The Ultimate Fighter: Week 2A: Transcript

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THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER

Week 2A

Bil Cornelius

Well thank you for joining us for our second installment of the Ultimate Fighter. This is a fun one, because this is where we talk about a move that you see all the time in Mixed Marshall Arts Fighting. And the move is called the choke out; this when you choke someone out, they lose oxygen, they either get scared and tap out or they literally pass out. Both happen all the time; it’s very, very common. And I started thinking about this, I have to tell you though, I thought about choke outs, and I thought where’s the first time I saw something like this and it wasn’t in mixed martial arts. The first time I saw a choke out was actually going way back old school, in and I don’t want to classify these as the same type of sports, but the first choke out I ever saw was in the WWF, when I was a kid. Now how many of you guys watched the WWF as a kid? How many of you guys want to secretly admit right now that you still watch? Okay, thank you for your guts to say you still watch the now WWE, the changed their name. Anyways, I used to watch WWF as a kid, I loved that. And my favorite guy was a guy named Dusty Roads, the American dream. How many of you guys remember this guy, right? Well he would always get the mic, and he would come up on the stage, and he had this one signature move called “The Sleeper”. You guys remember this? And he’d always grab the mic and he’d say: let me tell you something baba, my name is Dusty Roads, I’m 287 pounds of sweet soul, when I put the sleep on you Jack, it’s over, it’s over. (Laughter) That’s what he did. You guys remember that? (Crowd noise and applause) Yeah. And when he did this move, it was lights out, the match was done, he’d win. Well obviously we’re talking about real fighting, and no offense to you WWE fans out there, but I think there may be a little acting going on. Anyways, but talking about real actual fighting, the choke out is one of the signature moves to take someone down. I believe that there’s an enemy trying to choke out your dreams, trying to cut off oxygen from your vision. And so that’s what we’re going to talk about today. Before we dive in today, I’d like to invite an amazing fighter onto the stage, my son Cole Cornelius. Cole, come on out here buddy. (Applause) Alright, come on out here big boy. There you go. Cole’s going to show us a quick move here, come on bub, you ready? Alright, so basically what we’re going to show real quick is just called the choke. You want to wave at the camera and say hi? Alright, come on over here buddy. And so this is a typical move, is that when a fighter is falling or coming down, that the other fighter will immediately put his arm around and under their neck and pull up. Now you can imagine if I really do this, how bad it would hurt, okay. But if you pull up, you can choke them out, and often times, they’ll even try to fall back. And if they can do that, then they’re having a great position and they can, they can literally make them pass out.

Now the other move that they do that’s very common, is they come in from the back, and often times the guys on the ground on all fours, or maybe he’s somehow, you know gets turned around, and they immediately go for the back position, to get under the neck. And this is very obvious; it’s very common to see this. And how do you defend it, you know how to defend it? How do you do it? There you go, put that chin down, that’s right. Because if your chins down, then you can’t choke them out. Many times you’ll see someone you, you think they’re, they’re going to be choked out, but you don’t realize their chins low enough, they still got air. And so they’ll be making a move or make, preparing in their mind, what can I do to get out of this, okay. But if, if the chin is up, put the chin back up. If the chins up, often times you’ll see the fighter kick their other leg around so they can pin their legs back, and then roll back. And once they have them in that position, it’s just a matter of a few seconds until they’re out, lights out, game over, they win, that’s how that works. Cole, good job bub, appreciate you man. (Applause) He did good didn’t he? Good job buddy, alright. Now my kids are telling me, you know like dad, I’m going to take you to the octagon, don’t make me take you to the octagon, that’s now what they’re all saying to me now. Which is fine until they start saying it to their sister, that’s when the problem comes in, that’s only guys. You’re not taking Sophie to the octagon, because we all know she’ll win, alright so don’t do that. (Laughter) I want to talk about a guy in scripture named Joseph. Joseph had a great dream. He had this dream that he was going to be a leader. Not an uncommon dream, a lot of people dream of being a great leader, and that’s what he dreamed of. The problem was it didn’t go very well in his life. He had all kinds of problems for many, many years. He had many reasons to believe his dream was going to be choked out. And maybe that’s you today, maybe you’ve got a dream, but you feel like it’s being choked out of you. So what do you do in that situation?

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THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER

Week 2A

Bil Cornelius

Well thank you for joining us for our second installment of the Ultimate Fighter. This is a fun one, because this is where we talk about a move that you see all the time in Mixed Marshall Arts Fighting. And the move is called the choke out; this when you choke someone out, they lose oxygen, they either get scared and tap out or they literally pass out. Both happen all the time; it’s very, very common. And I started thinking about this, I have to tell you though, I thought about choke outs, and I thought where’s the first time I saw something like this and it wasn’t in mixed martial arts. The first time I saw a choke out was actually going way back old school, in and I don’t want to classify these as the same type of sports, but the first choke out I ever saw was in the WWF, when I was a kid. Now how many of you guys watched the WWF as a kid? How many of you guys want to secretly admit right now that you still watch? Okay, thank you for your guts to say you still watch the now WWE, the changed their name. Anyways, I used to watch WWF as a kid, I loved that. And my favorite guy was a guy named Dusty Roads, the American dream. How many of you guys remember this guy, right? Well he would always get the mic, and he would come up on the stage, and he had this one signature move called “The Sleeper”. You guys remember this? And he’d always grab the mic and he’d say: let me tell you something baba, my name is Dusty Roads, I’m 287 pounds of sweet soul, when I put the sleep on you Jack, it’s over, it’s over. (Laughter) That’s what he did. You guys remember that? (Crowd noise and applause) Yeah. And when he did this move, it was lights out, the match was done, he’d win. Well obviously we’re talking about real fighting, and no offense to you WWE fans out there, but I think there may be a little acting going on. Anyways, but talking about real actual fighting, the choke out is one of the signature moves to take someone down. I believe that there’s an enemy trying to choke out your dreams, trying to cut off oxygen from your vision. And so that’s what we’re going to talk about today. Before we dive in today, I’d like to invite an amazing fighter onto the stage, my son Cole Cornelius. Cole, come on out here buddy. (Applause) Alright, come on out here big boy. There you go. Cole’s going to show us a quick move here, come on bub, you ready? Alright, so basically what we’re going to show real quick is just called the choke. You want to wave at the camera and say hi? Alright, come on over here buddy. And so this is a typical move, is that when a fighter is falling or coming down, that the other fighter will immediately put his arm around and under their neck and pull up. Now you can imagine if I really do this, how bad it would hurt, okay. But if you pull up, you can choke them out, and often times, they’ll even try to fall back. And if they can do that, then they’re having a great position and they can, they can literally make them pass out.

Now the other move that they do that’s very common, is they come in from the back, and often times the guys on the ground on all fours, or maybe he’s somehow, you know gets turned around, and they immediately go for the back position, to get under the neck. And this is very obvious; it’s very common to see this. And how do you defend it, you know how to defend it? How do you do it? There you go, put that chin down, that’s right. Because if your chins down, then you can’t choke them out. Many times you’ll see someone you, you think they’re, they’re going to be choked out, but you don’t realize their chins low enough, they still got air. And so they’ll be making a move or make, preparing in their mind, what can I do to get out of this, okay. But if, if the chin is up, put the chin back up. If the chins up, often times you’ll see the fighter kick their other leg around so they can pin their legs back, and then roll back. And once they have them in that position, it’s just a matter of a few seconds until they’re out, lights out, game over, they win, that’s how that works. Cole, good job bub, appreciate you man. (Applause) He did good didn’t he? Good job buddy, alright. Now my kids are telling me, you know like dad, I’m going to take you to the octagon, don’t make me take you to the octagon, that’s now what they’re all saying to me now. Which is fine until they start saying it to their sister, that’s when the problem comes in, that’s only guys. You’re not taking Sophie to the octagon, because we all know she’ll win, alright so don’t do that. (Laughter) I want to talk about a guy in scripture named Joseph. Joseph had a great dream. He had this dream that he was going to be a leader. Not an uncommon dream, a lot of people dream of being a great leader, and that’s what he dreamed of. The problem was it didn’t go very well in his life. He had all kinds of problems for many, many years. He had many reasons to believe his dream was going to be choked out. And maybe that’s you today, maybe you’ve got a dream, but you feel like it’s being choked out of you. So what do you do in that situation?

Let’s look at some scripture and let’s learn how to avoid destiny blackout; how to keep your vision from getting choked out. Pull out your notes if you would, we’re going to be looking at Genesis chapter 37, 38, 39, 40, and 41. We’re going to be skimming this story very quickly to pull out some morsels and nuggets about how we can avoid destiny blackout. Let’s start in Genesis chapter 37 verses 5 through 8. Just to give you a little background real quick: Joseph was the son of his father and mother, but his father had another wife. This was very common back in the day. And so Joseph’s brothers come from another mother and the same dad, then Joseph comes from the same dad, but a different mom, so basically, all these brothers didn’t really like Joseph much, okay. And so and then he was the youngest, and so you know how the deal is, that you know dad likes this lady a little more, so he wants to have her own baby, and we’re going to treat him special, because this is the one we really like and, and so basically dad chose one child over the other. He played favorites, which is always a bad thing, and that’s exactly what he did.

So all these brothers already hated Joseph anyways and to add to the fact that he was the youngest. You know and so this is not going well, right? Look what happens here in Genesis chapter 37 verses 5 through 8. It says: “Joseph had a dream and when he told it to his brothers: they hated him all the more. He said to them, listen to this dream I had. We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field, when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood up right, while your sheaves gathered around mine, and bowed down to it. His brothers said to him: do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us, and they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.” So they’re really mad at him, they’re like oh, is this how it’s going to work, you think you the man now, just because you had this dream and you’re going to be a leader, and we’re all going to have to follow you. Oh the great Joseph. And so they got really mad at him at this point. Now this is not always the person who’s mad, it’s not always their fault. Actually Joseph made a really dumb move here. He did not run his dream through the marketing department before he let it spew out of his mouth. He should have known this was going to hack his brothers off; I mean this is obviously going to tick everyone off. If you got to someone and say you know I had a dream that I’m just better looking than you. I mean no one’s going to be happy with that. I had a dream and I’m smarter than you. I had a dream and I’m faster than you. Whatever it happens to be, no one likes to be compared to other people, in an unfavorable light. And that’s exactly what he does here. But the critical mistake that Joseph makes, number one: is never share it with the wrong people. So you have a dream, that’s great that you have a dream, but you don’t share it with just anyone. Have you figured out yet that you’ll share your dream with some people and they’ll give you ten ways it won’t happen, and they’ll give you ten reasons why that will not be a possibility in your life? So you can’t just share your dream with anyone. Listen: take this one to the bank, not everyone who is with you, is for you. Not everyone who is with you is for you. Just because they’re close to you, doesn’t mean they love you, doesn’t mean they’re behind you. One of the ways you know someone’s really for you and not just with you, is when things go well in your life, they’re actually excited. They’re actually happy when things go well. A lot of people frankly aren’t happy. Sometimes you have family members that begin to lecture you because things are going well and telling you now listen, let’s not get the big head here, now listen, let’s stay humble, go easy. And you think whoa, whoa, whoa, just because something goods happened to me, I got a get a lector. Just because something goods going on, you got a tell me all the reasons why it shouldn’t happened. What, what’s going on with that? Or maybe you have a friend, or a coworker, or neighbor, I don’t know who it would be, but the moment things go well for you, they’re not really that happy about it. Have you ever had this happen in your life? You learn who was with you, but wasn’t really for you.

And so that’s what’s going on here to Joseph, he thought they were with him, he learned they were, he thought they were for him; they really were just with him because they were his brothers. And you know it’s a funny thing, you can choose your friends, but you’re stuck with your family, right? And so that’s what happens at this point. You know they’re really angry with him. They are so mad at him by the way; they are so put out with Joseph. Now Joseph was already favored. Remember we had the special jacket; daddy gave him the special coat, coat of many colors. Whose got his really cool members only jacket on, you know, it’s like hey; check out my jacket man, I’m a member. You know and he looks all cool, right? And all his brothers are ticked off that they’re not members. You know and they’re like man, he’s like the guy, and he’s got the jacket to, to prove it, and you know and so they got all mad at him. Many times there’ll be an item that kind of symbolizes success for us, and we’re real proud of it, and we may wear it, or, or ride in it, or drive it, or live in it. And when we think oh man, look how cool I am. And it actually becomes a sign of resentment. When people look at your house, or your car, or your clothes, or whatever it is that you kind of hold up as: oh look man, I’ve arrived, look, look at who I am. And many people get angry about that. I remember there was a guy in my high school that his father bought him a Porsche. He was 16 years old, it was a used Porsche, but still, I mean it was a Porsche, that’s a really cool car, you know. And so he, he made sure he let everyone know in school that he had a Porsche. Whether you saw it or not, he’d be talking about his Porsche. Yeah, I just got back from cleaning my Porsche; you know that kind of thing. He’d always kind of drop it, you know. You’re like alright, yeah, we know, you got a Porsche, right. Well it was just a matter of time; I could have almost told him this was going to happen. About 3 or 4 months into him having that Porsche, one day he comes in very dejected an upset, and apparently a couple of students had taken a bat to his Porsche. And because they weren’t happy with the fact that he had something that made him stand out above everyone else. That is very, very common for someone to take a bat to your proverbial Porsche as well. And so they, they took him, if you read this story, they took Joseph, they literally ripped his coat off and they tore it in pieces. They were so like, forget this coat because that coat represented dad loving you more, that ticks us off. And so they ripped up the coat. Then they started the thing, you know what, I know what we’re going to do to Joseph; let’s just kill him and say that, well we’ll tell dad that an animal got a hold of him and ate him, that he died you know. And so the whole dog ate your lunch, well the dad ate Joseph, you know sorry. And so basically they were going to create this whole deal that happened to Joseph, and then the voice of reason speaks up and says no, let’s not kill him, let’s just sell him as a slave. Oh well thanks, that was really nice of you. You’re just going to sell me into slavery instead, right. So look at the scripture in genesis chapter 37 verses 26 through 28, and keep in mind as we read this. Have you ever heard the phrase, man, they sold me out. This is where you get that phrase. Genesis 37:26 through 28, it says: “Let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites, and not lay our hands on him; after all he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” Oh how nice. You know he’s our brother, we’ll just sell him into slavery, oh that’s so kind of you, right? It says his brothers agreed. So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern, they’d thrown, thrown him in the well, and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites who took him to Egypt. The concept of selling someone out, this is where you get, yo man they sold me out. Well what you’re referring to when you say that is Joseph, because he literally was sold out by his own brothers, okay. So he is obviously turned on, and betrayed by his brothers. Look at Genesis chapter 39 verse 1, skipping ahead. Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard bought him from the Ishmaelites, who would had taken him there. So now Joseph had been taken down to the Egyptians. Potiphar, who is this guy? Potiphar is the head of the Egyptian guard. That means that he was a bad dude. That basically meant that you, you got a slit a lot of throats to become the captain of the king’s guard. These are the guys that are the closers, if you know what I mean, for the king. They handle the dirty work. When the king says you know, I’m just really tired of that politician. This is when Potiphar steps up and says, how tired? Pretty tired. Got it, excuse me, and he steps out, goes to get with homeys at midnight, they put on all black, next thing you know politicians out of politics. It’s amazing how that works. And so basically, that’s the kind of stuff Potiphar did. This guy was a bad dude. Not only is it bad that Joseph was a slave, he went from the favorite son, to the hated son, to a slaved son, to a slaved son in a psycho’s house. This guys crazy. And so now he’s working for Mr. Crazy, and so now he took up a job as the whipping boy for Mike Tyson, this is not the job you want. Okay, so now he’s working for some insane guy who does the king’s dirty work. Kings are already half crazy, and now he’s got the half crazy guy, leading a completely crazy guy; this is not good. So let’s make matters a little worse than that. Look at the next scripture, Genesis chapter 39 verse 7. So now he’s working for Potiphar, Mr. Crazy. It says: “Now Joseph was well-built and handsome.” Most of the time, that would be a plus, but not in this case. It says: “and after a while, his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said come to bed with me. And so it says but he refused.” And so now you’ve got Potiphar married to Hotiphar, okay? (Laughter) This is a problem. So Hotiphar, the cougar is going after this young slave, alright. (Laughter) So here Joseph is, looking good in his slave gear, right, you know. He’s got these muscles just popping out from everywhere.

And so basically it says in scripture here that, that the problem Joseph had, was that he was well-built and handsome. I’ve been dealing with this problem my whole life. (Laughter) Just kidding, anyways, so he’s got this problem.

So here he is, he’s got his slave gear on you know, and so he’s over here, and he’s flexing, you know, it’s like hey, what’s up Hotiphar? You know as his muscles are popping out you know, and as he’s cleaning stuff, you know he’s got these muscles just popping. And he’s like hey, what’s up? You know and so he’s cleaning, and so Hotiphar comes along: Hi Joseph, how are you? You going to clean the pool again today, I’m going to go lay out. You know and so got that whole thing going on. The problem was is that she was so crazy about him; every single day, she just came after him and after him, and he just, at one point, read the scripture. It’s really powerful. It’s a great powerful illustration how to overcome lust by the way. And I’m sure this is an attractive lady. Do you know, I mean listen. If you’re Potiphar, you can hook up with pretty much anybody, alright. I mean so I can only imagine some night in some Egyptian club, they hooked up, umph, umph, umph, umph, (Laughter) whoa, check her out ya know. And so yeah, that’s right, see the brass knuckles, I work for the king, you know what I’m saying. And so you know, somewhere this relationship hooked up, they get married, I’m sorry, this is just the way I picture it. (Laughter) I’m just, I’m just trying to you know, explain it, just trying to make the scripture come a little alive, just, just, just bringing some life to it here. Okay, basically at this point, they hook up, they get married, but she was sweet on Joseph, she really liked him. And so she’s like hey, come to bed with me. You know come on, let’s hook up, you know you’re really hot, you know you think I am, what do you think Joseph? And Joseph said to him, said to her, she said, he said to her; you know what, I can’t do this. God has brought me here, your master, my master, Potiphar, you know the guy you’re married to, yeah. He’s put me in charge of everything in this household, and besides, how could I do this against him or against my God. There’s one way to shut down your lust problem, you need to imagine that God’s with you all the time, because he is. Just imagine somebody clicking on the website, hey Jesus, check this out. Next time you’re flipping through skin-a-max, hey Jesus, check out that. It’ll shut that down, won’t it? So you got a imagine that there’s a God you’re offending, and so, because you really are, not to mention your offending your wife. If you’re single by the way, this will really help you, you’re offending your future wife. You know that? You’re creating habits that will lead into marriage. I hate to break it to you, it will. Okay so you got a begin to picture it that way. So basically he said no, I’m not going to do this. So what happens? Here’s the problem also. The problem was not only, you know psycho people tend to attract each other. Have you figured it out that crazies attract crazies? (Laughter) So here is Potiphar married to Hotiphar, well the problem with Hotiphar is not only is she crazy, okay. She gets a little nuts over Joseph, and you’d think that this girl would, would finally realize, you got a good thing going here, you may just want to chill out, okay. You’re married to this really rich guy, everything’s going good here, why would you blow this?

Everything’s going good. But apparently this cougar was after, was after her prey big time, and so you know she was so into Joseph, she literally pounced on him.

This means that girl was just thinking about Joseph all day long. She’s putting on her makeup in the morning, just thinking about it: I love Joseph, I love him, (Laughter) she’s crazy. The girl has flipped, alright, that’s what’s going on here. And the reason you know this; again, that’s just the way I picture it, I’m sorry, I don’t know. (Laughter) Oh the stuff that comes out of my mouth sometimes, and now we’re on TV, okay. (Laughter) Thing _____ here is that she literally pounces on him and grabs him by the coat, because cloak means coat, also means jacket, right? Could mean jacket, could mean shirt, but somehow she gets a hold of him, I mean she literally jumps on him. I can only imagine what this looked like. We’d have to make the movie rated R. She jumps on him. He immediately, literally, he has to take off his clothes to get away from her. So he sheds his clothing and runs. As he runs, again, this girls crazy, and what do crazy girls do, what does a crazy woman do? She shifts from I love you, love you, love you to I hate you, hate you, hate you. And that’s what happens here. She immediately is holding his jacket and she says: this Hebrew is making sport of me, and now she accuses him of rape, when the truth is, she was practically trying to rape him. And so Joseph goes from favored son, to hated son, to enslaved son, to enslaved to the psycho’s son, to an accused of rape. I mean, can it get worse? This is unbelievable. Look what happens next. It actually does get worse. Little warning: don’t ever say can it get worse. Yes it can, alright, so just know that. Look at this, Genesis chapter 39 verse 19: “After being accused, Joseph’s master, Potiphar took him and put him in prison.” Now interesting point here, just, I just got a point this out. Couldn’t Potiphar have had Joseph killed? I mean this is the most, one of the most powerful people in all the land. Obviously the kings the most powerful, but these people disposed of people. They could care less. They’re like, you know I don’t like that guy anymore; they’re done. I mean this guy slit throats in his sleep, this is no big deal. In fact, he was so good he eventually had guys he could order to have it done so he didn’t have to bloody up his nice shirt. I mean this, that’s the kind of guy this was. So why didn’t he just kill Joseph on the spot? He owned him, it was perfectly legal. Why didn’t he just kill him on the spot, right? Why didn’t he do that? Hmm, why would you not do that? I wonder if Potiphar knew a little bit a something about his wife. I wonder maybe if he had a little inside scoop on his wife and her little problem.

I wonder how many times he had to go down to the market and get another young slave, because he had to get rid of the last four, because of a little problem going on in his house. And so I wonder if in this, he really just put him in the dungeon just because he didn’t want to look at him, be reminded of the problem he had with his wife with the wandering eyes. Let’s face it, Hotiphar got around like the common cold.

And so at this point, she’s making a move on the slave. I mean this guy didn’t even have kind, any kind of power, and so what was she interested in? She was interested in the next conquest. Now I know that never happens with anyone, you know that listen to this message, oh no never of course.

What’s going on here? It’s a power trip. That’s what this is all about. It’s about power and someone wanting to think that they still got it. That’s what’s going on. But at the end of the day, at the end of the day, what happens here, regardless of her problem or Potiphar’s denial. And isn’t it funny by the way, how we like to take the problem and just put it in a dungeon where we don’t have to face it. See, this shows you the weakness of Potiphar’s leadership too. That real leaders do not ignore the problem in their own home, in their own office, in their own situation; they, they face it head on. He should have sat down with his wife and said, you know as well as I do that Joseph isn’t guilty of anything here. You know that you have a problem Hotiphar. You know that the problem is on you. We don’t like to do that. We don’t like to have to go and confront someone, and so do you know what we do as Christians? We say, we say, well I’m still praying about that. That means I’m not willing to step up and do what the Bible already says to do, which is Matthew 18, which is to go to him immediately. We don’t like doing that. It’s just easier to say I’m praying. Well in that instance, the concept I’m praying about it means I’m disobeying God. Because Matthew 18 is very clear that you go to them right then on the spot. In fact, we’re not supposed to let the sun go down on our wrath. If you’re angry with someone, you’re not even supposed to bed tonight until you’ve talked to him. That’s how serious God is about it. I mean you say, my problem has just gotten out of control. It got out of control not because of them it got out of control, because you’re afraid to confront. And until you confront, it will get out of control. You’ve got to learn to do that. So Potiphar tucks his little problem away in a prison. So now Joseph goes from favored son to hated son, to slaved son, right? To slave in the crazy home, to slave now in prison. Think about being in prison; you want to talk about losing hope, you’re in prison. But most people, at least in prison behind bars, have their, you know whatever, their cup and their running against the bars: (Singing) nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen, right, they’re all singing their tune, you know. And they’re running the cup and they’re going, oh I can’t wait till I’m out in 9 months or a year, or 5 years, or 10 years or whatever. Joseph’s dream to get out would mean one day I’ll get out, and then I’ll just be a slave again. Even his hope is terrible. Even his dream of getting out means one day I’ll get to go wash someone’s windows again. One day I’ll get go be beat up by someone who owns me again. That is no hope, that is no dream. And so that’s how bad it got for him. What does this teach us?

By the way, did you know that when Joseph became a slave in Potiphar’s home, he organized Potiphar’s home so well, he bless, God blessed Potiphar’s home just because Joseph was there. Could it be said of you and me; just because we are in our office, our office gets blessed? Just because you’re in your family, the family is blessed. Could it be said just because you’re in this church, our church is blessed? Just because you’re here, just because you showed up, we’re blessed.

Could it be said of you, because of the character, the integrity, the work ethic that you bring to what you do; that just because you’re in the marriage, you know why my marriage works? Because my wife is in it, that’s why. I’m just blessed that she’s there. The truth is some people are just a blessing with whatever they do. I love people like that, don’t you love people like that. Did you know it says that in scripture that Potiphar had no worries? He’s like everything’s fine, I don’t even have anything to do anymore. Why? Josephs got it covered. Then Joseph ends up in jail and Joseph took care of the jail. He had that jail spic and span, like unbelievable. I mean it was crazy. I’m telling you, Joseph had the skills to pay the bills. This guy had some talent. He could organize anything, everyone liked him, he’d get everyone in teams and get everything happening, get everything going smoothly. He organized them; it says the jailer had no worries because of Joseph. That’s how good he was at what he did. Just because you got a setback, and I mean this is a bad setback. I’m pretty sure you’ve had a setback, but I don’t see you sold into slavery. That’s a setback. Now look, I know your spouse may have left you, but you weren’t sold into slavery by your spouse. Listen, I know some bad things have happened to you at work, but no one owns you. I mean that’s bad, that’s real bad. And then when you’re owned, you’re falsely accused and thrown into a prison. This, this is going from bad to worse. Joseph gets to meet some pretty important people. He gets to know some people that work for the king. And the kings are temperamental, they get mad and I’ll send the cup bearer down to the prison for a couple days; send the baker down to the prison for a couple days. That’s what happens here. And so now these guys are in prison and so because of this, they, you know they’re obviously very upset, they have dreams. You know we tend to dream what’s going on in our lives a lot of times. We tend to dream stuff. And he, they had these dreams. They get so frustrated with a dream, not knowing what it means that they go to Joseph. They said you know we heard that you’re kind of a dreamer; we heard you had a dream one time. Could you help us interpret our dream? It’s interesting that they go to Joseph about their dream, which means Joseph must still be talking about his. It’s really important to keep your dream alive that you never quit talking about it. Now, you need to talk about it in front of the right people, but you need to keep talking about it. Joseph is still dreaming the dream.

And there’s the evidence; he did not give up on his dream, even though he was a falsely accused, imprisoned slave. This is not the position you want to be in. What did he do? He said you know I’m here, I’m stuck here, what am I going to do? I’m going to make this the nicest prison around. And that’s exactly; he started serving everyone around him. Have you ever taught someone something, taught them something big time, and it helped elevate their position, and when they get in the position, they forgot about you? Have you ever made your boss look good, and they get a raise off of the work you did, and then the boss tells you, sorry man, not this year?

Have you ever helped someone through college and the moment they’re through college, they’re also happened to be through with you? Have you ever helped someone make a connection with someone, and the moment you need some help, they’re suddenly not available. Have you ever trained someone in your company and then all of a sudden, they step out and become your competitor? You think, you’ve got to be kidding me. I do all this for this person and you just forget about me. You forget all I’ve done for you, all the help I’ve been, all the ways I’ve connected you, and helped bring you up and then you blow me off, you got a be kidding me. You know what you learn in that situation? You learn, like the cup bearer, you learn that the cup bearer you thought was your friend, really what it was, he was your friend when he needed you, but the moment he didn’t need you anymore, when it actually served his purpose better; he just stepped right over you like they step on people to get to where they want to go. Happens doesn’t it? It happens. And you learn someone wasn’t a friend, they were an opportunist. What do you do when you’ve been forgotten, when someone’s hurt you, when someone’s turned on you, what do you do, do you get angry?