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Gods Sovereinty in Suffering - Sunday Sermon
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In this sermon, Kyle Hess preached about God's sovereignty in the midst of suffering. He emphasized the intricate narrative of Joseph's life, drawing from the Genesis story to communicate how God uses suffering to position us for His purpose, even employing broken individuals to fulfill His divine plans. Through Joseph’s experiences—betrayal, slavery, and imprisonment—Hess illustrated the importance of walking in righteousness, fleeing from temptation, and trusting in God's redemptive work. He encouraged listeners to surrender their suffering to God, highlighting the ultimate redemptive story of Jesus Christ that threads through the entirety of Scripture. Hess’s message is a powerful reminder that our pain can be transformed into a purposeful part of God’s larger story.
Timestamps:
04:20 Abraham's Test of Faith
06:42 Joseph: The Last Story in Genesis
11:22 Joseph Sold by His Brothers
16:13 The Lord's Presence with Joseph
18:25 Joseph's Moral Stand
23:13 Unresolved Suffering Leads to Temptation
26:45 Pharaoh's Troubling Dreams Interpreted
27:40 Joseph's Rise: Feast and Famine
31:54 "Suffering for a Purpose"
35:37 Joseph's Story: A Redemptive Thread
37:59 Surrender and Redemption Through Faith
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Transcript
Introductions and Personal Milestones
00:00:00
Speaker
Good morning. I'm excited to be here at the 930 because typically I'm somewhere else at the 930 and so I don't get the chance to to greet or meet a bunch of you and so I do apologize if you've been coming here for six months or a year and I still don't know your name or still don't come say hi to you or you don't know my name but I'm Kyle. But please if you if you see me and you don't know me come introduce yourself to me. um I'd also like to mention that a happy anniversary to my wife. We've been dating now for 21 years and so
00:00:33
Speaker
this This day 21 years ago a nervous little boy asked his first girlfriend out and that was Kelly and so thank you for that.
Chronological Series Request and Genesis Overview
00:00:39
Speaker
um One thing I want to bring up is Pastor has mentioned a few times over the last month really and and sometimes he came to me personally with this and I have to apologize. We're on live stream. I'm sorry Pastor. um He asked me to pray for him.
00:00:51
Speaker
as he plans through these sermons on the chronological series. And um I said, yes, I'll pray for you, and then i I never did. And then I prepped this sermon and realized why he's asking for us to pray for him as he preps the sermons through this chronological series, and here's why. He covered Genesis 1, 2, and 3, setting the foundation of everything we know. Creation, man, woman, God's relationship with man, man's relationship with God, and then the fall.
00:01:20
Speaker
In order to keep on track with this chronological series, we're going from Genesis 1, 2, 3 to Genesis 37. And so you're like, man, that's you're skipping a lot of good information and you're right. There's a lot of good information in that. But here's how you look at it. There's nearly 1,200 chapters in the Bible. There's 1,189 or something. If you divide that by the 52 weeks in a year, you're averaging 22 to 23 chapters a week. And so that's why it's so important that that you guys read these passages during the week.
00:01:51
Speaker
so that when we address them and and reference them, you have an idea of what we're talking about as we go through it.
From Adam and Eve to Noah's Ark
00:01:58
Speaker
I'm not going to leave you in the dark and just skip from chapter 3 to chapter 37, so I'm going to give you a little bit of narrative of what happened in that time that we're we're ah we're kind of bouncing over. And so Adam and Eve were created by God, and and we set the standard with that with the last two weeks.
00:02:15
Speaker
But when they sinned, death and sin quickly entered and into the world, even the next generation. Because Adam and Eve had Cain and Abel. And Cain was jealous of Abel. He didn't deal with his jealousy and it became hate. He didn't deal with his hate and it became murder. And so after one generation of God creating the perfect people in the perfect place, we now have our first murder from their kids.
00:02:40
Speaker
And sin just continuously progressed and got worse very rapidly. So much so that God sent judgment in the form of a flood. And so he he identified Noah as the only righteous man in the land and he raised him and his family up to build this ark and bring the animals and then destroy the rest of the earth with the flood. As Noah gets off the ark, God creates a covenant with Noah and paints a rainbow in the sky and says, this is my promise to you that I will never destroy the earth again by flood. And that is the meaning of our rainbow today.
00:03:10
Speaker
And so if you see a rainbow in the sky, that is God's promise to never destroy the earth by flood again. And that's the only meaning. And so they get off the ark and and they took the same command and God gave it to them and said, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.
The Tower of Babel and Lineage to Abraham
00:03:25
Speaker
So God gave a command to spread out throughout the earth. And man in their ultimate wisdom and their pride gathered in one place and said, hey, let's build a tower to reach God.
00:03:35
Speaker
And so they start building this tower and God's like, no, that's not what I asked. I asked you to disperse throughout the earth and fill the earth. And so God confused their languages and created different languages, so naturally they they came together with their language and they spread to different parts of the land. They tried to do it their way, but God said, no, this is what I want you to do is spread throughout the earth. um who Noah took his wife and three sons on the ark. Noah, Shem, and Japheth. And so Shem, Noah's son, if we look at Shem's lineage, just a few eight generations, we get Abram, who's another familiar name.
00:04:10
Speaker
And so now we've gone from Adam and Eve to Abraham or Abraham. And so Abraham was this like foundational setting for the nation of Israel. This is where God came to Abraham and said, I am going to make you into a great nation. Your offspring are gonna, if you could count them, outnumber the stars in the sky.
00:04:30
Speaker
Abram and Sarai, his wife, got impatient and tried other things. And God refocused him and said, no, I'm gonna make you and your offspring into a great nation. And then he gave them Isaac, their son.
00:04:43
Speaker
And then we all know the story of Abraham and Isaac, where God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son out of obedience. One of the hardest hardest stories and in scripture for me to understand that God would ask Abram to do this.
God's Use of Flawed Individuals
00:04:56
Speaker
But understand this, God had promised Abraham that through Isaac, a great nation would come about. And so Abraham walked up that mountain with confidence that God was going to replace that sacrifice with something else.
00:05:08
Speaker
And so Abraham acted in obedience, took his son, they walked up in the mountain and sure enough, he gave the substitute ram out of the bushes. Imagine that, a ram with his horns stuck in the thicket, right? The perfect sacrifice. And so Isaac grows up and Isaac marries Rebecca.
00:05:25
Speaker
And Isaac and Rebecca try to do things apart from God's way. And then Isaac and Rebecca have Jacob and Esau. And Jacob was known as the deceiver. Because Jacob deceived Esau out of his birthright, and he deceived his father out of the blessing. And his mom was on board with that.
00:05:43
Speaker
And so Jacob is this this deceiver. And Jacob grows up and he gets married and he or he finds this girl named Rachel and he's like, I'm gonna work for Rachel. He goes to Laban and Laban says, you work for me for seven years and I will give you my daughter, Rachel. Men, he worked and waited seven years for this woman. On the night of his wedding when he was gonna be betrothed to her, Laban pulled a fast one on him and gave him his older daughter, Leah.
00:06:10
Speaker
And he said, if you want Rachel, you're gonna have to work for me another seven years. And he worked another seven years for Rachel, 14 years under his belt for this one woman. That was the love of his life. And so they they're raising up a family, but Jacob and Rachel are not having any children.
00:06:29
Speaker
And so they have children through Leia and they have children through other ways and they they get all these boys in the family, but still Jacob and Rachel have not had their child. And then finally they have their child and his name is Joseph. And that's what we're gonna talk about today is Joseph.
00:06:46
Speaker
So in a quick three minutes, we just got you from the beginning of Genesis and Joseph is the last story in the book of Genesis. And so if you've ever wondered, look, man, Genesis is a very big book. There's a lot going on. There is a lot going on, but lineage wise, it's pretty simple. The breakdown is pretty simple. And one thing I learned through this, this reading of scripture this last month is that God uses broken people to fulfill his purpose.
00:07:12
Speaker
Because if you've been reading along, you're going, why did God choose this person? He chooses Abraham to be the father of all, the father of Israel. He's gonna create him into a great nation. And Abraham walks into the first city and so tells his wife, hey, pretend you're my sister. And they lie.
00:07:31
Speaker
He chooses another and they lie. There's deceit, there's deception, and it gives me great comfort because I know my background, I know my history, I know the sin that's in my life, and God wants to continue to form me and use me for his purpose.
Joseph's Journey: Betrayal and Rise in Egypt
00:07:45
Speaker
And that should be an encouragement to you too, because we like to sit there in the chair and go, yeah, God will use that person, God will use that person for his purpose, God will use that person, and but I'm not worthy.
00:07:56
Speaker
I don't have any value to bring to the table. I'm not good enough. And guess what? You're right. None of us are. And yet God chooses to engage with us and include us on that process. Do you know why he used broken people in Genesis? Because he couldn't find any righteous people. Other than the name of Jesus, there's no name under heaven that is righteous, no, not one.
00:08:19
Speaker
And so God is using broken people to fulfill his purpose. And so I'm going to warn you, go to Genesis 37, we are going to be reading a lot of scripture today, and ask my wife, I have like a third grade reading level, and so bear with me as we go through this, and then there's Genesis with all the names and all that kind of stuff. But we're gonna be doing a lot of reading, but we'll stop and break it down each time we read a section. Genesis 37 and go to verse 12.
00:08:52
Speaker
Now his brothers had gone to graze their father's flock near Shechem. And Israel said to Joseph, you know your brothers are grazing the flock near Shechem, come and go, I'm gonna send you to them. Very well, he replied. So he sent to sent him, go and see that all is well with your brothers and with the flocks and bring word back to me. Then he sent him off to the valley of Hebron.
00:09:16
Speaker
When Joseph arrived at Shechem, a man found him wandering in the fields and asked him, what are you looking for? He replied, I'm looking for my brother. Can you tell me where they are grazing their flocks? They have moved from here, the man answered. I heard them say, let's go to Dothan. So Joseph went to his brothers and found them near Dothan. But when he saw them at a distance and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him. Here comes that dreamer, they said.
00:09:43
Speaker
Now come, let's kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him, and then we'll see what comes of his dreams. So I'm gonna stop there and set a little background to this. It's not like his brothers were like, hey, there's our little brother, let's kill him. There's a major history that's going into this.
00:10:00
Speaker
Because all these other brothers were born outside of Jacob and Rachel, Joseph was like the chosen child. He was like the favorite of all. And so if you're a sibling, you know that right there already sparks jealousy in your life. On top of that, his dad made it very known. He presented them with this robe of elegance that he would to wear around the other brothers.
00:10:24
Speaker
He gave them special privileges. In fact, all the other brothers are out working in the fields and running the flocks, and Jacob, or Joseph is at home with Jacob. And then on top of that, he goes, hey, Jacob, go report back to me on what they're doing. And so now you have this jealousy that's involved, and then you have a snitch, basically. He's there to tattle on them, whether they're doing good or bad with the sheep. And so it wasn't just like they saw him coming across the field, and they're like, hey, let's kill younger bro.
00:10:51
Speaker
No, there was this major history of hate buried inside their heart that they didn't deal with. And they all thought that the best idea at that time was to kill Joseph.
00:11:06
Speaker
When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hand. Let's not take his life, he said. Don't shed any blood. Throw him into his cistern in the desert, and don't lay a hand on him. Reuben said this because he wanted to rescue him and take him back to his father, so he did have one brother on his side.
00:11:23
Speaker
So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, a richly ornamented robe he was wearing, and they took him and threw him into the cistern. Now the cistern was empty, there was no water in it. As they sat down to eat a meal, you know, all that hate and malice and anger makes you real hungry, so they thought the best thing to do would go have a meal after they dealt with that. After they sat down to eat a meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead.
00:11:48
Speaker
Their camels were loaded with spices, balms, and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt. Judah said to his brothers, what will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? Come, let's sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him.
00:12:03
Speaker
After all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood, and his brothers agree. This looks like a point of grace where they're like where he's like, hey, let's not kill him, but let's let him live and sell him. But to me, it's more disrespectful the route they took because they were saying, hey, if we kill him, we get nothing out of it. But if we sell him, we never have to see him again. It solves our problem, and we get paid silver out of it, and they got the cost of a slave out of him.
00:12:30
Speaker
And so it looks like an extension of grace is actually an even deeper jab at him because now they want money from what they're getting.
00:12:41
Speaker
So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and they sold him for 20 shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites who took him to Egypt. When Reuben returned to the cistern, he saw that Joseph was not there. He tore his clothes and he went back to his brothers and said, the boy isn't there, where can I turn now?
00:12:59
Speaker
Then they got Joseph's robe, slaughtered a goat, dipped the robe in the blood. They took the ornamented robe back to their father and said, we found this. Examine it to see whether you're it's your son's robe. He recognized it and said, it is my son's robe. Some ferocious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces. Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and mourned for his son for many days.
00:13:26
Speaker
All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. No, he said, in mourning, I will go down to the grave to my son. So his father wept for him. Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph to egypt in potifur um to in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard. You don't have a fill in the blank because if I do fill in the blanks, I get lost.
00:13:52
Speaker
So I'm just gonna directly tell you each point that I have. And the first point is God uses suffering to position us for his purpose. God uses suffering to position us for his purpose. Now there's something very important here and that is God does not do evil. God does not condone evil. God is not in evil and God is not behind evil.
00:14:19
Speaker
But he will take evil that has been done and use it for his purpose. He will not waste your suffering. And so if there's suffering that you've been through, he wants to put you on a path of recovery to be used for his purpose. And if anybody was experiencing suffering, it was definitely Joseph. Joseph was abandoned, disowned, almost murdered, sold into slavery.
00:14:46
Speaker
And now it wasn't by strangers. If a stranger insults me, it's kind of like, whatever, don't really care about your opinion. But if someone I love, someone's close to me, a family member, a friend, a church member, someone who's supposed to be an authority over me, like my older brother, and they're supposed to care for me and protect me and love love me, and they choose to hurt me, that cuts a very deep cut. And it leaves a very deep scar.
00:15:14
Speaker
And so you can imagine Joseph as this young boy, how emotionally this is manipulating him to a point where he's not gonna, he's gonna be dealing with this for a while because he's watching his brothers kind of like probably laugh as he's going off in the distance and they've solved the issue and they've rid themselves of their problem. And yet this is their flesh and but blood. We're gonna jump again to Genesis 39. I told you to hold on, it's gonna be a wild ride.
00:15:47
Speaker
Genesis 39 continues in on this story.
00:15:55
Speaker
Verse one, it says, now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt, Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard, brought him bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there. The Lord was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master.
00:16:13
Speaker
that verse two, the Lord was with Joseph and he prospered. Throughout the Bible, we see it over and over that if we are with or if we are with the Lord, the Lord is with us. If we abide in him, he abides in us. So this statement that's saying that the Lord was with Joseph tells us one key point. It means that Joseph was with the Lord.
00:16:38
Speaker
And so, regardless of what he went through in this this suffering that he experienced from his brothers, right off the bat, he's just getting to Egypt, he gets into the Egyptians' ah palace, and he's still walking with the Lord. He's still drawing near to the Lord.
00:16:56
Speaker
When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything that he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. From the time he put him in charge of his household and all that he had owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because Joseph,
00:17:18
Speaker
Because of Joseph, the blessing of the Lord was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field. So he left Joseph's care he had to everything. when joseph With Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except for the food he ate.
00:17:36
Speaker
Our next point, point number two is always walk in righteousness. Always walk in righteousness. Regardless of what Joseph had experienced, he gets into this position and he enters this Egyptian area as a slave, a Hebrew slave. There's no reason why he should have been elevated to any position other than slave. But because he was walking and he was faithful with God and walking in righteousness and everything he did, God put him in a position of authority over Potiphar's household.
00:18:05
Speaker
Everything was under his care. It said, Potiphar, all he worried about was the food he ate. And then things get dicey.
00:18:14
Speaker
Halfway through verse six, it says, now Joseph was well built and handsome. And after a while, his master's wife noticed Joseph and said, come to bed with me. But he refused. With me in charge, he told her, my master does not concern himself with anything in the house. Everything he owns has been entrusted to me to my care. No one is greater in this house than I. My master has withheld nothing from me except you because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God? And though he spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her.
00:18:50
Speaker
I wanna focus on that. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against my God? So Joseph is in this situation and he's looking, he could he could reason why he doesn't wanna hurt Potiphar and he could reason why he doesn't wanna hurt Potiphar's wife, but that's not what makes his decision. He leaves emotion out of it, he leaves reason out of it, and he says, the only reason I'm not doing this is because how can I sin against my God? And so Joseph is performing for an audience of one.
00:19:21
Speaker
He doesn't care about Potiphar. He doesn't care about Potiphar's wife. He doesn't care about his position of authority. He cares nothing of that. He only cares about what the God of the universe thinks about him. And so as he's performing for this audience of one, little does he know this audience of one is recording what's happening. And now it becomes an audience of millions looking at this man live his life. And we go, that's how a man is supposed to live. That a beautiful woman could offer himself to him.
00:19:49
Speaker
And he says, no, I don't want to sin against my God.
00:19:56
Speaker
It gets worse.
00:19:59
Speaker
Verse 11, one day he went into the house and attended his duties and none of the other household servants were inside. She caught him by his cloak and said, come to bed with me. But he left his cloak in her hands and ran out of the house. When she saw that she he had left with a cloak in his hand, he ran out and she ran out and she called to her household servants.
00:20:20
Speaker
Look, she said, this Hebrew has been brought to us to make sport of us. He came here to sleep with me, but I screamed. When he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house. Next point, flee from temptation. Joseph didn't leave himself any opportunity to partake in Potiphar's wife. He physically removed himself from temptation. He ran.
00:20:47
Speaker
By the world standard, he would have been the perfect applicant to cheat on his wife. I mean, to to to cheat with Potiphar's wife. He was rejected at a boy, so he's looking for acceptance.
00:21:00
Speaker
He was abandoned and sold, so he's looking for love. And here's this, I imagine, beautiful woman, because she's Potiphar's wife, she's very high up in Egypt, this beautiful woman forcing herself on him, and in fact, physically grabbing him, and my man runs out of the house in his underbritches. He separates himself from the temptation. He doesn't leave it as an option. And here's ah here's a good thing to know, Satan can't force you to sin.
00:21:31
Speaker
The devil made me do it, remember that old saying? Not true. The devil can't make you do it. The devil didn't take Eve's head in the apple and force her to eat the apple. He stood behind her and said, is that really what God said? Don't eat the apple. And Eve reached out and grabbed the apple and partook in the apple. Eve chose to sin. When Satan is tempting Jesus on the mountaintop, he didn't push him off and watch the angel save him from the rocks.
00:22:00
Speaker
He leaned in and said, hey, why don't you jump? Scripture says that the angels will catch you. He couldn't force Jesus to do it. He can only put a word in his head. And so what does that look like for sin for us? If you struggle with lust or pornography, the devil's not punching in the website for this for the site. We voluntarily go there and punch it in, but he can speak the words behind us to make us think that we need it.
00:22:26
Speaker
If you struggle with drinking alcohol too much, the devil isn't in the grocery store picking up the case of beer and putting it in your cart. But he can't say, hey, just one won't hurt. And he said, no, no, no, I tried that last time and i I go too far every time. And he said, this time is different, just one. And we, we go and we pick up the sin and we put it in our cart. And so Joseph knew that if he stayed in that situation,
00:22:55
Speaker
I guarantee if he wouldn't have ran out of the house, that would have been the day. That would have been the day that he succumbed to temptation. But he physically removed himself and moved away from the opportunity for him to fall into that sin. And here's why. Undelt with suffering is what leads us into giving into temptation.
Joseph's Redemption and Saving of Israel
00:23:21
Speaker
If Joseph would have experienced that suffering as a boy that his brothers put him through that trauma and never dealt with it, I guarantee he would have fallen into that sexual temptation. But because he handed it directly over to the Lord and said, Lord, use my suffering for your will, use my suffering for your purpose, when he stood in front of Potiphar's wife and she's grabbing him, he looks up at the Lord and says, you are the reason I'm not sinning. And he runs out of the household.
00:23:49
Speaker
Now we're gonna jump again to Genesis 45. But between Genesis 39 and Genesis 45, there's a lot of information and there's not enough time to read it. And so I'm gonna give you a narrative summary between 39 and 45.
00:24:10
Speaker
Because there was an accusations against Joseph of trying to sleep with Potiphar's wife, she ran out in public and she said, he was trying to sleep with me and and this and that, and she flipped the script and accused him, he got put in jail. And so he gets put in in the prisoner and and in two in true Joseph fashion, he goes from prisoner to literally leading the prison. He elevated himself to a place of leadership inside the prison. Why? Because he was with God and God was with him.
00:24:38
Speaker
And he was still a prisoner, but he was running the prison. So much so that it says the guards, they didn't have a care about the prison because Joseph was running it so well. So later on, the some drama went on with Pharaoh. And Pharaoh has a cup bearer, which is the man who actually brings him the wine to ensure that it's not poisoned. And he has a baker, which is the man who feeds Pharaoh, so no one can poison him through food. And these two men are responsible for keeping Pharaoh safe. While some drama went down, it doesn't really say what, but both men got thrown in prison. So they're probably both suspected of trying to poison Pharaoh.
00:25:11
Speaker
pharaoh ah sheriff Who shot the sheriff? Trying to poison the sheriff. So Pharaoh throws them both in prison, and they're in prison next to Joseph, and they both have a dream. And these men are both troubled by this dream, and they said, does anybody know how to translate this dream or interpret this dream? And Joseph says, I don't, but my God can. And so the cupbearer says, here's my dream. And Joseph says, okay, your dream means that in three days you're gonna be pulled out of this prison, you're gonna go before Pharaoh,
00:25:45
Speaker
and you're gonna be reinstated as the cup bearer. And the baker's like, great, that's good news, I'm gonna tell him my dream. And the baker tells him his dream and he says, sure be enough, in three days you're gonna be raised up out of here, you're gonna go before Pharaoh, and you're gonna be hung. And so both men, three days later, get pulled out of prison, and Joseph says to the cup bearer before he goes, he says, hey, remember me with favor in front of Pharaoh.
00:26:11
Speaker
And so both the cupbearer and the the baker go before Pharaoh. Sure enough, the cupbearer is reinstated and the baker is executed and hung.
00:26:23
Speaker
And so the cupbearer doesn't remember Joseph. Joseph stays and remains in prison for two more years. Still in his position of authority, still running things, but he remains in prison for two more years when Pharaoh had a dream. And then Pharaoh had another dream. And the first dream Pharaoh had is that there's these seven fat, healthy cows grazing on some grass. And these skinny, sickly cows come up behind the seven cows and devour the seven cows.
00:26:50
Speaker
And in this other dream, he had seven healthy stalks of grain. And these weak stalks of grain come behind them, withered, torn, sunburned, windblown, and they devour the seven healthy stalks of grain. And so Pharaoh was greatly troubled by this.
00:27:11
Speaker
He's calling for magicians. He's calling for wise people in the land. He says, can anybody interpret this dream? And nobody can. And the cupbearer goes, oh, I remember there was this young Hebrew boy in prison that that interpreted my dream and I was reinstated as the cupbearer. And so Pharaoh said, we'll call for that boy and that boy is Joseph. And they pulled Joseph out and they shave him up and they give him a new robe and they present him before Pharaoh. And Pharaoh tells him his dream and Jacob says, Joseph says, those two dreams mean the same thing.
00:27:40
Speaker
those mean that there's gonna be seven years of bountiful harvest in the land. And then the sickly cow and the sickly wheat stalks mean that there's gonna be seven years of famine to follow.
00:27:55
Speaker
And what you're gonna need to do is during this bountiful harvest is you're gonna need to create storehouses and stock up the food. Because after the seven years of bountiful, there's gonna be famine. And we're gonna need the food to be stored and saved. And then we'll be able to feed Egypt and we'll be able to feed the nations that come to us throughout the seven years.
00:28:14
Speaker
And Pharaoh looks at him and goes, is there any man that's inspired by God like this that knows how to handle this situation? Nobody answered. And so he puts Joseph, this young slave Hebrew boy from Canaan in the highest position in Egypt to run what they probably called the feast and famine act of 25 BC or something.
00:28:38
Speaker
and he puts them in charge of the land to manage this whole situation. Sure enough, seven years of bountiful harvest, and Joseph is managing it well. Puts these things in his place, builds storehouses, stores the grain.
00:28:53
Speaker
and then seven years of famine. And in the first year of famine, people start pouring in from all the other nations. And Egypt selling this grain to its own Egyptians and selling its grain to these other people coming in. And guess who comes down the road? A bunch of boys from Canaan, Joseph's brothers. And we start seeing Joseph's dream develop that Joseph would be raised into a place of authority and that his brothers would be coming in and bowing down to him.
00:29:24
Speaker
And so these men come across and here's where we're gonna pick up. And there were some there were some different exchanges with them about their younger brother and stuff, but we're gonna pick up in chapter 45.
00:29:36
Speaker
It says, then Joseph could no longer control himself before his attendance. He hadn't revealed himself to his brothers yet. He had aged and they didn't know who he was.
00:29:48
Speaker
Have everyone leave my presence. So no one was with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers. And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him and Pharaoh's household heard about it. Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph. Is my father still living? But his brothers were not able to answer him because they were terrified at his presence. Then Joseph said to his brothers, come close to me. And when they had done so, he said, I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt.
00:30:18
Speaker
And now do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. For two years now there has been famine in the land and for the next five years there will be no plowing or reaping but God sent me ahead of you to preserve you for a remnant on earth and save your lives by a great deliverance. When Joseph's brothers were doing that to him when he was a kid. Neither Joseph or his brothers sat there in that moment and god went, wow, God's really gonna use this to save us. The brothers had evil intentions and Joseph had hurt.
00:31:01
Speaker
And yet Joseph submitted everything to the Lord and continued to walk with God. He continued to walk in righteousness. He continued to flee from evil and he put his brokenness, his suffering in the hands of God and trusted him to use it for his purpose. And so a point number four is God redeems our suffering for his purpose, his glory, and eventually for our good.
00:31:31
Speaker
You see, we all have these broken situations in our life where we've experienced suffering, but we actually get to choose whether God uses that or not. Joseph could have been very bitter. He could have remained very angry. He could have used that against his brothers when they came back and just flaunted it over them.
00:31:53
Speaker
but he didn't. He knew that God was gonna use his suffering for a purpose. And so how long have you been dealing with that suffering that's in your life? Is it from childhood, from something you've been carrying this whole time? Is it recent? Is it something in marriage? Is it something you're currently going through where you're your're suffering?
00:32:15
Speaker
And if you're sitting there going, yeah, you know what? I know God uses other people's story for His glory, but mine, mine is too dark. Mine's too intimate. It's too personal. yeah I couldn't share my story. If that's what's going through your head right now, that means you haven't healed properly from the suffering that you've been through. But if you allow God to heal you properly, He's gonna use you for His purpose. How do I know that? Romans 8, 28.
00:32:45
Speaker
all things work together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. And so if you don't know Jesus as your savior, I can't give you that same promise. I can't give you the promise that your suffering is gonna lead to some type of good. But if you know Jesus as your savior and you're following him with your life, I can absolutely guarantee that the evil that has been done to you or the suffering that you've experienced, God wants to use for good. It says,
00:33:16
Speaker
that it saved lives, that this suffering that he took place sent him to Egypt. He came in a place of authority and now he's the very hand feeding his brothers, the ones who betrayed him. It became full circle. I'm gonna close this out by going to Genesis 50.
00:33:36
Speaker
Genesis 50, this is the last chapter of Genesis. It's the last information in Genesis. And so in ah in a half hour, you've gone from Adam and Eve all the way to the last of Genesis. So if you've ever looked at the book of Genesis and going, man, what is in that book? Now you know. I think we might've missed Sodom and Gomorrah. Sodom and Gomorrah is in there. But if we go to Genesis 50 and it's 15 through 21, but I'm gonna start in verse 18.
00:34:05
Speaker
Jacob, Joseph's father had passed away and so there's a lot of emotions going on with the brothers and and Joseph right now. And in verse 18 it says, his brothers came and threw themselves down before him. We are your slaves, they said, completing that dream that Joseph had. Joseph said, I'm gonna be elevated to a position of authority and you brothers are gonna bow down to me as servants.
00:34:32
Speaker
His brothers came and threw themselves down before him. yeah We are your slaves, they said. But Joseph said to them, do not be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good. To accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives so that don't be afraid, I will provide for you and your children and reassure them and spoke kindly to them.
00:34:58
Speaker
This would have been the perfect moment for Joseph to be like, I told you so, as a young younger brother. He could have crossed his arm, he could have held his pride, he could have held his arrogance, and he could have gone, I told you so. Remember that dream? But no, he was humbled before the Lord and he said, am I in the position of God? Don't be afraid, I'm not mad at you. God used this suffering that you put me through to save our nation.
00:35:28
Speaker
And Joseph as a story individually is great. We could look at it as people and draw so much from it. Look at how Joseph lived his life. Look how God worked. And individually, just as the story is Joseph, it's incredibly important and we could learn a lot from him. But if you zoom out a little bit, this one act of God using Joseph for his purpose saved Israel from sure death. They would have died without that food. God's chosen people to which the Savior would be born out of.
00:35:57
Speaker
And so we look at the story of Joseph and morally, yeah, it's a great story and we could look at it and we could learn from it. And we can look at all these stories in Genesis and go, man, these are great Sunday school Bible stories to teach our kids. But if we zoom back, there's this red thread that's woven through this book and it all points to the redemption story of Jesus Christ.
00:36:20
Speaker
And so if we look at the context of Genesis, and we take one verse in Genesis, one random obscure verse in Genesis, and we say, what is the context of this verse? We're gonna look and it's gonna play into context of the passage, and then it's gonna play into the context of the chapter, and it's gonna play into the context of the book, and it's gonna play into the context of Jesus Christ being our redemptive savior.
00:36:45
Speaker
We can go to any other part of the Bible and do the exact same thing. We can go in the middle of Psalms and say, what is this verse about?
Invitation to Surrender Suffering
00:36:52
Speaker
And open it up more and look into it more. And it's about the passage, the chapter, the book, the redemptive story of Jesus Christ. You can go to the passages after Christ lived.
00:37:03
Speaker
and look at the context of it and it points to the redemptive story of Jesus Christ. And so we no longer have this list of Sunday school Bible stories. We have a script that God is writing saying, you are a broken people and you need a savior and that savior is Jesus Christ. Remember I said, there's no righteous, no, not one. We are all broken. We can't do it on our own. And this whole book points to the loving, saving grace of Jesus Christ.
00:37:35
Speaker
Joseph had no idea that these decisions that his choice would impact so much. Just because Joseph's in the Bible doesn't mean he's any more important than us. How you handle yourselves in times of suffering matters. How you handle yourself 20 years after suffering matters.
00:37:59
Speaker
We need to continue to walk in righteousness. We need to continue to flee from evil. Once you realize that you went through something for a reason, it's hard to keep your mouth shut about it. There's certain stories I've told like 50 times and I'm gonna tell them again because of the redemptive power of what Jesus has done in my life. And you have that opportunity too. You can choose to surrender your suffering to God,
00:38:29
Speaker
and He can help you heal from it, and it will be used for His purpose and His good, and perhaps bring others to Christ, or you could live in bitterness and shut the whole system down. And it's really up to you. God continuously gives us the option to follow Him and pursue Him. We just have to be ready to surrender.
00:38:53
Speaker
Stop focusing on the offender or the offense and focus on the God who wants to redeem you from that situation. Let's pray.
00:39:10
Speaker
Father, I am constantly in awe that you would create this this storyline and this this you series of events that we can look back on.
00:39:23
Speaker
And it it blows my mind that you would use these fallible sinners to do it. And then you extend that same grace and that same love to us. That you would look at you and go, Kyle, you're broken. Kyle, you're not worthy. Kyle, you don't have what it takes, but I created you good and I created you for a purpose. And so I want to use you.
00:39:53
Speaker
Father, you could have left us in the dark. You could have abandoned us when we got so bad, but you didn't. You had a plan of redemption through the savior, Jesus Christ. His death on the cross, his resurrection. He took the punishment for our my sins. And then he's so gracious to look back and say, even though you sin, I want you to be part of my story. So Father, help us to submit.
00:40:22
Speaker
Help us to offer our so sufferings up to you so we can heal. Thank you for wanting to involve us in this process. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. As we stand and sing this last song, I want ah want you to do just that.
00:40:41
Speaker
If you've been struggling with something for a bit or currently going through something and you need prayer, I want you to consider surrendering surrendering your suffering to Him. He wants to use you. He wants you to be a part of this story. We just have to be willing to do it. Let's sing.