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From Pit to Palace - Joseph Series
85 Plays2 years ago
Welcome to Grove Hill Church, where we dive deep into stories of faith and transformation. In this sermon, From Pit to Palace, we explore the incredible journey of Joseph, a biblical figure who went from being thrown into a pit to rising to the highest position in Egypt. Pastor Ridley Barron unpacks the lessons we can learn from Joseph's story of humility, faith, and unexpected promotion. Get ready to be inspired and encouraged as we navigate the twists and turns of Joseph's life and discover how God's hand was at work, even in the midst of adversity. Stay tuned for a powerful message that reminds us that no matter how deep the pit, God can still lead us to our palace.
Time Stamps:
[00:01:56] Divine thread runs through Joseph's life.
[00:06:23] Joseph's adversity molded his character; embrace discipline.
[00:08:30] Joseph's humility and hard work brought promotion.
[00:11:18] "The struggle of self control: an issue"
[00:15:11] High school football, coach, nap, homework, girlfriend, shrimp poboy, cars.
[00:17:30] Chemical uncertainty, personal convictions and consequences matter.
[00:22:17] Easy, convenient, weak church, leaving without unity.
[00:26:06] Abortion clinic protest leads to federal trial.
[00:29:35] A true believer shines without saying a word.
[00:30:13] Live by your values, let actions speak.
[00:35:37] Joseph saves Israel from famine, grows population.
[00:36:30] Protected by God, they thrived and grew.
[00:40:06] Trust in God's plan and find peace.
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Transcript
Joseph's Early Trials and Journey
00:00:00
Speaker
We're in week two of the life of Joseph. I'm really excited about where we're gonna go this week. Let me catch you up just a little bit and then we'll dive in. Joseph has 11 brothers who were very jealous of him. We talked last week about envy and envy causes a problem. It wasn't just their envy that created a problem. It was also a little bit of Joseph's arrogance, but the two things came together in a very bad storm that caused Joseph to be first of all thrown into a pit by his brothers and then to eventually be sold into slavery
00:00:30
Speaker
in Egypt. And so that's where we're going to pick up the story. If you're following along Genesis chapter 39, before we do that, I want to read a passage to you that hopefully will kind of give some, some context for us, kind of help us see where we're going this morning because we're talking about adversity and how we overcome adversity. And this is Psalm 119 verse 71. The Psalmist writes this, it is good for me to be afflicted so that I could learn your statutes.
00:00:57
Speaker
So say that with me. It was good for me to be afflicted so that I could learn your statues. I want you to understand this morning that if you are in adversity, in the season of adversity, there is a purpose behind adversity. Okay. Uh, if you are not in a season adversity, hold on. It's coming.
00:01:18
Speaker
All right? The old posture saying is this. You're either in a season of adversity, you just come out of one, or you're on your way into one. It's just the nature of living in a broken world, in a fallen world. Adversity looks like all kinds of different things, all kinds of different problems that we face. Sometimes those problems are self-imposed because of choices we make. Sometimes there are things that are thrust on us, but nevertheless, we can trust that a God who is
00:01:44
Speaker
loving, kind, and compassionate is with us in our seasons of adversity and can bring something out of them. So with that in mind, let's jump into Genesis chapter 39 beginning in verse 1. It says, Now Joseph had been taken to Egypt, an Egyptian named Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, and the captain of the guards brought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him there.
00:02:04
Speaker
The Lord was with Joseph. If you take notes in your Bible, underline that, highlight it. It's going to come up four different times in this passage alone. And the reason that's important is because it underlines the divine thread that runs through the life of Joseph and reminds us of what we talked about last week, that the 66 books we call the Bible are first and foremost the story of God.
00:02:26
Speaker
This isn't a story of Joseph, this isn't a story of Potiphar, or Pharaoh, or even Jacob. This is the story of God and how God is always working even when you and I can't see it, don't feel it, and maybe even doubt it. So the Lord was with Joseph and he became a successful man, serving in the household of his Egyptian master.
00:02:47
Speaker
When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made everything he did successful, Joseph found favor with his master and became his personal attendant. Potiphar also put him in charge of his household and placed all that he owned under his authority. From the time that he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the Egyptians' house because of Joseph. The Lord's blessing was on all that he owned in his house and in his fields.
00:03:15
Speaker
He left all that he owned under Joseph's authority. He did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate. Anybody want to have that kind of life? Amen. Wake up in the morning. Hey, what's for breakfast? Lunch? Supper? I'm done. That's my decisions for the day.
00:03:30
Speaker
Now, Joseph was well-built and handsome. Joseph was a stud, okay? Everybody get that? He is a good-looking dude, attractive, everything about him is appealing, and we're gonna see how that comes back to play here in a minute.
Integrity Tested and Imprisonment
00:03:42
Speaker
After some time, his master's wife looked longingly at Joseph and said, sleep with me. But he refused. Look, he said to his master's wife, with me here my master does not concern himself with anything in his house, and he has put all that he owns under my authority.
00:03:58
Speaker
No one in this house is greater than I am." That was not a boisterous statement or a boastful statement. It was not an arrogant statement. It was the truth because in that day and age slaves were equal to women basically in value. Women were seen as property just like a slave was, but Joseph was a special kind of slave in the sense that he had been promoted to this personal attendant position. So he really is the most powerful man in Potiphar's household at this point.
00:04:25
Speaker
He has withheld nothing from me except you because you are his wife. So how could I do this immense evil and how could I sin against God? Again, underline this in your Bible. There is no sin that is not against God.
00:04:41
Speaker
Okay? Every sin you and I commit, every wrong choice we make, every personal rebellion we participate in is an affront to the holiness of God. That's how holy he is. You might think, oh, it's a minor thing, it's a distant memory, it's whatever your excuses may be. Every sin, as Joseph points out, is a sin against a holy God. Although she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her.
00:05:08
Speaker
Now one day he went into the house to do his work and none of the household servants were there. She grabbed him by his garment and said, sleep with me. But leaving his garment in her hand, he escaped and ran outside. When she saw that he had left his garment with her and had run outside, she called her household servants. Look, she said to them, my husband brought a Hebrew man to make fools of us. Guys, she was a conniving woman. All right.
00:05:35
Speaker
No doubt about it. Not only did she have ill intent planned for her and Joseph, but now she's dividing the household. Look how she's made it that her husband is against them in trying to bring food since into the household. He came to me so he could sleep with me and I screamed as loud as I could. When he heard me screaming for help, he left his garment beside me and ran outside. She put Joseph's garment beside her until his master came home. Then she told him the same story.
00:06:02
Speaker
The Hebrew slave you brought to us came to make a fool of me, but when I screamed for help, he left his garment beside me and he ran outside.
Adversity as Character Builder
00:06:12
Speaker
When his master heard the story his wife told him, these are the things your slave did to me, he was furious and had him thrown into prison where the king's prisoners were confined. So Joseph was there in prison.
00:06:27
Speaker
So I want to take a few seconds this morning to talk first of all about some things that I think God intentionally brought into the life of Joseph to build his character, to create the kind of man he wanted to be. And then I want to make some notes about what adversity looks like in our life and how we can receive adversity in the way that the scripture commands us to, okay? So first of all, three disciplines. Now, when you hear the word discipline, don't think corporal punishment.
00:06:54
Speaker
especially if you're a child or a teenager in here this morning. We're not talking about belts and boards and those kinds of things. We're not talking about groundings. The definition of the word discipline is the practice of training someone to obey rules and practices for their own good.
00:07:12
Speaker
to train someone. So most often, if you think about this, when you are training somebody, it's usually positive reinforcement that does most of the training. Think about your child when they're born. One of the first things you do is train them to hold a bottle for themselves so they can feed themselves. It's done through encouragement. You don't spank the child because they dropped the bottle.
00:07:31
Speaker
When your child starts to learn to drive, you try to train them so that they don't scare their mother to death as they are driving the vehicle. That's a different kind of discipline. You may have a new coworker at work who's being trained in new job skills and you work with them and try to encourage them by showing them things that they need to know and then reinforcing that with positive stuff. So while we're talking about disciplines that God put into Joseph's life, don't consider this a negative thing, whether it's Joseph's life or yours.
00:08:02
Speaker
It's a positive thing. So the first discipline I see here is the discipline of service. You remember last week we spent a little bit of time talking about Joseph's coat. Some say it's a coat of many colors, others say it's a coat with long sleeves. The point is it's a very ornate coat. It signified a special place in Joseph's life as well as the life of the entire Jacob's family. Joseph exchanged this extravagant coat for a servant's guard.
00:08:31
Speaker
God forced him to learn to work so that he would learn the humility that is required in order to be obedient to someone who's in authority over you. And because Joseph was faithful in small things, God promoted him to the greater things that he eventually would be allowed to do. Proverbs 22, 29 says this, do you see a person who is skilled in his work? He will stand in the presence of kings. He will not stand in the presence of the unknown.
00:08:57
Speaker
Because Joseph was willing to take on the role as a servant and was willing to embrace that role and learn from that through the discipline of servanthood, he would eventually be promoted to a place that you and I could not have foretold. You and I standing at the edge of the pit the day that Joseph was thrown into that pit would have never been able to go, oh look, there's the future second in command of Egypt.
00:09:17
Speaker
We never could have predicted that that's where the end of this journey would go. God knew what he was doing. And Joseph, for whatever reason, understood in that moment that the end of his journey wasn't that pit. The end of that journey was somewhere down the road that God would take him if he trusted him. That's the way you and I have to approach our own adversity. So Joseph was elevated because of this. Now, here's the thing. We live in a generation that's not content to work for their rewards.
00:09:45
Speaker
They're not content to be patient until God promotes them to where He wants them to be. If we were writing the story today, there would be a shortcut to it. This is why we have generations of kids who literally are graduating from college wanting six-figure jobs and to be the CEO of their own company. I'm not getting an amen. Some of y'all aren't paying attention to the culture.
00:10:09
Speaker
I mean, seriously, have you seen it? Literally, there are more kids coming out of college today who want to be YouTube influencers than those who want to go into the healthcare field in the United States of America. They all want to be instantly successful and they look at their parents and go, why can't I have the house you have? And my parents would look at me and go, son, you can have it. 20 years of work, you can have it.
00:10:33
Speaker
You don't get these kinds of things overnight. Now the reason this becomes a problem for us is because we short circuit everything that God's trying to do in our lives by trying to find a quick path to the answer.
00:10:45
Speaker
We drive up to Chick-fil-A, we want our chicken in three minutes. We drive up to Burger King, we want our Whopper in three minutes. Nobody drives up to Wendy's anymore, but somebody drives up to Wendy's one. There are people who eat this food, they want instant success, and we stand outside the microwave going, God, leave that 30 seconds, it's taking forever. And that's the way we approach our lives.
00:11:06
Speaker
And God says to us, man, there's some places I got to take you. There's some places you got to go before you're ever going to remotely be ready for what I've got in store for you. Which leads to the next one. And this one's really hard. The discipline of self-control. Can I get it? Amen. The discipline of self-control. Guys, self-control is a hard thing. And before you sit here and go, I got this in the bag. How many of you can keep your mouth shut when you're not supposed to be saying something?
00:11:33
Speaker
How many of you turn the TV off at the same time every night and get your good eight hours of sleep instead of staying up and watching the reruns of whatever Netflix show you're watching? How many of you can walk away from the chocolate fountain at the wedding and not have another plate of chocolate? Not me. I mean, listen, I struggle with the same things you struggle with. We all deal with this issue. Self-control is a problem because of the first part of that phrase, self.
00:12:00
Speaker
And we don't know how to control ourselves. And so he had to put the discipline of self-control into Joseph's life. Joseph's mother, Rachel, if we go back earlier in Genesis, it's recorded that she was a very beautiful woman. It's obvious that Joseph got some of her genetic qualities because he's described as this very good-looking man. So no doubt that he inherited her physical futures.
00:12:21
Speaker
At this point in time in the history of Egypt, if you go back and look at history, women in Egypt were very loose in their morals. They were not afraid to experiment outside the realm of the marriage that they were in. But Joseph refused to yield. He refused to give in, and as God tested Joseph, he proved something very, very important, that God's discipline is necessary for us to grow. And if Joseph could not control himself as a servant,
00:12:50
Speaker
he would never be able to control himself as a ruler. I mean, think about it, as a servant, you're kind of limited in the things that are offered to you. There's only certain things that are on your buffet, only certain things that you're offered in your closet, those only certain things that you get to be a part of, you get to be second control in Egypt, you're offered the world. And if you couldn't control himself in that situation, he was never going to be able to control himself otherwise. Now, Joseph could have done what so many of us do, they could have argued nobody will know,
00:13:19
Speaker
Right? We'll all keep it a secret that nobody will be hurt by this. I remind you of his point that his sin, as all sin is, is against God. Or maybe he could have argued, well, everybody else is doing it in Egypt. Any of y'all ever uttered those words?
00:13:35
Speaker
If you were in high school once, yes you did, to your mom and dad, everybody's going to be at the party, everybody's going to do this, and we still carry that mentality into our world. Can I just tell you this? Nowhere in scripture does it ever give you permission to use the words, everybody else is doing it. Because if everybody else is doing it, then you shouldn't be. We are called to live outside of the culture, counter to the culture, to go against the flow of what the world is heading.
00:14:02
Speaker
And so if you are fitting in, you're not following him. Man, that was a really good point. I would have loved it. Let's try that again. If you're not fitting, I mean, if you are fitting in, you're not following him. Y'all should not make me beg for amens up here. Instead, he lived to please God.
00:14:24
Speaker
And he made no provision for the flesh. Now, I want to go, I mean, sometimes you know you read the Old Testament, you hear these cool Old Testament stories, you go, yeah, but that's not the New Testament. So let me bring the New Testament to play right here. Romans chapter 13, the words of Paul, he says, let us walk with decency as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual impurity and
Suffering and Spiritual Maturity
00:14:44
Speaker
promiscuity, not in quarreling and jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and read this with me.
00:14:50
Speaker
Make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires.
00:14:56
Speaker
make no provision for the flesh. Now, a little bit later, he writes to his protege, Timothy, and he says the same kind of thing, flee from youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord. When I was in high school, played high school football, every Friday afternoon, our coach would tell us right after school, you go home, take a nap, start your homework, get a snack, whatever, be back at the field a couple of hours before the game on Friday night. We're gonna give you a little bit of break, okay?
00:15:26
Speaker
small town, actually a town smaller than this town that I lived in, okay? So one particular Friday afternoon, my girlfriend in high school comes by the house. She says, do you want to go get something to eat? I said, yes, let's go. And we went to the all famous, world famous Moby Dick Seafood Restaurant right down the road, which literally was like a shack. And they had the best shrimp po' boys around.
00:15:48
Speaker
I went down there, grabbed the shrimp po' boy. Now, what you may not know is in that day and age, it was really hard to drive cars, so my girlfriend had to sit really, really close to me and help me steer the vehicle as we went down the road. As we're making our way to the Moby Dick restaurant, we went right by, without my noticing it, went right by my head football coach as he was headed into town.
00:16:09
Speaker
We grabbed our sandwich, I went home, we ate, I got to the field, actually got to the field early, sitting in the locker room, had a great game that night, Friday night we won the game, Monday comes, practice starts, before we even get to practice he calls the guys together and he says, because one of you apparently doesn't know how to get his mind on the game Friday night, from now on you will not be allowed to go home, you will report straight to the field house, no questions asked.
00:16:32
Speaker
And everybody in the locker room is going, who did this? This is crazy. I was one of them. I was going, who did this? This is crazy. This isn't fair. Who did this? And Coach Tucker looked at me and he said, you are the one who is responsible. Because if your mind's not on the game, then you're not a part of my game plan. If your mind's not on the game, you're not a part of the game plan. Now follow me on this. And this is going to get a little uncomfortable for a second. Deal with it.
00:17:02
Speaker
One of the things you've heard me talk about for the last five years, this is a personal example, last five years I've talked about this, that the Bible tells us that alcohol is not an issue for drinking, but drunkenness is a sin, very, very clearly, right? I think drinking's the dumbest thing in the world. I think you are opening a road for the flesh. You're opening a door for the flesh.
00:17:26
Speaker
You can't sit here and tell me that every drink you are totally and completely in control. You also can't tell me that chemically you can know exactly which drink is going to be the right amount to cut it off and that the next one is not going to be the one that causes you to go home and beat your wife or drive recklessly and hurt somebody. Right? Come on, tell the truth. You know you don't know it. There's not like a little beeper in your head that goes, oh, you're getting close.
00:17:48
Speaker
So I, because of my personal convictions, refuse to gratify the flesh. I will not touch alcohol. Okay. Now, why is that important? Because what would you do tomorrow morning if you woke up and on I heart chapel Hill, you read growth Hill pasture was pulled over Sunday night 1% over the alcohol limit. What would you think of me? Do you think it matters? Because here's where it's important.
00:18:17
Speaker
The last thing I want to do is stand before God and hear him say, because you didn't have your mind on the game, you weren't a part of the game plan. Now, I'm not telling you alcohol is the issue, but all of us have got some places where we got to do some work, some self control kind of things. It may not be alcohol for you. It may be anger for you. It may be that you don't know how to control yourself at the buffet. It may be that you don't know how to control yourself on the computer and where your eyes go.
00:18:47
Speaker
But guys, he says very clearly, do not do not leave any room for the gratification of the flesh. And many of us were teetering on the edge going, let's see how close we can get. Let's see how far I can lean over before I fall. Why would you want to do that? Why do I want to do that? I'm not sitting here saying it like I get it right all the time. I do stupid stuff. OK.
00:19:17
Speaker
I was waiting for an amen from the front row, but I didn't get it. Listen, this is what Joseph did. Joseph said, if it's in doubt, leave it out. Say that with me. If it's in doubt, leave it out. Go home and get a dry erase marker and write that on your mirror so every single morning you look at it and you see it and you go, you know what? If this is a questionable thing, then it must mean that I probably shouldn't participate in it. Because you know what? That day that we just read about, Joseph lost his coat, but he didn't lose his character.
00:19:49
Speaker
And this is important. You'll come to see in just a minute why it's so important. He lost his coat, but he didn't lose his character. And too many people, too many followers of Christ are losing the battle here. We're being forced to disqualify ourselves because we make bad choices. Notice also that Joseph also was able to control his tongue in this matter. He didn't argue with the soldiers when the story was told, even though it was a bold-faced lie.
00:20:18
Speaker
Depending on where you're from, a bald-faced lie, whichever you want to call it, it was a lie. He didn't argue with Potiphar's wife. He controlled his tongue and a controlled tongue is a sign of spiritual maturity. Go read the book of James and it'll tell you that. Okay, enough about that. Thirdly, the discipline of suffering. The discipline of suffering.
00:20:41
Speaker
Scholars tell us, based on the descriptions they see here and what we know of history, that most likely Potiphar was the head of executioners in Egypt. The reason that's important is because at the end of the story, when his wife tells him what Joseph has done, he makes an intentional choice not to execute him, but instead to throw him in prison, which indicates he most likely didn't even believe her story.
00:21:08
Speaker
He knew it not to be true, right? Because if you're a second command, guys, tell me, some dude messing with your girl, you're not going to wish the opportunity to cut his head off, right? I'll make sure you're not over here messing with my woman. Because nobody would have questioned Potiphar if he had just immediately ended Joseph's life.
Parenting and Learning through Adversity
00:21:24
Speaker
But instead, he threw him in prison, and I think the only reason he threw him in prison was just to save his reputation with the other slaves who were watching what was going on. So he throws him into prison, he stays there for a couple of years,
00:21:37
Speaker
Prison made a man out of him prison made a different person out of him people who avoid suffering avoid the development of their character People who avoid suffering. All right, here's I've already middle in your life. So let's keep going a Couple weeks ago if you were here and we did the family series I brought this up and just gonna bring it up to you again one of the most Incredibly bad things that we're doing for the next generation of believers is being helicopter parents and trying to rescue them all the time from suffering
00:22:07
Speaker
Okay, think about this. Marriages, marriages get tough, what happens? People just walk away, right? They just walk away. It's become easy and convenient. They see it as the best path. Let's just walk away from the marriage. Right now, one of the reasons that the church in America, the Western church is so weak is because if we don't like what the pastor did, the elder did, the Sunday school teacher did, what do we do? We take our Bible, we take our family and we leave.
00:22:36
Speaker
Instead of staying in there with fellow believers and having conversations and dealing with the hard subjects and being willing to say, hey, I may not agree with you, but you and I are still unified by the body of the blood of Christ. We're still doing the same thing. We're still moving the same direction. Instead, we pack up our Bible and we leave. So I'm going to try this little test, the first service that blew me away. It was more right than I thought it would be. How many of you have parents who've been in the same church all their life?
00:23:01
Speaker
Okay, see that? How many of you have grandparents who were in the same church all their life? Look at the difference. You see that? Because we're raising a generation of quitters. We're raising a generation that says, when problems come, let me find the quickest way out. And so let me encourage you as believers to rethink how we approach pain.
00:23:22
Speaker
Because our job in the pain of a person or the suffering of a person or the adversity of a person is not to come along and rescue them, it is to walk with them in the adversity. Because they need to go through it to get what God wants them to have out of it.
00:23:39
Speaker
Don't believe me, go to James chapter one, read verse two where it says, count it all joy, my brothers, when you experience suffering and trials of many kinds. Why? Because that suffering, that pain, that trial produces endurance and endurance produces the maturing of your faith. We're raising a bunch of immature believers because we want to rescue our friends from everything. Now you're saying, well, wait a minute, pastor, aren't Christians supposed to be kind and compassionate? Absolutely. Do you know what the word compassion means? It comes from Latin.
00:24:10
Speaker
It's a two-part word. The first part, come, is Latin for with. Passion is Latin for pain. We're not supposed to rescue them from their pain. We're supposed to be with them in their pain. Go back to Psalm 23, one of the most famous Psalms there are. We love it. We quote it. We memorize it. It says, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil because you what?
00:24:34
Speaker
You are with me. Your rod and your staff, they cover me. He didn't say, you pulled me out of this valley of the shadow of death. It says because you are with me. God doesn't come and pull us out of our adversity. He walks with us through our adversity so we can come out on the other end and finish the lesson. So quit praying people out of their pain and pray people through their pain. So what do we do? Let's go sit down with them and say, hey, I don't have to say a word. I just want to listen to you. I want to listen to where you're hurting.
00:25:04
Speaker
I want to listen to it, because this is me, okay? You call me and you say, I've got pain, I've got suffering, I've got problems, I want to go in and sit down and fix it. I'm Superman, here to save the day, Super Jesus, right? Okay, that's the second time I've done that, and every time my wife's giving me this crazy look, like, don't ever do that again. But here I am to save the day, right? Here I am to pull you out of your pain, to pull you out of your adversity. That's not my job, I am not Super Jesus. It's not yours either.
00:25:33
Speaker
So take that load off of your shoulder and be reminded that when your friends are going through their suffering, don't pray, God, take them out. God, help us figure out why they're going through it in the first place. I don't want to take my child out of the classroom before they've learned a lesson. God's in the same way. He doesn't want you to come out of that classroom before the discipline has taught you the lesson you need to learn. All right. Some of you may be aware of this.
00:26:03
Speaker
I've been following the story over the last few months. I don't even know when it occurred originally, but up in New York, there are a group of people actually who are now currently on trial by the federal government because they blocked the entrance to an abortion clinic. It's now a bigger crime for you to block an abortion clinic than it is for you to steal billions of dollars and send it to Ukraine here in the United States, apparently. Yes, I said that. It's on the record.
00:26:31
Speaker
We have people who are leading our country who are more corrupt, and we don't try them, we don't deal with them. That's a side note. So I've been following these people, and this group of people who are blocking this abortion agency were arrested because there's a law that says you can't do that, and they are trying them on felony charges. One of them is a 74-year-old grandmother named Joan Marshall.
00:26:56
Speaker
Joan Marshall is being tried felony charges for blocking the abortion clinic and faces up to 11 years in prison and $350,000 fine if she's found guilty. I want you to listen to this. She was asked by the other, by the federal attorneys, would you plead guilty and we'll give you probation? Okay, listen to this. This is good. This is better than anything I could write, right here.
00:27:19
Speaker
She told the judge, it is my humble privilege to follow my conscience and my faith in defense of the innocent and the just. I will not cooperate with immoral, unjust laws corruptly and cowardly imposed on the American people for the sake of pretending to solve social and economic problems by murdering innocent children. I want this lady to be my grandmother. She's cool.
00:27:44
Speaker
Listen to the last statement. To accept probation would be to accept the lie that I harm society by trying peacefully, prayerfully, and non-violently to save children from the brutal death of abortion. Yeah, amen.
00:28:03
Speaker
I would love that. This woman's in the midst of adversity. What is she doing? She's proclaiming her God the same she did before the adversity started. She hasn't taken her eyes off the one who's gonna get her through this. She is steadfast. She is focused. I want a cool grandma like that. Can you just picture? I'm seeing her in the federal court standing in front of the judge wagging her grandmother finger. Young man, you just listen to me. Yeah, that's good. Can I just say something, guys? No, I'll get to in a minute.
00:28:33
Speaker
Here we go. So here's the lessons we learned from this, okay? Here's the lessons we learned from adversity.
God's Presence in Trials
00:28:41
Speaker
It's good stuff, if I can find anything. All right. Number one, God's blessings and grace are with his people everywhere, even in trials.
00:28:49
Speaker
God is with us in every trial. Four different times it says here, God was with Joseph. And once again, that underlines the idea, the understanding that from the very first minute that Joseph experienced pain and suffering, all the way to the very end when he is promoted to second in charge of Egypt, that God was writing the story. He was the man who was behind the scenes doing all the stuff, making things happen, okay?
00:29:14
Speaker
God is with us and is blessing us even in the midst of our trials. Number two, God's blessing and favor on his people are evident to others. You see, the spiritual convictions of Joseph were recognized by Potiphar. If a man loves the Lord, the world will see it. Now catch this, and if a man loves the Lord the way he should, he won't have to tell the world about it because he'll stand out so much they'll know who he is.
00:29:44
Speaker
The Bible calls it being a city on a hill that cannot be hidden. When you're living your life godly, righteously, by the influence of the Holy Spirit, you will stand out because the culture around you will look different. You won't have to tell people, hey, look at me. I'm a Christian. They'll know who you are by the name you proclaim and the person you profess to be your Savior and Lord. Don't believe it. Go to work tomorrow. Stand up in the middle office and say, hey, I'm starting a Bible study tomorrow. Who wants to join me?
00:30:14
Speaker
I don't think anybody's going to be confused about where your values are at that point, right? They're going to know who you are by the way you live your life and you're not going to have to promote yourself. You're not going to have to push yourself on other people. The world will see it. It is to Joseph's credit that his goodness was manifest to everyone involved in this situation because it proves that in the entire story, Joseph never compromised his faith. He lived it.
00:30:42
Speaker
Now think about how easy it would have been for Joseph just to turn his back on God. It would have been real easy, like we have a tendency to do, to go, well, God, where were you when I was in the pit? Where were you when you sold me into slavery and I don't remember you coming to rescue me?
00:30:58
Speaker
God, where were you when that woman falsely accused me? Here is all the riches in Egypt, all the wealth of Egypt. It was the most powerful country in the world at that point. Potiphar could have promised him all kinds of things. Pharaoh could have blessed him with all kinds of things if he had just compromised his faith. And Joseph said, I'm not compromising on my God. I will live by my convictions and we will deal whatever comes next. I will trust him.
00:31:26
Speaker
Here's why he trusted him, because Joseph had sat on Jacob's knee and listened to the stories of Jacob as he talked about the God who had interrupted his life with a dream, about the God who had blessed him in so many occasions, the God who had provided a wife for him, a God who had provided children for him in his old age. As Jacob tells those stories, Joseph is learning, this God's really, really cool and powerful. And in his mind, he's going, hey, you know what? Here I am in the pit.
00:31:57
Speaker
It's the same God that showed up for my dad. It's the same God who delivered my grandfather. It's the same God who delivered us in the ark from the flood. It's the same God, guys, the same God who created all of the universe, who created everything that you see is the God who promises to walk with you in your pain.
00:32:18
Speaker
the same God who divided the waters and led two million Israelites through the Red Sea. He's the same God who's here today and says, I will be here for you in the midst of your pain.
00:32:28
Speaker
The same God who said to a young little teenage girl, tapped her on the shoulder and said, you're going to be the mother of my son, is the same God who says, if you will trust me in the middle of the darkness, you will be amazed at what the light looks like at the end of this. You've got to trust this God and quit trying to find your own way out because your own way out leads to greater messes. But you've got to be patient in the pain. You've got to be patient in the adversity.
Living Values to Impact Society
00:32:56
Speaker
because it's only in the adversity that you and I can learn the lessons that God is trying to teach us. Number three, God blesses others for the sake of His people. His kindness overflows to those who have relationships with His followers. The Egyptians' house in the story, Potiphar's house, was blessed because of Joseph's sake. Because Joseph was a good man and God blessed him, it spilled over into Potiphar and it blessed his household.
00:33:26
Speaker
The same thing would be true with Joseph would be elevated to second command because of Joseph and his willingness to follow God. The nation of Egypt was blessed with a plan to get through a famine and those kinds of things. Guys, let me just tell you something. The world around you will be a better place when you decide to live like Jesus wants you to. We pray, God, will you please give us back our country? Will you make our country great? God says, I will when you start living like you're supposed to. Because your influence is what will make America great, not me.
00:33:54
Speaker
It's your influence as I live through you. I'm not going to come along and just all of a sudden fix everything. You've got to be determined that you're going to live without compromise in this culture. You've got to be determined that you're going to do something. Let me shock some of you. Some of you are not aware of this reality. America was never a Christian nation. Okay? Never has been. Was it built on Christian values? Absolutely. Were most of its early leaders Christians? Absolutely. But nations are not Christian. People are.
00:34:21
Speaker
The early blessings of this country were not because it was a Christian nation, but because there were lots of Christians who were living very determined in specific and consistent Christianity so that the blessings fell out on everybody. The abundance of the early nation that we love to call America came because Christians did what Christians should be doing, and we've stopped it a long time ago. And then we shake our heads and go, what in the world is going on in our culture?
00:34:47
Speaker
Well, we've taken the salt out, we've taken the light out, and we're wondering why there's no taste in lots of darkness. We've got to get back to living like we're supposed to as believers in this world. Lastly, God is still working out His plan even when it seems to fail. God is still working out His plan even when it seems to fail. We love to quote Romans 8, 28, don't we?
00:35:13
Speaker
For we know that in all things, God is doing his best to bring good out of all those things for those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. Joseph was called according to his purpose. God worked through those circumstances. He made things happen for him, for his benefit, not for Joseph's benefit, for God's benefit, for God's glory, okay? The hope of Israel centered around the life of Joseph. Why? Because if Joseph doesn't wind up in Egypt, what happens to Israel?
00:35:42
Speaker
it dies in the famine that comes. There's no Joseph there to provide an answer for Jacob and the rest of the family. Think about this. We talk about Joseph being thrown in a pit. We talk about Joseph being sold into slavery. Do we realize that just shortly after Joseph and his brothers are reunited, the entire nation of Israel, which at that point was 70 people, including Jacob, is relocated to a place known as Goshen. And for the next 400 years,
00:36:11
Speaker
Under the protection of the largest and most powerful army in the world at that time, they lived in prosperity and grew from 70 to almost 2 million people before they were finally delivered out of slavery in Egypt. I know widely did that.
00:36:27
Speaker
They were in the world's largest seat of culture at the time. Libraries all around them. Scholars all around them. The best medicine of the age. All around them. The largest army. The best navy. Everything right there. All theirs to protect them while they grew to be the powerful nation that God had promised. Tell me who else but a holy God can orchestrate that kind of event. Think about what that did for them.
00:36:53
Speaker
And so when the time comes 400 years later and God says, all right, it's time for you to get up and go. The Promised Land waits. They rose up as a powerful nation, a body much stronger, much healthier than they ever would have been. If they had stayed in Canaan, if Joseph had not gotten them moved to Egypt, they probably would have been intermingled with all the people of Canaan and they would have lost their identity, would have lost their religion, probably would have lost a lot of their culture.
00:37:20
Speaker
But instead, they were put in a place, a pocket, where they literally were protected while they developed their personality and their character. That's what God does. Where are you this morning? What's going on in your life? What adversity do you face? Because the truth is, God has you there for a reason. Now, I'm not saying that God puts you in that situation. Sometimes it's your own stupid moves that put you in those situations, right?
00:37:49
Speaker
Dumb mistakes, purposeful rebellion, we choose our own way. Yeah, we get there. But God says, you know what? If that's the route you want to take, then I'm going to use that pit so that I can redirect your life. I'm going to use that trial so I can get you where you need to be. I'm going to use that struggle that you're going through so that I can teach you some lessons. Here's the thing I need you as a follower of Christ to hear. Do not dismiss yourself from the classroom of adversity before the lessons are learned that you need to know.
00:38:20
Speaker
Let God be the determiner of your season. Let God be the one who tells you when it's time. And in the meantime, simply pray, God, whatever you're trying to teach me in this moment, make my heart ready to hear it. Now, something else I need you to hear. If you're not a believer here today, everything I said to you just doesn't make sense. Maybe on the surface it might, but until you've surrendered and submitted yourself to the authority of God in your life,
00:38:51
Speaker
You won't know what it means to be blessed by the glory of God. You won't know what it means to be divinely led by the hand of the Holy Spirit. But you can change that. Joseph's trajectory was changed by his willingness to submit to God's plan. Yours can be too. And there's a surprise ending that's coming at the end of this series. The story isn't about Joseph.
00:39:23
Speaker
you're going to be surprised. I'm not telling you, not giving you a clue. You're going to be surprised about who this story is really about. But what I'm asking you to think about, pray about this morning for you is your story. What is God wanting to do in your story? Because at the end of the day, every story he writes is his. So don't try to take it out of his hands. Will you join me as you pray?
00:40:01
Speaker
Father, as we appeal to your word this morning for direction in our lives yet again, I pray that we're hearing the message loud and clear that you are an awesome and powerful God, that you are a God who has intentionality about you, that you don't throw us through accidents or circumstances without some kind of reason, Lord. And the way that we find peace is by submitting our direction to your hand.
00:40:32
Speaker
trusting what you're up to, never doubting that you're going to be there with us in the midst of the struggle and that you will be there to lift us when the struggle is over. Father, I pray that you would give us patience. Some of us in this room today, we've got marriages that are on the rocks, but sometimes because of our dumb behavior,
00:40:59
Speaker
Sometimes because our spouse just doesn't align with who we are. Lord, remind us that nothing we do is hidden from you. Some of us are struggling with the whole concept of self-control. What does self-control look like when you're following Jesus Christ? Well, it means literally giving self over to the Holy Spirit and saying, I can't do this by myself.
00:41:24
Speaker
I can't stop the pornography. I can't stop the anger. I can't stop the bitterness. I can't stop the lust. I can't stop the drinking. I can't stop the drugs. I can't stop the addiction that's holding me captive and I need your freedom as only you can give it. So this morning my prayer is that somebody here would just lay down their pride and receive it.
00:41:49
Speaker
As followers of Jesus, we want to point others to you, and I can't think of any better way to do it than letting you guide our life, even in the darkest of seasons. So whatever you're saying, whatever you're teaching, Father, help us not to pull ourselves out of the classroom before the lesson is done. It's in Jesus' name I pray, amen.