Why does doing the right thing sometimes make life harder? /// Flannelgraph: Part 3

We're so glad you've chosen to listen to our online experience! Here at Plum Creek, we’re all about changed lives, changing lives; and what that simply means is that what Christ has done in us is not just for us, but it’s for us to share with others in our community and around the world.

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If you're using this teaching for a Home Groups setting, we've included discussion prompts to help guide your conversation:

1. When faithfulness does not produce the results you hoped for, what helps you continue trusting that God is still at work?

2. Describe a season that felt like a waiting room and consider how God may have been forming you through it.

3. Joseph kept doing the next faithful thing even when his circumstances became worse, so what would the next faithful thing look like in your life right now?

4. Look up Genesis 39:21 to 23 and discuss what Joseph’s experience reveals about the difference between God’s presence and comfortable circumstances.

5. Reflect on the teaching’s reminder that hardship can turn us inward, and identify one practical way you can notice and serve someone else while you are still waiting.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:04

Welcome to the Plum Creek Church Podcast. We're so thankful that you're listening along with us this way. Now, if you're a returning listener, welcome back. If you're new or newish, we'd love to become part of your listening rotation. So be sure to subscribe and follow to be notified when new episodes are available. Now, before we get into the message, we want to remind you of one thing. We really believe that if Jesus is right about God, about life, about the soul, then it only makes sense to rearrange our lives around what he says is true. Because if you choose to follow Jesus like that, it really does change everything, including the lives around you. Okay. Let's posture our hearts for what God has in store. This message.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Want to greet those of you that are worshiping online today. Thank you for joining us. We are in a series that we've called Flannelgraph, where we've been going back and looking at a couple of very familiar stories. If you've been around church a long time, you've probably heard them. If not, man, I'm thrilled to share a story with you for the first time that maybe you haven't heard before. And uh so far we looked at the story of David, flannel graph would go down like this. I asked the crew if we could actually get it out today. So this would be Goliath and David right here. And so, how many of you remember Sunday school back in the day? They they would have a flannel graph to try and help the story come alive. Some of you know that in this kind of one-dimensional way. And uh, in our little minds as kids, it just kind of helped us see things differently. Last week, uh, then we we talked through the life of Jacob and and we kind of watched that even as his life unfolded and God was moving him kind of geographically, really what was happening is he was being moved here. He was being changed into a different person, he was being shaped by God. Today I want to talk about something real because one of the hardest things about following Jesus is that sometimes in our lives, faithfulness doesn't seem to produce the results that we want. Have you ever been there? Where you're like, I feel like I'm trying to do everything right, but it doesn't feel like things are unfolding the way that I want them to. Have anyone, any of you been through a season like that where you're just like, I just don't get it, I don't understand. And what makes these seasons so confusing is you are trying, you're praying, you're showing up, you're serving, you're contributing, you're helping, you're loving your family, you're working hard and you're praying and you trust, and yet it doesn't seem to unfold the way you dreamed it would. And from where you are, it honestly feels like nothing is changing. And uh, maybe you begin to wonder if God's forgotten you, right? Maybe he's just so busy that he doesn't have time to pay attention to my stuff, or um, it just, if you're honest, it just feels like you're at a standstill, and the standstill can be painful. And sometimes it's the hardest part isn't the time that passes, but it's wondering where's God in this? Did you ever feel that? Where's God in this scenario that I'm living right now? Uh time flies by and prayers are unanswered, and frustration just seems to build. Uh, daily disappointments just feel very real, and eventually, if we're not careful, our question can change to God, where are you? What are you doing? To what's wrong with me? Is this something that I did? This is just the way our minds work. I know you can do anything, but why does heaven seem so quiet to me? Um, and that's Joseph's story, the guy that we want to talk about today, this this incredible story. And for some of us, we've known this story since we were kids when your Sunday school teacher uh broke out the flannel graph, and we got this handsome young man right here, uh Joseph. He's just a cool cat, and he's got a whole bunch of brothers. You guys might remember all the brothers. And then we'll get to this part of the story here in just a minute. Uh his brother's got this jacket in his hand, and they're throwing their brother in a pit. So that's kind of the story a little bit, and there's a whole lot of other details, and we're gonna talk about some of that today: the colorful coat and the jealous brothers, and Potiphar and Pharaoh, and the prison and the palace. And if you want to write this down and go back and read the story, which I would encourage you to this week, it's kind of a long one. It's Genesis chapter 37 through Genesis chapter 50. So uh Joseph gets a lot of, he gets a lot of time in Genesis, a lot of chapters there. So go back and read it because it's an amazing story. Clearly, I won't be able to get to at all. But I've been thinking about something. What if the greatest part of Joseph's story was not what was put on the flannel graph when we were kids? And really the purpose of Joseph's story is for us to see the main character at work, and that's God. And I wanna I want to look at that today together. I want to look at that today. Because while Joseph's circumstances seemed frozen, God's purposes never were, and we're gonna get to the end, and you're gonna see it's just beautiful. And I think the question that this story invites us to ask is not just simply, Doug, share with me the narrative, share with me the story. I think it's much bigger than that. What was God doing that Joseph couldn't see, which can become our story? What is it that God's doing in my life that sometimes I can't see too? And if we can learn to pay attention to that, I think it will help us as we navigate really hard times in our lives. Because Joseph experiences long stretches where the only evidence of God's presence is something that you can see when you look back. Like mom used to say, hindsight's 2020, and then we can finally see things a little differently. So we look back and we discover something that Joseph could not fully see while he was living it, because Joseph could only see one thread of life at a time. That's our story and your story too, right? That's the way it works. We only get one scene at a time. We don't usually have the opportunity to be able to see the grander picture that's unfolding. And it's like we see one thread, and on the other side is a beautiful tapestry of all the things that God has done. And again, that's also part of the story of Joseph. Joseph's le living one scene at a time, just like you and I have to lead, lead one scene at a time. And sometimes those scenes are very difficult, very challenging, and they can be hard. Before God ever entrusted Joseph with the purposes that he wanted to unfold through Joseph's life, he had to first prepare Joseph to steward the responsibility of those purposes, just like you and I. So, what Joseph experienced as delays, I see as I look at it, and this is the word we've been talking about a lot here at Plum Creek lately, and that's God's formation in him, that God's forming somebody different. Um, and as we walk through Joseph's story today, I'd love for us to keep asking the question: what was God doing when nothing seemed like, or when it seemed like God was doing nothing? Uh, what was God doing while it seemed like nothing is happening in your life and mine? That's a really important question that we can be prepared to uh understand a little bit better because of Joseph's story. So let's walk through it together. Again, there's no way we're gonna stop at every chapter, but like last week, I want to stop at three places in his life, and we're gonna call them waiting rooms this week. So we got three waiting rooms, and in the end, I want to show you this amazing reality of what God was doing in and through Joseph's very difficult life. Because here's what we often assume if God is with me, life should be comfortable, right? It should be easy. And if you believe that, I have two things uh that I need to tell you. First of all, that's wrong, and you probably ought to read your Bible. Because any pastor that would ever tell you, man, you just get all lined up and do everything right and everything's gonna work out, you need to throat punch them and get up and run. Because that's gonna be a very difficult life for you. Uh eventually life's gonna be hard. Can I get a hearty amen? It's gonna happen, and we need to know that our theology fits with the reality of life, right? Or we can get very frustrated. I've seen a lot of people bail because they didn't have good theology, and we think that if we can negotiate right with God, then things don't get tough. Well, read your Bible because there's an awful lot of stories in there where that's a hundred percent not the case, where things were very, very difficult. And sometimes the clearest evidence that God is forming you is God at work in the middle of the uncomfortable. Uh, as we're gonna see throughout Joseph's story. So God was quietly doing something deep within him. And so let's we arrive now at the first waiting room. The first waiting room, as I put on the flannel graph over here, is the waiting room of the pit. Now, what am I talking about there? If you don't know the story of Joseph, let me catch you up. This first waiting room is a literal, and I mean literal pit in the ground. So let me give you the basic details. Joseph is just 17 years old, and he's the favorite son. Do you remember who his dad was? Jacob, the guy we talked about last week. So he's his favorite son. Now let me just parents look at me. This is not good to have a favorite kid, okay? I know we all do. No, I'm just kidding. I always told our boys, like, listen, you just need to know Megan's my favorite because she's the only daughter. They're like, we know, clearly, we know, right? Um, but he is uh the favorite son of Jacob, and so uh Jacob pulls off this like really bad fathering move, and because he's his favorite, he makes him this real fancy, swanky, colorful jacket and gives it to Jacob, but he doesn't give one to his brothers. And so you could imagine that goes great, right? Because they're his older brothers and they're so mature, right? That's not the case at all. Uh, and then Joseph has a couple of dreams, and he might be lacking in what we call emotional intelligence, and so he's very quick to tell his brothers his dream, which basically his dream, two different dreams, were that his brothers eventually and his entire family would come and bow down in front of him. Well, if you're a big brother, that doesn't go so well, right? You got like the swanky jacket, and your dreams are that one day I'm gonna bow in front of you. How about if I just beat you up right now, right? That's the way it felt. Well, his brothers don't celebrate the dreams in the jacket, jealousy begins to grow. And then one day Jacob uh asks Joseph to go check on his brothers who are attending to their father's flock, and he heads out, which's on what seems like a very ordinary assignment, and his life is about ready to change forever, never be the same again. Everything that was familiar was going to be taken from him, and life is gonna look very different. His brothers see him coming in the distance, and they begin talking, not about this warm greeting that they're gonna give their brother, they begin talking about how they could kill him. And so while they're discussing what they're gonna do with their brother, they decide to throw Joseph into a pit. And so they throw him into the pit in this ground, and instead of taking his life in the distance, they start, they see some gypsies, some Ishmaelites are coming in with their little trek of tribe of people, and they decide, well, why would we not get something for our brother? Let's instead of killing him, let's just sell him. We'll sell our brother to these gypsies, and let's go kill an animal, and we'll rip up his jacket and put a bunch of blood on it and take the fancy jacket that daddy gave him back to dad and tell him, hey, we just found the jacket, something horrible must have happened to Joseph. So you think you have a dysfunctional family? There you have it, right? So we're gonna pause here for a second. Joseph is in the pit in this story, and in the course of a single afternoon, Joseph goes from favored son with a really cool jacket to human property that fast. And from his perspective, the things that he felt God was promising have completely disappeared and fallen apart. And friends, if you had been Joseph, I wonder how you would have interpreted the day that he was living that day. Uh God, I thought the dreams that you gave me for were from you, and how can it be that now I find myself in a pit thrown here by my brothers? They want to kill me, and instead they sell me. And some of us know what that feels like, maybe not to that extent, but you got a phone call you never dreamed you would get. Perhaps it was a diagnosis that that uh that is very scary, a job loss, betrayal from someone that you loved, a relationship that's completely blown apart and and it's devastated your life. Suddenly nothing about life looks the way that you thought it was gonna look. And there are times when we have to face these kinds of things. And here's what Joseph couldn't see in the moment that you and I oftentimes can't see in the moment, too. And that's that his brothers being angry with him, wanting to kill him, him being in a pit, and him being sold was not a sign that God wasn't with him. And that's hard for us to get our arms wrapped around. That's that's hard for us because it doesn't seem like God's in the middle of that. And yet in Genesis chapter 39, verse 2, the first part of verse 2, it says, the Lord was with Joseph. What? Because in our theology, if God's with us, that means life's easy, right? Things are working out up and to the right. Things are going the way I would want them to go. But again, that's not the Bible. And this is so important because sometimes when life gets really tough, we have a hard under a time reconciling our understanding of God in the middle of life's challenges when things don't go according to plan. What happened here could be very easy to miss. And it's not that Joseph's circumstances got better. Uh, his brothers had abandoned him and sold him, and now he's gonna be a slave. The very first thing that God wants us to know is this God was with Joseph. You've got to go back and read the story and underline that in your Bible every time that you read it, because in our minds it doesn't make sense. Life's falling apart to old Joe, and yet it says that God was with him. Friends, let me say this again. In the middle of an absolutely horrible situation, without giving away too much yet, it's gonna get worse. God was with him. And not everything got got better right there in the pit. Joseph probably interpreted the pit as the end, and I could only imagine Joseph hearing this verse going, What are you talking about? Right? It doesn't feel like he's with me. But the scriptures tell us the Lord was with Joseph. Somebody needed to hear that today because it doesn't feel like that in your life either. But this is God's promise, he's with you. And and we were talking about this every Wednesday. We get together on Wednesday morning in our teaching team, and we talk about the message from last week and the one that's coming and planning for the future, and and uh we were having a conversation about Joseph, and Pastor Eric said something that that really stuck out to me. He said, you know, when scriptures say that that uh the Lord was with Joseph, that also meant that Joseph was with the Lord. Easy to miss, especially when you're Joseph. You know who else does a good job of missing that when things are tough? Doug does. And it's likely you do too. So part of the story of Joseph is a challenge for us to learn how to stay connected to the Lord so that when the tough times come, we're prepared for them and we can continue to stay connected to God. But as we continue reading, there's no evidence in all of this that Joseph quits, that he stops working, or he stops serving. Rather, it doesn't seem like Joseph gets bitter, he doesn't give up everywhere. Uh God plants him, he just remains faithful. That's what we see in the story. He just remains faithful. That's what faith looks like. So let me ask you, what does it look like to stay with the God that's already with you? I encourage you to do that today. Because tomorrow could be tough. And when tomorrow's tough, you need to already have the discipline of staying connected to God. Maybe that's the real invitation of every waiting room, uh, to keep walking with God who has never stopped walking with you. But I don't want you to hear me say in all of this that it just somehow seems magically that even in these situations that we read that that clearly are very difficult, that it wasn't hard for him. Because betrayal hurts. Some of you know, you've been there. Betrayal hurts. Uh being sold by your brothers into slavery. I don't think any of us have had to deal with that. That would be a really tough day, right? That'd be a tough day. Uh, losing everything rocks your world. Some of you know how that feels. Scripture never pretends that somehow these things are good. It just simply shows us a man who refused to let painful circumstances have the final word. He keeps moving, he keeps being faithful. From Joseph's perspective, the pit in that moment had become the story. This sale to of his own self by his brothers to these gypsies was this scene in his life. And God knew that all of this was part of Joseph's formation process. Um, so the first waiting room is the pit, the second waiting room is Potiphar. And that's in Genesis chapter 39. The second waiting room takes place in the house of this gentleman who buys Joseph from the gypsies. So now he's a legit slave. So at first glance, it seems like uh at least he's not in a pit. He's not gonna die. He's a slave in this house, he's been purchased by Potiphar. Uh, something begins to happen. And when we see the story in Scripture, Joseph doesn't quit. He doesn't stop working, he doesn't stop serving. Listen, he doesn't stop honoring God. Uh he simply, and this is part of the message of the narrative of the story, he just simply keeps doing the next faithful thing. Day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. That's the story of Joseph. He just keeps doing the faithful thing. And before long, Potiphar begins to take notice of what's happening in Joseph's life. So his the guy that owns him. So Potiphar says this in uh, or this is the narrative of what happens in the story in Genesis chapter 39, look at verse 3. Potiphar noticed this and realized that the Lord was with Joseph, giving him success in everything that he did. This pleased Potiphar. Why? Because Potiphar's enjoying the success of Joseph in his household too. He soon made Joseph his personal attendant. He put him in charge of his entire household and everything that he owned. So clearly, Joseph isn't sulking, becoming cynical. He's not spending the bulk of his day complaining about his circumstances. He's being incredibly productive, doing the very best he can. God's presence is on his life, and it's clearly seen by others. Now he's still a slave, but he's being faithful. And there's something beautiful about that. Joseph didn't know where God was taking him. Nobody gave him a little, you know, rundown of how this was all going to play out before it happened. He's having to live every step of his journey just like you and I do, every step, one day at a time. And I think sometimes you and I can spend so much time waiting for God to change our circumstances that we miss the opportunity to be faithful in the place that we're planted. And maybe the assignment that you and I are living today is preparing us for something that we can't even imagine possible yet. Eventually, Potiphar trusts Joseph with everything that he owns, and it finally feels like life is heading in the right direction, right? Not the case, not the case. Potiphar's wife. She's a doozy. And scriptures tell us that uh Joseph's a good-looking young man. And guess who has eyes for Joseph? Potiphar's wife. And if you'll read the story, you'll see this is a relentless pursuit that she has for him. She wants this young cat to sleep with her desperately bad. Day after day after day, she continues to proposition this young man. Can I stop for a second and tell you? Don't you think at a certain point it'd be easy to justify that behavior if you're Joseph? You're like, where's God in my life? My brothers sold me, they threw me in a pit. Now I'm a slave in Egypt. Like, I don't want to be here. God, where are you? Isn't it easy to justify compromise in the middle of difficult times? For sure it is. But I want you to see that something different happens here. In Genesis chapter 39, verse 8. This is for all of us. Listen to this, uh, what Joseph says. But Joseph refused. Look, he told her, My master trusts me with everything in his entire household. No one here has more authority than I do. He has held nothing uh from me except you because you're his wife. How could I do such a wicked thing? Look at the last sentence. I want you to never forget this. It would be a great sin against God. This is a God, this is a guy who feels like and can obviously be living in some really hard situations, yet his focus is still this. Man, I can't do that. That would not be good. God would not like that. And I want to just stop for a second, because as I was preparing this message this week, I thought, you know, we need to pause, hit pause for just a second. I need to speak to someone today. If you're feeling tempted by sexual things, remember Joseph. Remember Joseph, who says, I can't do that because that would be a sin against my God. And you might have reasons to think that you could justify this behavior. Don't entertain those thoughts. Instead, pray this verse right here. Pray that God will help you to see it this way, to stand strong against those kinds of temptations. So Joseph refuses her advances. We're like, wow, way to go, bro. Way to stand strong, you look young stud. That's incredible. That's amazing. And yet day after day she continues to pursue him. And one day, as as uh she's pursuing him, she reaches out and grabs his robe and he takes off running, and she now has his robe in her hand. And I need you to see what happens in Genesis chapter 39, verse 19. Potiphar was furious because his wife threw down a false accusation that it was actually Joseph that was pursuing her. Potiphar was furious when he heard his wife's story about how Joseph had treated her, so he took Joseph and threw him into prison where the king's prisoners were held, and there he remained. And we need to stop here for a moment. A moment because this stinks, guys. This stinks. You know why it stinks? Because Joseph tried to do it right. He did what was right, and we would think that if we do what's right, things will work out. Joseph does the exact right thing and it costs him. Have you ever been there? You told the truth and it came back and bit you. You honored God and it cost you. You refused to compromise, and yet you still had to pay a price for it. And you thought obedience would make life easier. Instead, it has made life harder. And I think one of the greatest challenges that we have to face as Christ followers is that sometimes we've quietly begun to believe that if we follow God, life should be easy. More comfortable, more predictable, and more rewarding. But that's not what scripture shows us here. Sometimes it's going to be tough to do the right thing. Which brings us to waiting room number three. So he's gone from favored son to prison. This third waiting room, it's a legit prison. And not for a day, friends. Not for a week or two, not for a few months. We're talking several years. He's in jail now. Can you imagine that? Every morning, the same thing, same walls, same people, same questions, same confusion, no answers, nothing changing. This wasn't just a bad day. This has become a really bad life. Would you agree? This stinks. Joseph's story doesn't teach uh that that uh that uh everything ends up right. He ends up in prison when we do things right, even sometimes the consequences aren't great. So, what do we do when obedience seems to make life harder instead of easier? Joseph shows us. Read the story, go back and read it this week. He doesn't get bitter. There's nothing in scripture that says he decides to quit, that he just complains, that he walked away from God. He just simply continues, like he had before, to remain faithful day after day, week after week, year after year. Look at Genesis chapter 39, verse 21. But the Lord was with Joseph. Now he's with him in prison, in the prison and showed him his faithful love. So he's seeing God's faithful love while he's in prison, friends. And the Lord made Joseph a favorite with the prison warden. This guy keeps rising to the top everywhere he goes. Before long, the warden put Joseph in charge of all the other prisoners and over everything that happened in the prison. The warden, look at this, he had no worries because Joseph took care of everything. Why? How did this work? The Lord was with him and caused everything he did to succeed. That's the narrative of Joseph's life. Good, bad, or ugly circumstances, he continues to rise to the top. God's favor is on his life. I hope you hear that. It's unmistakable. And we've heard this in this story before, and that's the narrative. That's the thread of God that we should be talking about from flannel graph days. The Lord was with Joseph. Even when life stinks, God was with him. The address didn't change. God's presence didn't change. God's assignment and God's presence were on his life. God's presence had never been dependent upon comfortable circumstances. His presence had been constant through every single waiting room that he had to experience. So let me remind you what Eric said. That is a thought that we must take home this week. If the Lord was with Joseph, then Joseph was with the Lord. We just need to stay intentional about our connection with him. This is our challenge. Now there's no evidence that Joseph was perfect, that he didn't have a bad day, that uh he never uh wondered why. There's no evidence of all of that, but there is evidence that he continued walking with God. And he kept being faithful and he kept doing the right thing. And maybe that's the invitation for us today. Don't wait until life gets better to walk closely with God. Walk closely with God right now, so that when the tough times come, you're ready for them. So Potiphar's house wasn't the end of Joseph's story. It was just another waiting room, another place where God was quietly forming him in the middle of his circumstances. And I think that's the hardest waiting room of all. But there's something interesting that takes place in his life because the silence is sometimes the harder than the suffering. But even in the silence, even in the confusion, even in not knowing God's plan, Joseph is just a different kind of guy. He keeps his head up and he's recognizing what's going on in the lives of the people around him, and that might be a challenge for someone today, too. That even in the middle of your tough times, you pay attention to how God could use you in the middle of tough times. How can that work? Well, Joseph had every reason to be consumed with his own circumstances, but instead he notices someone else. And one morning, two fellow prisoners wake up disturbed. Some of you might remember the story. One's a cupbearer and one's a baker. And Joseph doesn't ignore them. He asks, Why do you look so down today? Which, let me remind you, means that he noticed they looked down today. He paid attention. Even in his own waiting, he's he's he's uh observant of what's happening in other people's lives. And that's remarkable because sometimes the waiting and the hardship has the way of turning us inward, doesn't it? Where we get so consumed with our own circumstances that we can't see what's happening around us. So these two men tell Joseph their dreams, and God gives Joseph the interpretation. One of these guys is gonna make it out and be restored, and the other won't. And before long, the cupbearer is the one that gets invited back, and Joseph makes one simple request as the cupbearer is heading out. Will you just remember me when you get out of the pen here? You just remember little Joe over here. Uh and when you stand before Pharaoh, please don't forget me. And the cupbearer gets out of jail. Joseph stays in prison. And look at verse 23. This is one of the hardest verses to read. Pharaoh's chief cupbearer, however, forgot all about Joseph, never giving him another thought. You're like, bruh, are you kidding me? I just helped you out big time. I told you what was going to happen, and all I did was ask you to remember the little guy Joe in jail when you get out. One verse, one sentence, but it carries the weight of two more years that he's in jail. I hope you feel that. Forgotten by people that you help. Sometimes the deepest pain isn't what someone did to you, it's that they've stopped thinking about you altogether. Two more years pass and nothing happens, nothing changes. And we talk a lot about waiting on God, and sometimes I wonder if God allows some of the waiting season to continue because there's still something He wants to do in us. And then the story takes a turn. Pharaoh has a dream. The most powerful leader in Egypt has a dream, and none of his magicians and all the people can interpret his dreams. And the cupbearer finally remembers. He's like, Ah, and I love this part of the story. He's like, I got a guy. Because I love to have a guy. He's like, I got a guy that can do the dream thing. And so Pharaoh says, Well, where is he? He's like, Well, he's in the pen. I met him when I was in the pen. And he's like, Well, go get that guy. And Joseph comes and he interprets the dream, which then positions him in this place of authority in the nation of Egypt. And he's the second most powerful man. He predicts that a famine is coming. And so he's then put in charge of preparing for this famine. God never forgets what he promised. After two long years, one conversation changes everything. Joseph couldn't see it, but God never stopped weaving the tapestry of God's story, not Joseph's story. Joseph could only live one scene at a time, just like you and I can, but we must never forget God was with Joseph even when it was tough. The greatest work that God had been doing had been happening long before that day. It wasn't happening in the circumstances, it was happening in Joseph. And if this is where a Hollywood movie would conclude, the credits would roll, Joseph is finally free, and everything appears to have worked out. But Joseph's story, please hear me, was never ultimately about this promotion. That's not what the story was about. It was never about becoming second command in Egypt. It's not about the palace. That's not the point. But I can tell you what I know is true. The man, that 17-year-old kid that was thrown in a pit wasn't the same person that came out of that prison. I can promise you that. Because what happens is when that famine hits, guess who comes to Egypt to get some food? Because they're about ready to die. His brothers. And the dream that he had when he was a young man comes to fruition because his brothers come and they don't even know that it's their brother. He's in all the Egyptian garb. And they bow down before him and ask for his help. And how do we know that God really was changing a man? Wouldn't you like to be second in command of Egypt when your punk brothers show up? You'd be like, out with you all, right? To the pit with you guys. That's not what he does, though. It's a beautiful story of redemption. You need to go back and read it. Because he forgives them. So, God was up to something that wasn't depicted on the flannel graph, and I wish that my Sunday school teacher would have told me. But I'm gonna do my best to tell you today. You see, none of these waiting rooms were wasted. Before God entrusted Joseph with this responsibility, he was at work in Joseph, forming him to be the one that could steward that responsibility well. Can I show you something that Joseph could have never seen? Actually, Joseph died not knowing some of this. Because Joseph would have thought that Joseph's story was about Joseph until his brothers show back up. But really, ultimately, I want to tell you today, as cool as the characters are, and the narrative of the story is amazing, and the colored jacket and the pit and all the things. Amazing story. But here's what was really happening: God was actually preserving the family that he had promised to Abraham. So he's seeing the fulfillment of a promise from generations before Joseph. Joseph's now a piece of God's plan for them. Oh, it doesn't stop there. Because God was also protecting his covenant that he had made with his people. Not only that, but God was also saving Jacob's family from this famine that took place. Pretty important detail, right? Oh, let me tell you, you have no idea how important that detail is. Because do you remember the name of one of Joseph's brothers? I could tell you, Judah. Do you know what Judah becomes? A tribe.

SPEAKER_00 32:39

Do you know who comes from the tribe of Judah? Jesus. Do you see that all of a sudden the grander picture of God's redemptive story is being woven through the thread of the ups and downs, the good and bad, the horrible stuff that he had to go through. Friends, look, we sit here today redeemed because the tribe of Judah didn't die. We have a Jesus. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 33:09

So I wish my Sunday school teacher would have told me that because the story's so much better now, isn't it? Well, but here's what we need to keep reminding ourselves that every time we hear one of these stories, we need to find ourselves in the story too. Because it's not just a story about Joseph, it's a story about you. And you need to be reminded of this. Everyone, look at me. This is gonna be hard to hear. Life's not about you, it's not, it's about his plans. So when the hard times come, we have to choose how we're gonna respond. And we have to keep our head up and look around because God's redemptive story is still at work in and through your life. That's why the story of Joseph matters. Because today we can be encouraged that even in the middle of tough times, man, God's still at work. Don't don't let this hard stuff in life turn you inward and cause you to be bitter against the God. He's with you, friend. He's with you. Someone needs to hear that today. And he wants to accomplish his purposes through your life and mine. And if we give him a chance, we get put in the middle of the story too. And so, for someone that's going through a really hard time right now, can you be encouraged by the story of Joseph? And if you're not, stay connected to Jesus, friends. Because it's gonna get tough at some point. And you need to stay heart connected to Jesus. Continue to look around and ask this question. This is so powerful. God, will you please steward my life today for your purpose? And watch what he does, friend. Watch what he does. Because God's redemptive work continues through you and me. Will you bow your heads? Father, thank you for a chance today to reflect on this story, to talk about this young man who definitely was used by you in significant ways. Oh, but so many stops in these waiting rooms would have not felt like it. But we thank you for what that challenges us with today. And Lord, in particular, I just, boy, I want to just hit pause for a second, and I want to pray for someone that can hear my voice, whether in this room or worshiping at home today, and you're, boy, you're going through it, and you know it, and your heart is weary, and it feels like God is absent, and you need to be reminded today that God's with you. And I want to pray for you in this moment that God will give you a supernatural ability to stay connected to Him. Even though the circumstances around you might not change and turn out the way that you would have liked them to turn out, He's still with you. He loves you, He cares about you. And Father, I pray you will help each of us when we get our eyes turned inward and start looking at our own lives, thinking that this whole life is about us instead of it being about you. Will you just remind us of that today? That we would not look so selfishly at this life that we live, but we would see opportunity to make a difference for you. So Lord help us, help us to continue to have hearts and lives that are formed because you're still near, you are present, and you are at work in each of our lives. We love you, Father. And all God's people said.

SPEAKER_02 36:49

Thanks again for listening. Our prayer is that this message encouraged and challenged you in your journey to follow Jesus. If you'd like to learn more about our church, please check us out online at plumcreek.church or if you find yourself within driving distance of Castle Rock, Colorado, we would be honored to see you in person on a weekend. So until next time, grace and peace in the name of Jesus.