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The Dungeons of Disappointment - Jospeh Series
90 Plays2 years ago
In this sermon, we'll discover how to overcome pain, hurt, and bitterness. We'll explore Joseph's incredible story of resilience and the lessons we can learn from him. So, get ready to dive into this thought-provoking episode as we seek to find hope and healing in the face of disappointment.
Timestamps:
[00:00:00] Church's stance on Halloween is yes, it exists.
[00:05:09] God's presence comforts Joseph in tough times.
[00:09:03] Joseph's understanding of God's desires.
[00:12:50] World problems overshadow daily personal challenges.
[00:13:53] Attitude matters: Joseph and Edison's perspective.
[00:19:41] Disappointment: family mistreatment, broken relationships, absent parents.
[00:22:34] Financial strain, loneliness, and false accusations.
[00:26:58] Finding purpose comes from knowing the Creator.
[00:30:02] Joseph dreams of sailing to South America, but a tragic accident prevents him.
[00:30:58] Sailor escapes death, meets John Wesley.
[00:35:55] God's business is to restore and help.
[00:38:28] Band coming, kneeling = submission, concrete experience.
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Transcript
Church's Stance on Halloween
00:00:00
Speaker
Good morning. If you would like to follow along this morning in your Bible, Genesis chapter 40, we continue the story with Joseph. Before we jump in there this morning, I do have something else I'd like to talk with you about, something that goes on in our country this time of year, something that's brought up a lot of questions in our church office and in private conversations with different staff members, millions and millions of dollars spent on it, just all kinds of things related to it. It's the subject of Halloween.
00:00:33
Speaker
So here's here's the thing we get asked a whole lot, you know, what is the church's official stance on Halloween? Our official stance is yes. There is a thing called Halloween. That's about our official stance. That's about the limit of it We don't have an official stance, but this is your pastor's feeling on it
00:00:51
Speaker
We all come from very different backgrounds, right? We have different experiences. We were brought up by different kinds of parents, sometimes grandparents, sometimes foster or adoptive parents, which means all of us have experienced Halloween in different ways. Some of us have experienced it as this taboo thing. You don't have anything to do with it. You distance yourself from it. You know, the family finds something alternative to do that night, movie night or something else.
00:01:16
Speaker
Others of us fully embraced it. We dressed up. We did the whole trick-or-treat thing. We went across the neighbor's yard. Some of you got arrested for things you did on Halloween growing up. Sharon, I wasn't going to point you out.
00:01:36
Speaker
Now, and the truth is, you know, there's just this different mentality towards Halloween, which means if we were to put some kind of philosophy out there about how we support or connect ourselves with Halloween, somebody in here is not going to like it because everybody has their opinions. OK, so what we've chosen to do is just not have any connection to Halloween whatsoever. Why? Because Paul says don't be a stumbling block to
Questioning God's Presence in Times of Suffering
00:02:00
Speaker
other people. Everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial.
00:02:03
Speaker
If you want to celebrate Halloween yourself as a family, that's between you and God. Dress your kid up like a jelly bean. Send them out into the street. Do whatever you want to do. That's between you and God. Here's what I will tell you. Never, ever, ever should your child be associated or accompany anything that has anything to do with darkness or evil. Ever. That's 365 days a year, not just Halloween, okay? So if you're dressing your kid up like a demon and sending them next door, that's bad news.
00:02:32
Speaker
if your child is a demon and they go next door. That's even worse news, okay? But if you want to bless somebody with a bag of
00:02:40
Speaker
Candy, if you want to turn off your light and pretend like you're not home so that no kids come to your house, all of those things are your business. But this church doesn't have a stance on Halloween. We will never have a Halloween festival. We will never have a chunk or treat because it's just a little too close. I pray that there's a day very soon that we're out on our property. We may celebrate a fall festival together just to have some fun and get together. We like to get together and eat, right? Any excuse to get together and eat. And if there's chocolate involved, it's even better.
00:03:10
Speaker
So that's kind of our stance on this. Okay. So if you call us next week and go, so how do you feel about this? Don't bother calling. That's our stance. Okay. Everybody cool? Well, good. So now we can get to the part of the heart
Lessons from Joseph's Story
00:03:24
Speaker
of why we're here today. Uh, Genesis chapter 40, I woke up, um, at two 30 this morning. Uh, and the first thought in my head at two 30 in the morning, which probably all of you, when you wake up in the middle of the night is why am I waking up at two 30 in the morning?
00:03:40
Speaker
And as I laid there and tried to process the first images that came to my head were the ones that were the last ones I saw before I went to sleep last night. Turned off the ball game and turned over to the news and like many of you is watching the images of what's coming out of the Middle East right now.
00:03:57
Speaker
It can't be described in any other terms other than sheer evil that's going on. What has been unleashed on the people of the Middle East, and I won't just say unleashed on Israel, although I do believe 100%, it's Hamas that's doing this and Iran that's backing them. But let's be reminded there are innocent people in the Palestinian on the Gaza Strip who also are being harmed a part of this. They aren't terrorists, they're just getting caught in the crossfire of two angry groups going at each other.
00:04:26
Speaker
And so I like many of you are asking the question, OK, where's God in the middle of all this work? These are his people, right? This is his country, his chosen people. So where is he in the midst of all this? And then you hear the stories and I saw images this morning of a young lady and her two children who are being held captive by the terrorists and just horrible sickening things. Ladies that were gunned down at a bus stop in one of the towns by Hamas as they invaded southern Israel. And again, my question is, why in the world
00:04:56
Speaker
Is this going on? What's happening? Well, God, where are you in all of this? I wish I could say I went back to sleep, but then my thoughts started to turn to more personal moments, thinking about friends who just in recent weeks have gotten bad news from the doctor. And I'm thinking again, God, why does this happen? Where are you when bad things happen? Where are you when disappointment sets in? Where are you when things are discouraging and frustrating?
00:05:25
Speaker
I thought about friends who I have talked to in the recent weeks who have been unfairly dismissed from their work because politicians in Washington DC choose to play with the lives of people like tokens in a game rather than considered that they're harming families. And
Faith Through Trials and Disappointments
00:05:43
Speaker
then I thought about some of the families that we have in our church. There are some who are going through horrible
00:05:48
Speaker
division, horrible separation, who are struggling because maybe they're just not at the same page right now and they're trying to figure out life. And so I asked that question again, the same question that many of you ask, believers, non-believers, all ask the question, God, where are you? When Genesis 39, 21, we are reminded of something very important in the middle of the story of Joseph.
00:06:12
Speaker
Be reminded that Joseph has just been unfairly accused by Potiphar's wife. And again, he finds himself in a prison. And this time as he's in prison, this verse says, but the Lord was with Joseph and extended kindness to him. So where is God when our dungeon nightmares become our reality? The answer is he's right there.
00:06:37
Speaker
He's right there in every single one of those situations. He's never left. He never will. He will always be part of your presence. He was with Joseph and he will be with you wherever you are. He will be with you in the midst of your dark seasons. He will be with you in the midst of your discouragement. In fact, looking back, Joseph might very well have uttered words like, thank you, prison walls. Thank you so much for what you did because inside of you, I learned to trust God in a way I wouldn't have if there had not been any prison walls.
00:07:07
Speaker
Or maybe he might have written some words like this. For every stoplight I didn't make, every chance I did or I didn't take, all the nights I went too far and all the girls that broke my heart, all the doors that I had to close, all the things I knew but I didn't know, thank God for all that I miss because it led me here to this. Those are the words of the great philosopher Darius Rucker.
00:07:36
Speaker
But he goes on to say, like the girl that I loved in high school who said she could do better, or the college I wanted to go to till I got that letter. All the fights and the tears and the heartache I thought I'd never get through, and the moment I almost gave up all led me here to you. I didn't understand it way back when, but sitting here right now, it all makes perfect sense. You see, life isn't perfect.
00:08:06
Speaker
Life is hard. Life on this planet is broken. Life is quite often a disappointment to us. We lay our best plans out there and we watch them get shattered again and again and again. Maybe it's a goal you set for yourself, for your family. Maybe it's a business goal you had, a personal achievement you were seeking. Whatever the case, all of us face brokenness. And now here's the reality. We face brokenness whether we know God or not.
00:08:37
Speaker
We know pain, we know hurt, whether we know God or not. So my encouragement to you, if you're ready to go ahead and take your nap before we get into the sermon today, my encouragement to you in this moment, know this, if you're gonna go through pain, why not go with God? Why not go through it with the one who created all of this from the very beginning and had a perfect plan for this?
00:09:03
Speaker
I would submit to you today that one of the things that made a difference in Joseph's life was his understanding of God's desires and God's willingness to be with him in those seasons.
Divine Timing and Resilience
00:09:14
Speaker
Now, think about this. We don't hear this recorded or see this recorded in the Bible, but you got to know that at 17 years old, standing at the bottom of a well, looking up at his brothers, Joseph probably said those words. Where are you, God?
00:09:30
Speaker
and his hands are bound and he's led across the desert towards Egypt by Midianite Caravan. In that moment, he had to be going, God, this is so unfair. And then as he is falsely accused by Potiphar's wife and thrown into a prison for absolutely no reason, he was probably screaming with all of his insides, God, where in the world are you right now? Are you not seeing what's going on? But again,
00:09:59
Speaker
Joseph gets to the end of his life and he utters those words. We like to quote so freely What you intended for evil God intended for good And if it hadn't been for the pit if it hadn't been for the caravan if it hadn't been for the prison I would have never known the joy of the palace Genesis chapter 40 verse 1. Let's read a little bit this morning the story of
00:10:26
Speaker
Joseph it says the key to Joseph excuse me After this the king of Joseph of Egypt's cupbearer and Baker offended their master the king of Egypt Pharaoh is angry with his two officers the cheap cupbearer and the chief baker and Put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guards in the prison where Joseph was confined Let this be a reminder to you. God is not just a god of all the big pieces of life He is very much a god of the details
00:10:53
Speaker
You see, when Joseph was dropped into that well by his brothers many, many years before, God knew that there would come a moment where this caravan would pass by. God knew there would be a moment where he would wind up in Potiphar's house. He knew there would be this season where this woman would falsely accuse him. And he knew exactly which cell in which prison Joseph would eventually wind up so that he could have the paths of Joseph and these two men meet. Because this encounter was no chance encounter. It was a divine appointment for the three of them.
00:11:25
Speaker
It says in verse 4, the captain of the guards assigned Joseph to them as their personal attendant. That's a pretty cool prison, right? Got your own personal attendant. And they were in custody for some time. The king of Egypt's cupbearer and baker who were confined in the prison each had a dream. Both had a dream on the same night and each dream had its own meeting. When Joseph came to them in the morning, he saw that they looked distraught.
00:11:48
Speaker
So he asked Pharaoh's officers who were in custody with him in his master's house, why do you look so sad today? Don't miss the irony of this. This is a guy who's literally tasted some of the roughest moments in life.
00:12:02
Speaker
He has every right to go to God and scream, I'm being mistreated, and this is unfair. But instead, in this season where he's in this prison, God has turned Joseph's heart so soft that his concern isn't for his own discouragement. His concern is for others around him. Can I just tell you that the best remedy for whatever disappointment you're in today is for you to get your mind off of yourself and get it on others?
00:12:30
Speaker
When you begin to think about what others are facing, it helps you to understand how really blessed you are and how small your problems probably are in this season. Yeah, you may have run out of cold water in your shower this morning, but there are people in the Gaza Strip who have no water because Israel has turned off the water to those people today. Yes, you may be about to pull your hair out because your kids are driving you crazy.
00:12:54
Speaker
But there are people who are mourning over the loss of their children this morning because of what's going on in the Middle East and in Ukraine and in Africa. It's not just one country, but it's many in our world today that are unsettled. Some of you may be going, well, I can't even figure out what we're going to eat for lunch when we get out of here today. But right now, the average salary for the person living in our world today is $4 a day to live off of. So if you're making $5 a day, you're wealthier than most of the world.
00:13:23
Speaker
think about that. It kind of puts our problems into the right perspective. You see the key to Joseph's response and his ability to learn from this imprisonment is found in his attitude. What is your attitude when trouble comes into your life? What is your attitude when discouragement hits you again in the face? What is your attitude when loneliness starts to creep in? What is your attitude when you are struggling with
00:13:50
Speaker
Concerns about yourself and low self-esteem. What what is your attitude? It was Joseph's ability to think beyond his own immediate concerns and minister to others that made him ready to hear what God was ready to teach him and Attitude makes a huge difference The story is told of Thomas Edison the great inventor that when he was 67 years old one of the places that he used to do a lot of his research and Development will literally burn to ground in the middle of the night
00:14:19
Speaker
When he was awakened by the phone call to come down to his plant because it had caught on the fire, he went down and began to watch and his son Charles was worried about him because he had gotten a similar phone call and he went looking for Edison
Healing and Faith in Challenges
00:14:30
Speaker
wherever he could find him. And when he finally came across his dad, he asked him, are you okay? And he said, yes, son, but where's mom? She's missing one of the best fire she'll ever see. She'll never get to see one like this again.
00:14:44
Speaker
The next morning, Edison got up, gathered his employees together and said, we are rebuilding. They rented every machine shop in the area, secured a crane, and then as an afterthought, Edison looked at all of his employees and said, does anybody have any idea where we're going to get the money for this? You can always make cash out of a disaster. All we've done is clear the rubbish. Now it's time to build bigger and better.
00:15:14
Speaker
and then he promptly folded up his coat, laid down on one of the lab tables that had made it through the fire and took a nap. I think Joseph's attitude was much like Edison's. You see, when life burns down around you, you can choose to lay your life down in the rubble or you can choose to pick up and rebuild. This is what the Bible talks about when it says that God brings beauty from ashes. But God can't bring beauty from your ashes if you keep holding on to the ashes.
00:15:43
Speaker
There comes a point where you have to give it to him and say, I can't do anything with this. I can't conquer these feelings by myself. I can't overcome them on my own. I need a God who is a rescuer. And that's exactly who our God is. The story goes on and it says in verse eight, he said, we had dreams, they said to him, but there is no one to interpret them. At this point, Joseph is licking his chops. This is his specialty, right? This is what he loves best is dreams and interpretations.
00:16:10
Speaker
And he gets his priorities right when he immediately says to them, don't interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams. So the chief cup bearer told his dream to Joseph. In my dream, there was a vine in front of me. On the vine were three branches. As soon as it butted, its blossoms came out and its clusters ripened into grapes. Pharaoh's cup was in my hand and I took the grapes, squeezed them into Pharaoh's cup and placed the cup
00:16:35
Speaker
in Pharaoh's hands. For the sake of time, let me tell you what happens. His dream is interpreted by Joseph and he says, here's what's going to happen in three days. Pharaoh is going to lift you up. He's going to restore you to position. Everything you dream is going to become true and you'll get to serve out your days as a servant in Pharaoh's household. Well, the baker comes along and he's pretty excited because he likes the interpretation that the cup bearer had gotten. So he gives his dream.
00:17:00
Speaker
His dream says that when he was walking along, three baskets of white bread were on his head and the top basket were all sorts of baked goods for Pharaoh. But the birds were eating them out of the basket on my head. So Joseph gives his interpretation for this. And he says to the baker, here's what's going to happen in three days. Your head will also be lifted off of your shoulders and you will not live to see another day. And both of the dreams came true.
00:17:29
Speaker
But in that moment, as Joseph interpreted that dream for that cupbearer, he said to him, remember me when you get out of this prison. Remember this interpretation. Remember this guy that helped you out and see if he can't pull some strings from me. And the Bible records that it was two years later. Again, you got to know in that moment that Joseph is going, God, where are you? I thought this was my ticket out of here. I thought this was the way home. I thought this would be your provision.
00:17:57
Speaker
Charles Swindoll in his book on the life of Joseph breaks up disappointment into four different categories. I want to talk to you about those a little bit today because here's the truth. Every single one of us in this room experiences disappointment of some kind. And I want to just tell you that I think one of the things that becomes a problem for us as believers is that somewhere along the way we have had hammered home in our hearts that we aren't supposed to show disappointment. That we're supposed to just
00:18:25
Speaker
stuff those feelings down and when we get discouraged just pretend like that doesn't happen when we get lonely to pretend like that doesn't exist that somehow being joyful means that we can't ever be unhappy and those are not the same thing Joy in the season of unhappiness means your confidence is in something that's bigger than your circumstance Joy means that I am able to overcome what's going on around me because what I was going on around me is still under the authority of the one who is above me
00:18:54
Speaker
And so because I know that, I'm not worried about expressing emotions that God gave to me. That fear that you have in your life today, God gave you that emotion. The anger and the bitterness that you carry around is an emotion that God put inside every human heart. The question is not, should I feel those feelings? The question is, what do I do with those feelings?
00:19:21
Speaker
What do I do when disappointment comes at me? And more importantly, what do I do when I become disappointed with God? Again, if you think that's something that's not really biblical, then go back and reread the Psalms. Because the Psalms were very, very clear. They expressed their frustration with God. God, you're not working the way I thought you were going to do this. God, didn't you see the plans I laid out? Why aren't we working with those plans?
00:19:46
Speaker
God, do you see all these enemies around me? How in the world is this part of your plan that they are swarming around me? And in every one of those Psalms, they eventually come back to the realization that the God that they write to and write about and complain to is still in complete control and that He will work out those things for their good. They just have to trust them in those seasons. So let's talk about these different kinds of disappointment that we feel.
00:20:16
Speaker
Undeserved treatment from family. Undeserved treatment from family. It's amazing what you discover the closer you get to people, especially family members, right? Tears, heartache, brokenness. An angry or bitter mom who mistreats you because of all she went through when she was younger.
00:20:37
Speaker
where she never dealt with pain that she experienced as a child growing up. An absentee dad who never shows up for anything, who works all the time and even when he's off is never really there. Siblings who separate because they get angry at you and suddenly the relationship between brothers and sisters is broken and it's broken for what seems to be such petty reasons.
00:20:59
Speaker
Abusive treatment from family leaves generations of scars on our heart, and if those scars aren't dealt with appropriately, they build up over and over and over again to the point where your heart stops feeling what it's supposed to feel. Let me remind you, they can be overcome. Your pain, your hurt can be overcome, and your pain and your bitterness, your anger, your frustration, your discouragement, your depression is never meant to be used as an excuse for how you live in the present.
00:21:29
Speaker
Can I just say that to you again? Because that was a really good point. You don't have permission to live inappropriately now because of inappropriate behavior to you in the past. Because when you do that, when you blame your present or your future on what happened to you in the past, what you say is, I don't really believe that God has control of any of it. God can't heal me. God can heal all those other people, but God, you've never really dealt with somebody like me.
00:21:55
Speaker
I'm the exception to the rule. I'm the one person that just can't possibly have my heart healed or have my brokenness restored. I am the one that you can't possibly do anything about. But then you show up on Sunday morning and you sing that God is the God of possible. Secondly, unexpected circumstances, you become physically
00:22:23
Speaker
incapacitated. You become financially challenged. You are emotionally disabled because of circumstances that are placed on you, outside circumstances. Many families right now are feeling the strain of finances right now in an economy that's gone wacko on us, right? Double digit interest rate, grocery prices going up, gas prices going up, all kinds of things happening
00:22:47
Speaker
that seem to keep us confined or feel like we're let down or somehow that we're terribly alone in the season and these feelings keep you from flying with freedom because they're like weights that you carry that you just drag through your life with you and God says would you please just lay those down it's why Jesus said come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will make your burden light if you'll just take it and give it to me I will exchange it for a yoke that is easy and light thirdly
00:23:18
Speaker
Untrue accusations, false statements made to you or about you by a friend, a coworker, even a family member, and they hurt to the core. Trying to fix this false information is like trying to catch scraps of paper in a whirlwind. Just when you think you've got them all, another one pops up, another one appears. You try to do everything you can, but you can't please everybody. You can't fix it for everybody.
00:23:47
Speaker
Lastly, unfair abandonment. This may be the most painful of all. In this room today, we've got wives who've been abandoned by husbands that you supported and put through school. And the day he graduated, he began to turn his attention elsewhere. We've got friends who have given love and services to other friends, and then suddenly when they no longer need you, they no longer call on you and your friendship is dissolved.
00:24:18
Speaker
Maybe it's a business partner who treated you unethically and walked out and left you holding the bag. Or maybe it's your spiritual family. Can I remind you, we're all human here. And if you're counting on spiritual family, you got to know that you're dealing with human beings still, even though they're spiritual. Even Christ followers can be pretty dumb sometimes. In fact, I'd argue sometimes dumber than the rest of the world.
00:24:47
Speaker
It's the truth of what we experience. It's the truth of what we know. C.S. Lewis put it this way. He said, God whispers to us in our pleasure, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains. He shouts to get your attention because just like Joseph, he wants you to lean entirely on him.
Trust in Divine Purpose
00:25:04
Speaker
Not sporadically, not just in the next moment or the next season of your life. He wants you 24 hours a day, seven days a week, submitting to his authority over your life.
00:25:17
Speaker
So I want to talk very quickly about the cause and the cure for disappointment. The cause for disappointment, very simply, is putting one's complete hope and trust in people. Putting one's complete hope and trust in people. This is when a person takes the place that only God was meant to fill. Single person today, you are not going to find somebody to complete you. You're not going to find somebody to complete you.
00:25:42
Speaker
In fact, this is one of the strongest encouragements I have for those who are contemplating marriage. Don't find someone to love until you've fallen in love with God. Until you have found that He is all that you need, you will find there's nothing else that will satisfy you. And it's only when you completely are surrendered to God and you find God completing you in the most complete way that you can love people the way they deserve.
00:26:09
Speaker
Husband can't possibly love his wife until he has learned to receive the love of God himself So I encourage you Find your completion in God the one who created you it's the old adage of a square peg and a round hole We look for so many things out there that we think somehow will satisfy us and they're not possibly created to do that kind of thing
00:26:34
Speaker
So what is the cure for disappointment? Well, very simply, you could probably guess it's putting your complete hope and trust in the living Lord. Christian Rieger was a survivor of four years in one of the Nazi prison camps that brought such horror to World War II. He wrote this. He said, Nietzsche said that a man can undergo torture if he knows the why of his life. But I learned something far greater. I learned to know the who of my life.
00:27:04
Speaker
He was enough to sustain me then, and he is enough to sustain me still. What Rieger was trying to say was, you know what, we can search for purpose in life, but you won't find purpose aside from the one who gives us purpose. You won't find purpose aside from the one who created us to have a purpose. The one who created us with something good in mind, and that was a relationship with him.
00:27:29
Speaker
Last night when I got home from the wedding we did yesterday evening, I went in and Lisa and I took care of some things we had to do before we went to bed, and of course I turned on the ball game last night. For those of you who don't know the ball game, that's Georgia versus Kentucky. For you Kentucky fans, it was painful. For me, it was great delight. But I was actually very, very interested by the story of a player for the University of Kentucky.
00:27:58
Speaker
a young kid by the name of Ray Davis. Ray Davis has actually turned out to be an excellent running back. In fact, before the game last night was leading the SEC in rushing. But it's a story that caught my attention as the announcers talked about it. You see Ray grew up in California and by age 12 was completely homeless because both of his parents were incarcerated in prison.
00:28:20
Speaker
lived on the streets. The answers even said his life is pretty remarkable. You should go look up his story. It's pretty incredible. We don't even have time to talk about all the things that he went through before he was finally picked up by a foster family that raised him and got him to college. But according to raise on testimony, he said time after time over the years, I have asked the question why, why, why? And then one day I woke up and quit asking the question why and I said to myself, God,
00:28:49
Speaker
You've got me here for a reason, now let me figure out what it is. His attitude changed and because his attitude changed, he finally became like clay that is moldable in the hands of God the creator. But when we continue to insist on our way, when we continue to insist on our understanding, when we continue to insist that we have to know all the answers, what we do is we become like hardened rock that God just can't do anything with.
00:29:19
Speaker
So God says, will you trust me, child?
Surrender and Transformation
00:29:23
Speaker
Will you quit trying to find out all the answers? And can I just let you in on a little secret? If you knew all the answers, you'd be scared to death. And so God rightly says, trust me for the next step. That's all you need to know. Trust me for the next moment. That's all you need to do. Most of you probably don't know the name Joseph Fletcher. Joseph Fletcher was the son of a wealthy English family.
00:29:47
Speaker
As a boy, he had a passion to sell. He wanted to sell across the seas, across the oceans and live a life of danger and excitement and adventure. And it was a passion that he never outgrew. So from the time he was little all the way up till he became a young man, he would go down to the docks, he would sit on the crates and he would listen to the stories of the sailors who talked about the faraway places they had visited. And one particular sailor would tell him of his
00:30:11
Speaker
incredible journeys to South America where he would tell him about cups of gold that were overflowing in caves and canyons that they had found. And so, of course, Joseph became very enamored with the idea of sailing away to South America. Well, the day came when he was old enough, so he went down and he signed on to be on the next voyage to South America. Went back home in just a few days before he was supposed to depart on his trip while he was enjoying afternoon tea with his family.
00:30:39
Speaker
One of the servants came in, tripped, and dropped boiling tea all over Joseph's legs. And the burns were so severe that almost instantly infection began to set in. When the old sailor came to pick up Joseph for the trip, Joseph had to look at him with tears in his eyes and say, I can't go, doctors say it would be too dangerous. So the sailor turned away, went on his voyage, and after a few days when his legs were beginning to heal a little bit,
00:31:08
Speaker
Joseph hobbled his way back down to the harbor and sat back on the same crate that he had always set as a child. And he began to listen to stories of sailors who came in and out of the harbor. And one in particular came in and caught Joseph's attention. He said, I guess you've heard the news. And Joseph said, what news? He said the ship you were scheduled to go out on sailed three or four days ago and two days into its journey was destroyed in the storm, went to the bottom. There were no survivors.
00:31:38
Speaker
Joseph was so moved by God's protection over his life, he gave his life to Christ. Decided right then and there that he was gonna allow God to lead his decisions from that point forward. A few days later, Joseph Fletcher would be introduced to a man by the name of John Wesley. John Wesley, the same man who crossed the oceans, who faced savages and led an adventurous life as he carried the gospel to the rest of the world.
00:32:09
Speaker
and always by his side, even though we don't know his name, was a guy by the name of Joseph Fletcher. A man whose dreams came true and ways far greater than he had ever predicted or imagined as he served out the rest of his life in obedience to God. You see, for Joseph, our Joseph from the book of Genesis, it all began with a boy's dream and a really pretty coat. For Joseph Fletcher, it began with a boy's dream and a pot of hot tea.
00:32:41
Speaker
For you, it may be your dreams that have gone up in smoke, but it's a really pretty thing to see what God can do with smoke. It's a really pretty thing to see what God can do with ashes. It's a beautiful thing to watch when God takes broken pieces and puts them back together in a way only he can. The broken pieces of your marriage, he's been there.
00:33:12
Speaker
The broken pieces of your career, has it snatched away from you? Been there and done that too. The disappointment because your child has rebelled against their faith? God's seen it before. The danger is that when we go through those things, we build prisons around our heart and we never experience the full life that God desires for us.
00:33:42
Speaker
You see, your prison of disappointment is a sorry place to spend the rest of your life. Your prison of disappointment is a sorry place to spend the rest of your life. Because what you do is you begin to look for ways out, and those ways look like excuses. They look like addictions. They look like anger and bitterness. They look like broken relationships. They look like royal messes.
00:34:12
Speaker
because that's what we do with our lives. But when we give God the pits of our lives, He builds palaces. And in those palaces, He puts throne rooms, and in those throne rooms, He puts one throne, His. And until you give Him that throne, your life will always be a mess. Here's how I want to close today.
00:34:43
Speaker
Typically, when I say that, the first thought in your head is, wow, he finished early today. That's good. For others of you, it's, man, it's not even lunchtime. I'm really hungry. For some of you who maybe are just a little bit more serious about what we've just heard, what we've just talked about, your first thought is, okay, so what do I do with this? What do I do with this?
00:35:12
Speaker
Because looking around this room, as I look into your eyes, I see your hurt. I see your loneliness. I see your confusion, your discouragement, your depression. I see your brokenness. I see your loneliness. I see your abandonment. And if I can see all that, just imagine what God sees.
00:35:43
Speaker
So when you respond to God in a season like this, it's not because God needs to know what's going on in your life. It's because God wants you to acknowledge how much you need him. Remember at the very beginning of the story when the guys came to him with the dreams, he said, isn't this the business of God to do interpretations?
00:36:04
Speaker
This morning the invitation is for you to come to God and when you come up here I'm going to look at you and say isn't it in the business of God? Isn't it the very, very thing that God wants to do to restore your heart? To restore your family? To restore your hope? To take away your discouragement? To lift you out of that pit of disappointment and put you back on the path towards the hope that he has for you? Isn't that the very business of God?
00:36:33
Speaker
but you can't do it if you don't give it to him. Will you pray with me? Father, in this season, whatever season it is we're feeling or experiencing right now, the first thing we gotta do is acknowledge that we need you. There's something really special, something really incredible about a God who's so powerful, so holy, so incredible,
00:37:03
Speaker
who invites us into this moment and says, why don't you sit with me? Why don't you enjoy my company? Let me take care of the anxiety that's weighing you down. Let me take care of the worry that you're feeling. Let me remove that burden from your shoulders and help you carry this so you don't have to feel this anymore.
00:37:34
Speaker
Disappointment looks like a whole lot of things for some of you. It's a husband that's let you down again and again and again and again For others of you It's the fact that you have been the husband who has let people down over and over again some of you are estranged from family members because you can't get onto the same page and
00:38:02
Speaker
And in this season, what you're needing right now is a God who can direct you back to a place of healing. So God, will you give us the courage to respond in this moment right now? To totally surrender and submit ourselves to what you desire for us. It's in Jesus' name I pray, amen. Now as the band's coming, I wanna remind you of something
00:38:31
Speaker
The reason we encourage people to come to this altar, to come to this stage, and to get before God on your knees is because, number one, getting on your knees is a sign of submission. It's a physical expression of what's going on in your heart. Secondly, one of the first things that Satan's gonna do when you walk out of here today is go, what you felt wasn't real. What you felt was just an emotion. What you felt is just passing.
00:38:58
Speaker
But there's something about coming to this stage and spending a little bit of time praying before God that makes it more concrete for you so that when you walk away and Satan starts to whisper in your ear, you can say I know what I felt because me and my God talked about it.