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Sermon: Into the Pit (Genesis 37)
126 Plays8 months ago
In this sermon, I explain the start of Joseph's life and how God can work through man's evil plans and intentions.
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Transcript
Introduction to Joseph's Story
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey, thank you so much for tuning into the Office of Theology podcast. I'm excited to share some sermons that I've preached with you. In this message, we are breaking down Genesis 37, the start of Joseph's life. I hope you're encouraged by this today.
00:00:14
Speaker
Oh, man. And I am excited today as we continue to teach through Genesis Foundations. And so today we're going to talk about
Divine Providence and Human Schemes
00:00:23
Speaker
Joseph's story. We're kicking off the story of Joseph. And this story will show how God's hidden providence works through men's evil plans for their ultimate good. So we're going to go through Joseph's story. It will show how God's hidden providence
00:00:41
Speaker
works through man's evil plans for his good. How no matter what happens, God can work through
Question: Faith Amidst Uncertainty
00:00:48
Speaker
that. Today we're going to unpack two thoughts. What do we learn about humanity and what do we learn about God? Because when we look at scripture, it's important to ask those questions.
00:00:59
Speaker
For the beginning part of Joseph's story, I want to propose one guiding question, and it is this. Can you hold on to the promise that God is for you even when your pain and your circumstances don't make sense?
00:01:15
Speaker
If we are human and we've lived even a little bit of life, this question is relevant for every single one of us. If you say, Brenna, I'm not sure if it's quite relevant, just keep living and eventually we'll become relevant, right? And so I want to pray and then we're going to continue on. Jesus, we love you. Thank you for today. Thank you for your word. God, I pray that our hearts are encouraged.
00:01:39
Speaker
As we wrestle through this tough question of what does it look like that you are for us even in the midst of life looking chaotic and painful, Jesus, we pray that you continue to speak as you do. And God, we pray that our hearts are open, ready to hear your words, to hear your truth, Jesus, that brings us to the feet of the cross. We love you and thank you for who you are.
Unexpected Life Events and Personal Stories
00:02:05
Speaker
Amen.
00:02:08
Speaker
So this was a long time ago. This is my disclaimer to my story. I found myself with a bunch of police around me, on my knees and hands on my head. And I remember thinking to myself, this statement. That was one. But secondly, it would be this. I didn't expect my day to go this way.
00:02:39
Speaker
As I found myself with police yelling at me to get on my knees with my hands on my head, I figured this is a pretty rough end of the day. Now to rewind a little bit, when you're 18 years old and you're able to buy like swords, let's just say,
00:03:04
Speaker
And you're excited about said swords. And so you're hanging out with your friends at a skate park, usually where this stuff goes down. And then we're like, you know what? These swords are sweet. Let's get some trash and just start chopping it. Let's start cutting up all this different stuff. Until someone calls the police and says, there's two people at the skate park with machetes.
00:03:31
Speaker
And then you're all done. You're done messing around. You put the sword away. And then all of a sudden, all these police cars come storming into the skate park with their lights on like it felt straight out of a Bourne movie. It probably wasn't, but that's how it felt in the moment.
00:03:50
Speaker
And they're telling you to get on the ground and we're like, what is happening? And I'm like new to the faith in this moment. And they're like, what are we gonna find your backpack? I'm like, it's just the Bible in there, I promise. Like, that's what was in my backpack. And all to be said that I found myself thinking this day went a little different than planned. Now, maybe that's not Joseph's story in chapter 37, but it ends with him probably thinking the same thing.
00:04:18
Speaker
The day, how I thought this day would go, looks drastically different.
Family Dynamics and Favoritism
00:04:23
Speaker
So let's hop into Genesis 37, it says this, Jacob lived in the land of his father's sojourning and the land of Canaan. These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being 17 years old, relatable, roughly around the age I was, was pastoring the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zippah, his father's wives.
00:04:44
Speaker
And Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. Translation, he is a tattletale. He told on his siblings, definitely good way to build popularity in the family. Just tell on your siblings. Verse three says this, now Israel, Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his sons because he was the son of his old age and made him a robe of many colors.
00:05:10
Speaker
But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him. And if you're already the favorite and you get extra gifts, don't go tattling on your siblings to make a bad situation worse, okay? But what's interesting is the robe that Jacob gifted Joseph was this tunic of sorts that reaches to the hands and the feet
00:05:38
Speaker
which is not typically worn by people who are occupied with manual labor. So even within itself, the gift that he gave him was even separating the roles in what they do while his brothers are out, shepherding the flocks, he's sitting there in his nice cozy robe, not doing that. Verse five says this, now Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers, they hated him even more. Come on, Joe. He said to them, hear this dream that I have dreamed.
00:06:08
Speaker
Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field to grain and stuff like that. And behold, my sheave arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheave." He's probably smiling. Isn't that a good dream? His brother said to him, are you indeed going to reign over us? Are you indeed to rule over us? So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words. That feels relatable.
00:06:38
Speaker
Verse nine says this, he dreamed another dream and you think you would have learned his lesson, not quite yet. And he told his brothers and he said, behold, I've dreamed another dream. Behold the sun, the moon, the 11 stars were bowing down to me.
00:06:53
Speaker
But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him. And he said, what is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I, your mother, and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you? And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind." Just real quick.
00:07:17
Speaker
I wanna hold on to a couple things. Joseph's approach to sharing the dreams that God has given him, but also the last line that Jacob said, his father kept the same in mind. Another translation that says, his father wondered what the dreams meant. So verse 12 says this, now his brothers went to pastor their flock near Shechem, and Israel said to Joseph, Israel being Jacob, so remember his names are interchanged because God changed Jacob's name to Israel.
00:07:48
Speaker
Are you not your brother's pastoring the flock at Shechem? Come and I will send you to them. And he said to him, here I am. So he said to him, go now, see if it is well with your brothers and
Joseph's Journey Begins
00:08:01
Speaker
with the flock and bring me back word. So he sent him from the valley of Hebron and he came to Shechem and he found a man and a man found him wandering in the fields. And the man asked him, what are you seeking?
00:08:14
Speaker
I'm seeking my brothers, he said, tell me please where they are pastoring the flock. And the man said, they have gone away for I heard them say, let us go to Dothan. And so Joseph went after his brothers and found them in Dothan. Then they saw him from afar. And before he came near, they conspired against him to kill him. They said one to another, here comes this dreamer.
00:08:39
Speaker
Do you think they've let this go yet? I do not think so. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of these pits. This is like high level anger and envy towards their brother. Then they will say, a fierce animal has devoured him and we will see what becomes of his dreams. So just some geographical study here. Shechem was 50 miles north of where Israel was.
00:09:07
Speaker
And then Dothan is another 14 miles past where he was. So this takes place 64 miles away from Jacob or Israel. I think sometimes it's easy to read this story like they're just out in the field like where dad can see them. No, this is like a full, this is like way past Corley and this is like way past that I can see.
00:09:30
Speaker
Verse 21 says this, but when Reuben heard it, he rescued him out of their hands, saying, let us not take his life. And Reuben said to them, shed no blood, throw him into the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him, that he might rescue him out of their hand and restore him to his father. So he's like, hey, let's not kill him, we'll throw him here and later I'll come back and I'll get him out, restore him back to my dad, to the father.
00:09:57
Speaker
Verse 23, so when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colors that he wore, and they took him and threw him into the pit. The pit was empty and there was no water in it. This may seem kind of Ruben, right? But we will see later that this is a ploy to leverage him and help him out of a situation that he found himself in from previous chapters.
00:10:19
Speaker
And just a way of describing like this, the pit that they threw him in is a cistern that is known for holding water. It is so deep and is deep enough to where Joseph would not be able to get out on his own. So essentially like, hey, let's just leave him there and let nature take its course.
00:10:34
Speaker
Verse 25 says this, then they sat down to eat and they look and they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead and their camels bearing gum, balm, and myrrh on their way to carry it down to Egypt. Then Judah said to his brothers, what profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and not let our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.
00:11:02
Speaker
And his brothers listened to him, then the Midianite traders passed by, and they drew Joseph up, lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for 20 shekels of silver, and they took Joseph to Egypt.
00:11:14
Speaker
So what's interesting is apparently a good assaulting of their brother made them hungry. So they sat down, they threw him into the pit, but nothing was really recorded in this moment of how they were wrestling with this. Did Joseph not put up a fight? Did he not yell? Did he not beg and plead with them? But we'll see later in Genesis 42 where they say, we are guilty concerning our brother. We saw the distress of his soul when he begged us and we did not listen.
00:11:43
Speaker
And that is why the distress has come upon us because they're talking about some of the famine. We'll get to that a little bit later. But verse 29, real quick, but we see that Judah chimes in with a quote, better idea that actually saves Joseph's life, but little do they know it saves theirs too. If you know the story of Joseph, you know where this is gonna go, but he thought he was saving Joseph's life and making a little money while they were at it, but little did they know that they were actually saving their lives as well.
00:12:12
Speaker
Verse 29 says this, This is irony at its finest.
00:12:30
Speaker
Here, Jacob's sons used their brother's clothing and the blood of a slain goat to deceive Jacob, just as Jacob long ago deceived his own father, Isaac, with his brother's clothing and the skin of a goat in chapter 27. Jacob's deceit has come full circle.
00:12:51
Speaker
I mean, is that interesting that the same way his sons deceived him, the same way he deceived his father. Verse 32 says this, and they sent the robe of many colors and brought it to the father and said, this we have found. Please identify whether this is your son's robe or not. And he identified it and said, it is my son's robe. A fierce animal has devoured him. Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces.
00:13:19
Speaker
Then Jacob tore his garments, put on a sackcloth on his loins, and mourned for his son many days. All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted, and he said, No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him. Meanwhile, the many nights sold him into Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, and the captain of the guards.
00:13:45
Speaker
So we just read a whole chapter of the Bible. So if you're like, man, I wonder if I'm gonna get my Bible reading and say, you just did, so good job. This chapter ends with Joseph en route to Egypt as a slave where he got there. Perhaps he started this time, he started that day,
00:14:05
Speaker
in a robe that signified highly favored and dreams from God, but he ended up stripped of that robe and sold into slavery and now sold to Potiphar.
Life's Unpredictable Turns
00:14:17
Speaker
I wonder what was going through his head. This day did not end how I thought it would. This week, this month, this time in my life, I am not in a spot where I thought I would be.
00:14:31
Speaker
First, what I wanna do is I want to look through this story through four main human characters. Then we'll jump into what we learn about God. The four main human characters is this, the dad, the father, Jacob slash Israel, the favored son, Joseph, the oldest son, Reuben, and then the other sons. So these are the main observations I wanna point out. Jacob was for Joseph for self-serving reasons.
00:15:02
Speaker
It's interesting that the scripture tells us that that he favored him because he was Born of his old age Given the timeline and all this That he had all of his sons 70 plus I would call that old age for me just saying but he did live till like 140 something years old but
00:15:24
Speaker
He had all his kids in older age, but this is the caveat. This was the first son born of the wife that he loved the most, Rachel. So right off the bat, he has this favor because if we remember way back in Genesis, he's like, I just wanted to marry Rachel all along. That's who he wanted to marry. That's who he had an eye for. And so this is the very first son from the wife that was his favorite.
00:15:51
Speaker
Which favoritism led to the jealousy of the other kids, his other sons. But just another, if we need another reason, here's another reason why polygamy doesn't work. It creates a chaotic family environment where all these brothers are fighting and struggling to get along.
00:16:08
Speaker
So if we're looking at Jacob being for Joseph for self-serving reasons, if you're a parent in the room, I just wanna heed this warning. Parents, be careful of treating your kids a certain way because you love them for the way that they make you feel. Hold up, sorry about that, but not sorry. We can fall into this pit of I'm gonna help you become a certain way because I enjoy how that makes me feel.
00:16:43
Speaker
Or maybe there's some sort of deficit in your heart. Maybe there's a deficit in your life. Maybe there is something that you're still working through and wrestling through and you say, maybe if I can get them to succeed in these type of ways and I see in their life, it will fill a hole and avoid in my life.
00:17:07
Speaker
And so, I wanna warn you, I want to plead with you to see them for how God has wired them and made them and helped them become a key instrument in the will and the purposes of God, not making up our own deficiencies. The second piece we observe is this, Joseph was for Joseph for proud and naive reasons. Bottom line, he is for himself.
00:17:37
Speaker
whether out of pride or from being naive. How he deals with the dreams that God has given him leads to deeper division between his brothers and himself and even got rebuked by his father. It's very easy to know the dreams that God has for us and to take that on and to listen to it and to embody it with a little bit of pride. God has called me to do this.
00:18:06
Speaker
We make the thing that God has called us to more about him calling us than the plan and the purposes that we get to be a part of in the greater purpose and plan of his story. See, the pitfall can be for us is that it's very easy to be for ourselves at the expense of other people. Even if the dreams do come from God, it's a warning that we do not receive them with pride but with humility.
00:18:34
Speaker
that not God, I knew God would pick me. Maybe no one would say this, but yeah, he picked a good one. Or, let's flip it on the head.
00:18:45
Speaker
Pride is being absorbed and consumed with self. Pride does not look like just boasting up, but also making by, it can be the opposite of making yourself great. It's thinking too little of yourself or too much of yourself. Pride means it revolves around you and you alone. The dreams that God has given you to fulfill the purposes of his plan are not actually about us, they're about him and his plan.
00:19:15
Speaker
We will touch on this later, but we need to remember that dreams were given to Joseph by God for the purposes of God's plan, not Joseph's life. We must be careful that we don't make the dreams from God about us. The plan we are a part of is greater than the part we play. The third piece is this. Reuben appeared to be for Joseph for self-protecting reasons.
00:19:43
Speaker
Reuben has recently fallen from his father's favor. Fun fact, and you'll listen to him on the podcast as well, Genesis 35, Reuben slept with Bill, his dad's wife. That's gonna cause some issues in the family.
00:19:59
Speaker
He could not afford to be a further blame for the death of his dad's favorite son. And Reuben being the oldest son, he would indeed bear the responsibility of his brothers and the flocks and everything going on. So Reuben stepped up to the rescue, if I could spare my dad's favorite son, maybe my dad will forgive me. He could see Joseph as a means to receive forgiveness for the stuff that he has done.
00:20:28
Speaker
The pitfall that we can fall into with this is how often do we have ulterior motives with someone else? Where they can become a means for us to be benefit. Now we may not say that outright, but is there an internal calculation in your heart that we are prone to fall into?
00:20:53
Speaker
If I act this way to this person, become friends with this person, or make a connection here, how can I use this relationship to help me get ahead?
00:21:06
Speaker
The last group that we want to look at is the brothers. They were against Joseph for envious reasons. They were envious at Joseph because he was the favorite son of Jacob, their dad. And not to mention, he didn't really make it much better by gloating over them with the dreams that God gave him, right? He's like, not only am I dad's favorite son, check out this robe.
00:21:29
Speaker
You like this robe? How about this one? Check out this dream I had. You didn't like that dream? Let me tell you about another dream I had. Yeah, dad, you listened too to this one. How often have you been envious of someone else?
00:21:46
Speaker
of someone else's success, or someone else's family, or someone else's possessions, or someone else's social status. Whatever it may be, how often have you found your heart envious of where someone is in that envy? We allow bitterness to grow, we allow resentment to grow, and that gives birth to the sin of envy which we covered way back with Cain and Abel.
00:22:12
Speaker
that if we are not careful, if we are not protecting our heart against the word of God in love, the spirit of God to help convict and shape us, how easy can it be to become envious of other people, especially in a world that is dominated by social media around us? We can become envious of other people's mirages at the same time. We can become envious of what we perceive people to be as well.
00:22:45
Speaker
Question is, how often have you been envious of someone else? I want you to reflect on. Being envious will lead you to a root of bitterness that will cost you way more than you were intending in the first place.
God's Support Through Difficulties
00:23:01
Speaker
But now that we've broken down what this teaches us about humanity, what does this teach us about God? And this is where it gets a little more happy. I like this portion.
00:23:10
Speaker
The main takeaway I wanna talk through for the next little bit of time is this. God is the only one who was for us for the right reasons. He's literally the only one who is for us for the right reasons. You may look around at your life and you may feel like, well, it sure as heck doesn't feel like it sometimes, right?
00:23:31
Speaker
Like I mentioned before, you may find yourself in situations or kind of look at your life or think about different things going on in your past. Or maybe even currently, there's things that you've wrestled through. There's been turmoil. There's been heartbreak. There's been poor circumstances. And you may think to yourself, are you sure, Brennan? Are you sure God is the only one who is for me for the right reasons? Maybe it's been a rough day. Maybe on the way to church, you're like arguing with your spouse. Anybody been there before?
00:24:01
Speaker
Like we're going to go praise God, but we're fighting in the car right now. Okay. You sit on that side. I'll sit on this side. We'll meet up after church, right? Like that happens. Maybe it's been a rough week. Maybe it's been a rough month or rough years. Maybe you find yourself like a passage out of Matthew eight when Jesus is sleeping in the boat.
00:24:25
Speaker
What's interesting about this is, so the disciples and Jesus, they get into the boat and they start to head across the lake and it says this great storm arose and it started to get really chaotic. The disciples are freaking out and they look to Jesus and what is Jesus doing? He's straight up sleeping. And they say, this is what they say, does he not even care that we're about to die? And so they woke Jesus up and Jesus got up and he rebuked the storm and he said, you of little faith.
00:24:55
Speaker
They go, who is this man? That the wind and the waves obey him. And so when I think of this and you're in the moment of this maybe rough life or rough circumstances or there's deep pain that you have in your life, my question is when we listen to that story of Matthew 8 and the disposition of Jesus should be what keeps us grounded the most. If he is not shaken by your circumstances, neither should we.
00:25:20
Speaker
And Brandon, that preach is great, but it's lived out really hard. I agree. I agree. That sounds great as an Instagram post, as a tweet, whatever. It sounds good. Sounds good. But it's tough lived out. But that's why the growth and the trust in who Jesus is and his character is a continual process that we will continue to grow and the muscle that will continue to exercise until we go to be with him.
00:25:45
Speaker
See, Joseph was given a dream from God, and at the end of this quote, scene, or this chapter, he sold into slavery in Egypt, not knowing how crucial this would be to the well-being of Israel and the people in which the Savior would come. He's sitting sold into slavery after this dream and all these different things, and he finds himself sold into slavery. Little did he know, this is all instrumental to the Savior coming to redeem all of us.
00:26:15
Speaker
And so how easy is it to be in the middle of a circumstance like, I don't know how God could be glorified in any of this. I want to say to you, little do you know. Little do you know what he's up to. If you say he's up for us for the right reasons, you might have a really good question. What is the right reason? So glad you asked. And it's simple. The right reason is his glory. That's it.
00:26:45
Speaker
The Christian life is unto the glory of God. It's not glory of self. It's not the glory of Brennan. True hope doesn't even exist for the glory of true hope. It exists for the glory of God. Our life is to be a life poured out as an offering to God.
00:27:15
Speaker
Our entire life is to be poured out to him as a sacrifice, saying, Jesus, here is my life, do with it what you please. But it can be so easy to say, Jesus, here's this part of my life, do with it as you please. Jesus, have this part of my life, do with it as you please. But no, a full life surrendered unto God for his purposes is the end goal of a Christian.
00:27:42
Speaker
We literally come and we die to ourselves. And it's a continual death, right? It's a slow process. So I'm not trying to shame if you're not there because I'm in process as well. We are justified by Jesus's sacrifice and we are in a sanctification process of becoming more and more like him.
Living for God's Glory
00:28:01
Speaker
So my question for you is what have you not poured out to God?
00:28:08
Speaker
When you come to Jesus, it is no longer building a name for yourself, but for his kingdom. The part that we play is not as important as the story that we're a part of. John the Baptist understood this perfectly. So John's disciples were like all bent out of shape. John the Baptist's disciples said, the man we met at the Jordan River
00:28:36
Speaker
The one who you identified as the Messiah is also baptizing people. Hey, we have competing ministries. Everybody is going to him instead of coming to us. John replied, no one can receive anything unless God gives it to him from heaven. You yourselves know how plainly I told you, I am not the Messiah. I'm only here to prepare the way for him.
00:29:06
Speaker
It's the bridegroom who marries the bride, and it's the bridegroom's friends who's simply glad to stand with him and hear his vows. Therefore, I am filled with joy at his success. He must become greater and greater. I must become less and less. John the Baptist understood this.
00:29:33
Speaker
And the call to if you're a Christian believing in Jesus is that your life is unto the glory of God. Period. Now, we benefit greatly from this though. The right reasons of God all benefit you and I.
00:30:02
Speaker
He is for you for all the right reasons, which are God's reasons. So when I say he's the only one who is for us for the right reasons, his right reasons are to glorify himself when we get a wonderful part to play. And oh, what a beautiful life it is to live a life unto God and to glorify God above all else.
00:30:26
Speaker
See, God is gonna get his greater purpose accomplished through Joseph, all the while transforming Joseph into person of truth, because his name went from the deceiver to Israel. He's gonna transform Joseph into a person of love, a love for God's way and a love for his brothers who straight up betrayed him and sold him into slavery. But we have to ask this question, why is there tension between what we want and what God wants? Have you ever wondered that for yourself? Cool, just one of us, just me.
00:30:58
Speaker
Because the tension lies in the battle of wills and lordship of our life. It's all fun and games to sing songs, read scriptures, and pray prayers for God's purpose or will to be done in our lives. But when he starts to reveal and lead us into things that we would not have planned for ourselves, you will be faced with the reality of this question from Jesus. Whose leadership will you follow, yours or mine?
00:31:31
Speaker
Whose leadership will you follow? See, Joseph is in this moment where he has to wrestle through. I do not know what is happening. I know I had a dream from God and what my current circumstances do not look like this, but there is a choice that he has to make and we will see him make of whose will am I gonna follow? Whose lordship am I gonna believe in? Whose lordship am I gonna submit to?
00:31:59
Speaker
Because the reality is God's providence is at play when our circumstances seem defeating. There is an underlying trust that we need to grow in that God is far more in control than we may think. And if we grew in that understanding and we exercise that muscle of trust in God's plan, then what we will see is this steadfastness of peace in the midst of sorrow, chaos, and our circumstances.
00:32:27
Speaker
The Christian life is not absence of these broken situations. The Christian life is marked by peace through those situations. And so when people are like, man, I started following Jesus and it started to get worse, I'm like, yeah, sounds about right. But the peace that you have now opposed to ignorance of what is happening in your life, there's peace that is far greater and that surpasses understanding as scripture teaches us.
00:32:54
Speaker
Romans 8 says it this way. The Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, when we don't know what God wants us to pray for, but the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying. For the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God's own will.
00:33:16
Speaker
and we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them. Did you catch that last line? His purpose for them. We need to grow and decide to choose to trust in His provision in our life over what we see. But this is what I've noticed from this story, and at least my life, I don't know about your life. The God-given dreams typically come about in really odd ways.
00:33:48
Speaker
The route in which we fulfill the purpose of God in our life may have and probably won't go the way we desire. Because the desire that's still within my heart is road of least resistance. But the road of least resistance comes with the least amount of growth. And that makes me the lordship over how my life should go. These dreams were given to Joseph by God for the purpose of God.
00:34:16
Speaker
But here's kind of a little warning is a focus on our life dreams can become dangerous because we make the fulfillment of our dreams the most important thing. We make it an idol. We think that Jesus is a way to accomplish our dreams and we make him an actor in our life story. Instead, we want to play our part in God's unfolding story. It's very easy to run into that temptation to make Jesus a part of our story and not the other way around.
00:34:51
Speaker
This is what I love. Well, one of the things I love about God is that he's not derailed by evil human intentions. He's not like stressed out because he didn't see what was coming in your life. He's like, I had a plan and that person just ruined it. He's not like Googling, how do I fix this person's life?
00:35:21
Speaker
Like that's not what's happening. But I think if we're all honest and reflect a little bit, sometimes that's how we think God is and how he acts about our situations. Like we're so caught off guard by what is happening that we think there's no way he's in control.
God's Control in Chaos
00:35:40
Speaker
Because if he was in control, then it would not look this way. And I feel stressed. I feel chaotic. I feel all these different things. But to realize that, no, God is above all of those things. And I can look to him and you can look to him as a way of confidence and peace. We can look to Jesus in the middle of the storm and the boat sleep and he ain't worried.
00:36:01
Speaker
So I don't know what is going on in your life. I don't know what's going on in your heart. I don't know what's going on in your circumstances or relationships or family dynamics. I don't know any of that, but I do know something, that God is not derailed by what's happening in your life.
00:36:21
Speaker
These dreams were given to Joseph by God for the purpose of God, but due to Joseph's handling of those dreams and his brother's evil intent, it's easy to say, well, so much for that dream. His brothers even said that. We'll see what comes of his dreams. And for us, what do we do when we find ourselves in the middle of trouble? We can take heart in scripture. We can take heart in the book of James, chapter one, verses two through four. It says, dear brothers and sisters,
00:36:48
Speaker
When troubles of any kind come your way, consider an opportunity for great joy. How backwards is that? You know, how are you doing? I have lots of joy. Why? Because things are terrible. Things are just terrible. The great joy is not just being naive or not wanting to deal with the hard parts of life. The joy is in verses to follow. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow.
00:37:18
Speaker
When your endurance is fully developed, you'd be perfect and completing nothing. And I look at that scripture and I think, wow, like when I face these difficult seasons in life, circumstances, pains, whether self-inflicted or others inflicted, we can count that as joy because now we have a chance to see how deep does my faith actually go.
00:37:47
Speaker
A tree with deep roots can withstand far more storms. And to go back to Jesus' word in Matthew 7, he talks about building your life on a solid foundation on the rock or the sand. The one who builds his life on the things of this world is like building their house and foundation on sand.
00:38:08
Speaker
The one who builds their life on Jesus' words and his command and living out what he teaches is like building their house on rock. When the storms of life come, the one who builds their life on Santa, it will crumble with a mighty crash, but the ones who build their life on Jesus will stand.
Finding Joy and Faith in God's Plan
00:38:25
Speaker
But realize that even in that parable that Jesus taught, it's not on the person who built it, it's where they decided to build it.
00:38:36
Speaker
I didn't build the foundation, but I can choose where I build that foundation. Does that make sense? The strength is not within you. The strength is not within me. It is not in trying harder, but it is leaning on the Spirit of God within you to help you build the strength and the joy and the patience and the peace and allowing the Spirit of God minister to your heart that says, no matter what I see, I'm gonna choose joy.
00:39:08
Speaker
Even when what I feel is heavy, I'm gonna choose joy. Because in this moment, my faith is being fully developed even more. But it is only developed when we look to the one who sustains it. Joseph even quotes later in Genesis 50, he says, as for you, you meant evil against me. But God meant it for good.
00:39:39
Speaker
to bring about that many people should be kept alive as they are today. Once again, the story you are part of is more important than the part you play in it. Not saying you're not important, it's not what I'm saying. Don't get all upset at that. But the part that we get to play in God's big unfolding story is the most important thing.
00:40:02
Speaker
I want to propose the question we started with, but with a different word at the front. It said can at the beginning. This is the question I want to ask you now. Will you hold on to the promise that God is for you, even when your pain and circumstances don't make sense? Through all the ups and downs of life, don't let pain and circumstances win over your life holding on to God.
00:40:33
Speaker
Would you pray with me? Jesus, we thank you for your goodness. We thank you for your grace. And I pray that you continue to strengthen our souls.
00:40:49
Speaker
To be able to see that what is going on around us does not get the final say, that what is going on within us, Jesus, does not get the final say, but your word and your power and your strength, Jesus, that is what we rely on God, not external circumstances, not even internal circumstances. God, we know that you are powerful. We know that you are great. God, we love you and thank you for your grace. We say this in your name, amen.