. So it was 22 years of waiting but just steward the gift that God has given you. Micah, just one more slide. I don't know if you can find it from me. From Messi say something like 17 years this I love this quote from our little magician as in football magician Messi. It says this. It took me 17 years and 14 days to become an overnight success. Do you know like when Messi came out people like oh wow overnight success? Where's this guy come from? And Messi is like yo guys I had a waiting period.

I had a period that none of you saw. That's where I got made. And actually many characters have like think about Jesus. Literally Jesus, he kind of burst on the scene when he's 30, right? He's got like forgotten years that you do not hear. What about Moses?

He kind of burst on the scene when he's what, 80, right? Like they're forgotten years. They're like wilderness years where you just have to steward what's in your hand. And just kind of to finish on this one, why is it a lot of people when they win the lotto are broke within 5 to 10 It's because they never had the waiting period, right? They never had that season where they had to steward what is in their hand and grow in character, right? Their character to grow to be able to handle the money.

So when the money just comes overnight, overnight you got 20 million. You don't know what to do with it. Joseph would not know have known what to do if he had not left Canaan. So guys, Steuart, what's in your hand?