WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.319 Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast. 00:00:02.479 --> 00:00:07.040 We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ. 00:00:07.200 --> 00:00:08.640 Thanks for tuning in. 00:00:18.879 --> 00:00:20.079 Hey, good morning. 00:00:20.160 --> 00:00:20.960 How are we doing? 00:00:21.120 --> 00:00:21.920 Good to see you. 00:00:22.079 --> 00:00:24.559 Welcome to Awakening. 00:00:24.719 --> 00:00:25.519 Absolutely thrilled. 00:00:25.600 --> 00:00:27.199 It's great to be back. 00:00:27.920 --> 00:00:29.839 My wife and I, we gotta do this. 00:00:29.920 --> 00:00:30.879 This was amazing. 00:00:30.960 --> 00:00:37.200 So my daughter is studying abroad in France, uh studying art, which is amazing. 00:00:37.359 --> 00:00:42.240 Uh yeah, she's taking classes like pottery in the middle of a vineyard or something like that. 00:00:42.320 --> 00:00:43.600 I'm like, how is this school? 00:00:43.920 --> 00:00:44.719 This is incredible. 00:00:45.039 --> 00:00:47.200 Celebrated her 21st birthday. 00:00:47.359 --> 00:00:49.759 We gotta go celebrate with her. 00:00:49.840 --> 00:00:53.840 Uh this is a picture of Jenny and me and Ella. 00:00:54.000 --> 00:01:01.520 And because she loves art, she loves museum, we gotta take her to like the museum, the Louvre, you know. 00:01:01.679 --> 00:01:02.479 This was amazing. 00:01:02.640 --> 00:01:09.760 Here's a picture of uh Ella and I at the um in front of yeah, in front of the Mona Lisa. 00:01:10.079 --> 00:01:17.040 You know, they used to have like a line that you'd kind of go through, and now it's just like full-on football. 00:01:17.519 --> 00:01:23.040 Like it's just you rush to the front, it's a massive crowd, you're kind of elbowing to get all the way to the front. 00:01:23.280 --> 00:01:26.159 Takes a bit, but it we gotta get all the way there. 00:01:26.319 --> 00:01:27.680 It was a blast. 00:01:27.920 --> 00:01:32.719 Um, and during my time there, I learned something about art, just figured that. 00:01:32.799 --> 00:01:38.560 Uh, you know, and I was reading the book on this, and just the difference is totally fascinating to me. 00:01:38.799 --> 00:01:58.879 The way uh we moderns think about art and the way the ancients thought about art, or even as the book was saying, and uh the way uh Westerners tend to think about art, and even today, the way uh the Eastern mind thinks about art, and and then it's just simply this question like, think about this. 00:01:59.040 --> 00:02:01.680 Where does a work of art begin? 00:02:01.840 --> 00:02:05.359 Like, where does it, like the origins of it, where does it originate? 00:02:05.519 --> 00:02:10.639 And if you're like me, you would probably answer that it begins with uh a blank canvas. 00:02:11.120 --> 00:02:12.879 You know, it's just this blank canvas. 00:02:12.960 --> 00:02:13.919 I'm gonna turn it this way. 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:14.960 There we go. 00:02:15.280 --> 00:02:16.240 Didn't you feel that? 00:02:16.319 --> 00:02:17.840 It's like so much better now, right? 00:02:18.000 --> 00:02:24.479 Um, it begins with this blank canvas of like you can create whatever you want. 00:02:24.879 --> 00:02:31.520 It's just before you, it's out of nothing, you know, you get whatever your mind's eye comes to life. 00:02:31.599 --> 00:02:35.680 And and that fits the way we think so much today, doesn't it? 00:02:35.840 --> 00:02:44.560 Is of like, okay, Western, uh especially American mindset of like this, you know, you have this blank canvas of life. 00:02:45.120 --> 00:02:51.039 Imagine it, visualize it, manifest it, and whatever your dreams are, they'll come true. 00:02:51.199 --> 00:02:54.479 You can be whatever you want to be. 00:02:54.639 --> 00:02:57.840 And so you just grab some of the paints of life. 00:02:57.919 --> 00:02:59.599 And yes, I'm gonna try to paint. 00:02:59.759 --> 00:03:11.280 Uh haven't done this in a very long time, but if but if we were thinking about like, okay, painting your masterpiece, painting your life, like it might look something like this. 00:03:11.360 --> 00:03:16.960 That we well, we want to have um, you know, like this. 00:03:17.039 --> 00:03:18.400 It oops, sorry. 00:03:18.800 --> 00:03:23.120 Got, you know, sunny days, right? 00:03:23.199 --> 00:03:31.039 That's the reason we spend so much money in the Silicon Valley, so that we have this beautiful, oh, raise the sun. 00:03:31.199 --> 00:03:32.080 There you go. 00:03:32.479 --> 00:03:35.360 Um, I would this will be for sale after the service. 00:03:35.520 --> 00:03:42.800 Um, these beautiful, sunny days, and we we long for blue skies, right? 00:03:43.599 --> 00:04:02.960 I mean, just this, oh, this blue, beautiful ease, like some version of the masterpiece that we're looking at has to do with like the American dream of comfort and success and upward mobility and and and being able to have adventure and pleasure and all the rest. 00:04:03.039 --> 00:04:06.879 And and we we paint these things, we come up with like this is our life. 00:04:06.960 --> 00:04:13.039 It's a this blank canvas, and you get to do it, you get to be it, but then but then there's this problem. 00:04:14.240 --> 00:04:24.240 Because the problem is the picture, the idea in our head, the masterpiece of what we want our life to be doesn't always turn out the way we thought it would, does it? 00:04:24.639 --> 00:04:34.160 And then there's what happens when like the storms of life begin to come in and rain clouds start to darken the picture. 00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:45.680 Or gosh, the trauma and the pain and betrayal stuff in our life. 00:04:50.160 --> 00:04:54.079 And all of a sudden, our masterpiece doesn't look the way we wanted it. 00:04:54.720 --> 00:04:58.399 There's things that what we do is then we we try to cover it up. 00:04:58.480 --> 00:05:00.399 We're like, hey, hello, just look at this part. 00:05:00.480 --> 00:05:01.759 This is fantastic over here. 00:05:01.920 --> 00:05:03.600 This is my Instagram picture perfect. 00:05:03.680 --> 00:05:05.040 I'm gonna add some more blue. 00:05:05.199 --> 00:05:06.480 There you go, right? 00:05:07.839 --> 00:05:10.000 And what do we do with this part? 00:05:10.800 --> 00:05:12.160 What do you do with the pain? 00:05:12.240 --> 00:05:13.360 What do you do with the trauma? 00:05:13.519 --> 00:05:14.879 What do you do with the difficulties? 00:05:14.959 --> 00:05:23.680 What do you do with the things in your life that have been done to you or that you have done that feel like it's wrecked your masterpiece? 00:05:25.920 --> 00:05:35.759 See, I think a lot of us instead of feeling like a masterpiece of work of art, we just feel a little bit like a chaotic mess. 00:05:39.600 --> 00:05:47.600 We're just trying to figure out how do we fix this in some way. 00:05:48.399 --> 00:05:55.920 Now, the Eastern or ancient understanding wasn't a blank canvas. 00:05:56.399 --> 00:05:59.839 They actually believe that art already exists. 00:06:00.399 --> 00:06:03.759 The artist's job is simply to reveal it. 00:06:04.160 --> 00:06:13.279 It's the belief that every block of stone has a statue inside it, and the task of the sculptor is to discover it. 00:06:13.439 --> 00:06:17.120 Now at the Louvre, we were walking around, we gotta see all the highlights, right? 00:06:17.199 --> 00:06:19.680 Uh, and we gotta see this by Michelangelo. 00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:20.959 I did some editing. 00:06:21.040 --> 00:06:24.240 Uh, just you know, this is the PG version, just want to give you that. 00:06:24.319 --> 00:06:28.720 I did a little bit of a little blurry out there, yeah, uh, of two slaves. 00:06:28.800 --> 00:06:35.279 This was actually commissioned by Pope Julius II for his own tomb, is very extravagant, like 40 figures. 00:06:35.360 --> 00:06:37.040 I'm like, hello, humility guy. 00:06:37.199 --> 00:06:37.680 Come on. 00:06:37.839 --> 00:06:44.079 Uh but Michelangelo is crafting this, and he says this incredible line. 00:06:44.240 --> 00:06:50.480 He says, the sculpture is already complete within the marble block before I start my work. 00:06:50.800 --> 00:06:52.079 It's already there. 00:06:52.240 --> 00:06:56.319 I just have to chisel away the superfluous material. 00:06:56.879 --> 00:07:02.560 He's attributive saying, I saw an angel in the marble and I carve it until I set it free. 00:07:02.879 --> 00:07:06.079 See, it's the difference, and I I got a piece of marble here. 00:07:06.240 --> 00:07:07.279 Oh boy. 00:07:07.759 --> 00:07:11.120 Um dear friend, your Kevin Thayer. 00:07:11.439 --> 00:07:13.680 Yeah, I just want to do that so you know it's real. 00:07:13.839 --> 00:07:15.839 Um thank you, Kevin. 00:07:15.920 --> 00:07:17.439 Where he generally sits on this side. 00:07:17.519 --> 00:07:18.160 I don't know where he's at. 00:07:18.240 --> 00:07:18.879 There you are. 00:07:19.040 --> 00:07:22.399 Um and uh sorry, I got a little dirty there. 00:07:24.639 --> 00:07:30.879 Instead of a blank canvas, the picture for the ancients was that the art is already there. 00:07:31.040 --> 00:07:34.959 Instead of you be whatever you be, that there's actually a masterpiece right here. 00:07:35.199 --> 00:07:53.519 And as you chisel, as you take away, as you thoughtfully, carefully, strategically chip and chisel away, you begin to see this piece of art revealed within the marble. 00:07:54.319 --> 00:08:09.360 Slowly and carefully, precisely, the extra that is hiding the masterpiece is taken away, so you see exactly what was there all along. 00:08:10.319 --> 00:08:17.519 Now, the blank canvas, by the way, puts a ton of pressure on us, doesn't it? 00:08:18.480 --> 00:08:19.519 It sounds great. 00:08:19.600 --> 00:08:24.000 You can be whatever you be, paint your own picture, manifest your destiny. 00:08:24.160 --> 00:08:28.160 It sounds fantastic, but then you're like, will I choose the right colors? 00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:33.519 Will it turn out to be a work of art or a chaotic mess? 00:08:35.039 --> 00:08:37.120 Get it, paint the life that makes you happy. 00:08:37.519 --> 00:08:46.399 So we pursue comfort, ease, pleasure, and then become disillusioned when life brings difficulty, pain, hardship, trauma. 00:08:47.120 --> 00:08:50.960 And so we run, we numb, we cover up the painful to difficult. 00:08:52.320 --> 00:09:01.519 Now here's what's interesting is the Bible, when speaking of your life, doesn't speak of the blank canvas, but of the masterpiece. 00:09:02.320 --> 00:09:04.159 In fact, uh we've said it every week. 00:09:04.320 --> 00:09:10.320 Ephesians 2, 10 says, for you are, for we are God's masterpiece. 00:09:10.879 --> 00:09:11.919 Workmanship. 00:09:12.320 --> 00:09:18.240 Not will be, not hope to be, not could be. 00:09:18.799 --> 00:09:20.000 Present tense. 00:09:20.399 --> 00:09:33.120 You are his masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus, to do good works, which he's prepared in advance for you to do. 00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:43.200 That he is at work in our lives, that you are his masterpiece, that he has a dream and design for your life, and you don't want to miss it? 00:09:44.159 --> 00:09:59.919 What if the difficulties, the pain, the challenges of life are actually the process of chipping and chiseling away the extra, the superfluous things that are keeping you from living out who God intended and designed and made you to be? 00:10:00.799 --> 00:10:07.360 Could it be that there actually is purpose within the pain of your life? 00:10:08.559 --> 00:10:13.759 We're in this series, I think it's incredibly important, called Dreaming Wide Awake. 00:10:14.159 --> 00:10:19.039 The truth is, so many of us we're going through life and we feel dead inside. 00:10:19.279 --> 00:10:23.440 Breathing, moving, working, yes, but not fully alive alive. 00:10:23.519 --> 00:10:33.039 We're going through the motion, seeking by sleepwalking, as it were, existing, but not really living, wondering, is this all there really is? 00:10:33.919 --> 00:10:39.120 And we asked this question right at the beginning: how do you embrace a God-sized dream for your life? 00:10:39.200 --> 00:10:43.039 How do you live for something bigger, more fulfilling, filled with meaning? 00:10:43.120 --> 00:10:53.759 And we're looking at this story, the life of Joseph, an unlikely person to live out a God-sized dream for his life. 00:10:53.919 --> 00:11:00.799 As you know, if you've been around, he's the 11th of 12 brothers from an obscure corner of the Roman, or not the Roman, but the ancient world. 00:11:01.039 --> 00:11:08.000 His family literally put the fun in dysfunction, circumstances stacked against him, and if it could go wrong, it did. 00:11:08.080 --> 00:11:12.240 And we're diving into that as it goes from bad to worse. 00:11:13.039 --> 00:11:18.080 And yet his life didn't just impact and save his family, it rescued nations. 00:11:18.320 --> 00:11:22.480 Week one, we talked about this dare to dream with God. 00:11:23.120 --> 00:11:24.639 God has a dream for your life. 00:11:24.879 --> 00:11:27.919 His dream is actually better than your dream. 00:11:28.080 --> 00:11:31.360 However, he's not in a hurry and his timing's perfect. 00:11:31.679 --> 00:11:46.960 Last week, my dad stepped in as Joseph was betrayed by his brother, sold into slavery, and said, This is the death of a dream that God must work deeply in you before he works greatly or significantly through you. 00:11:48.000 --> 00:12:00.320 And today, we want to lean in and really wrestle with what is God up to when the difficulties of life are threatening to derail your dream? 00:12:01.919 --> 00:12:18.399 You didn't get the promotion, you didn't get into the school of choice, your girlfriend, boyfriend broke up with you, your marriage is on life support, your kids have walked away from you or from God, you've been betrayed by a close friend, a co-worker, you got a biopsy report, you lost a loved one. 00:12:20.480 --> 00:12:27.039 What if my life hasn't turned out the way I pictured it, I dreamed it, I thought it would. 00:12:28.480 --> 00:12:33.200 What is God doing when it feels like He's doing nothing? 00:12:34.000 --> 00:12:36.559 Sermon titled Today is Shaped in the Shadows. 00:12:36.639 --> 00:12:37.759 Would you say that with me? 00:12:40.080 --> 00:12:47.759 The big idea I'm gonna give you it right up front, and we're just gonna be circling back to this over and over, is simply this. 00:12:47.840 --> 00:12:54.240 You'll find this woven all throughout scripture that difficulty is not derailment but development. 00:12:54.639 --> 00:13:00.639 Difficulty, pain, trials is not derailment from your God-given dream, it's actually development. 00:13:00.720 --> 00:13:08.320 In fact, James, the brother of Jesus in James chapter 1, verse 2, said it this way: consider it all joy, brothers and sisters. 00:13:08.559 --> 00:13:16.399 When you face trials of many kinds, consider it all joy when you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the test in your faith develops perseverance. 00:13:16.639 --> 00:13:18.639 Perseverance must finish its work. 00:13:18.799 --> 00:13:26.799 There should be a chiseling away of these things so that you'll be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 00:13:27.200 --> 00:13:44.480 Now, the ark of Joseph's life, as we've seen, it begins with a dysfunctional family from zero to 17, moves on to a formation detour of 13 years of his life, betrayed by his brother, sold into slavery, unjustly accused, imprisoned. 00:13:45.360 --> 00:13:53.600 By the way, we do not get to bypass formation detour in our life to live out our God-sized dream. 00:13:54.000 --> 00:13:56.080 You don't get to opt out of it. 00:13:56.480 --> 00:14:08.720 It is the chiseling process that God forms us and forms our character to step into fulfill the destiny as he becomes the second in command of Egypt. 00:14:11.200 --> 00:14:15.120 Difficulty is not derailment, but development. 00:14:15.279 --> 00:14:18.000 We pick up the story in Genesis chapter 39. 00:14:18.080 --> 00:14:24.480 If you got your Bibles, you can open up your app or your uh actual literal hard copy uh analog Bible. 00:14:24.639 --> 00:14:27.600 If not, it's in your notes or on the screen behind me. 00:14:27.759 --> 00:14:30.080 Now, Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. 00:14:30.399 --> 00:14:39.200 Potiphar, an Egyptian, who was one of Pharaoh's official, the captain of the guard, brought him from the bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there. 00:14:39.440 --> 00:14:53.519 Now, Joseph, okay, remember, betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery, he's now in the superpower Egypt, brand new culture, uh, brand new language. 00:14:53.759 --> 00:14:55.200 He is a slave. 00:14:55.840 --> 00:14:58.559 Where is God in the midst of all this? 00:14:59.200 --> 00:15:03.759 The Lord was where with Joseph. 00:15:03.919 --> 00:15:05.600 Where's God in the midst of pain? 00:15:05.759 --> 00:15:07.440 Where's God in the midst of the hardship? 00:15:07.600 --> 00:15:11.600 Where's God in the midst of the things that you wish weren't a part of your story? 00:15:11.840 --> 00:15:13.039 He's with you. 00:15:13.759 --> 00:15:14.879 He's with you. 00:15:15.679 --> 00:15:20.399 He hasn't abandoned you, he's with you in the middle of it. 00:15:20.720 --> 00:15:26.480 So, Joseph the Lord was with Joseph, so that he prospered and lived in the house of his Egyptian master. 00:15:26.639 --> 00:15:28.960 When his master saw that the Lord was what? 00:15:29.840 --> 00:15:33.759 With him, you gotta give me a little bit more, but that's fine, we'll work on it. 00:15:33.919 --> 00:15:40.639 And that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in the eyes and became his attendant. 00:15:40.879 --> 00:15:41.519 I love this. 00:15:41.759 --> 00:15:46.399 Joseph is in unfavorable circumstances and yet still found favor. 00:15:47.600 --> 00:15:52.399 It wasn't like, hey, I have unfavorable circumstances, so I can't have favor anymore. 00:15:52.480 --> 00:15:54.639 He's in unfavorable circumstances. 00:15:54.799 --> 00:16:02.399 We'll find out why, of the way he lived his life, that he had the favor of God and man as he's in these unfavorable circumstances. 00:16:02.639 --> 00:16:06.799 Potiphar put him in charge of his household and entrusted to his care everything he owned. 00:16:06.960 --> 00:16:13.360 From the time he put him in charge to his household and all that he owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. 00:16:13.519 --> 00:16:17.600 The blessing of the Lord was on everything Potiphar had in the house and on the field. 00:16:17.679 --> 00:16:22.639 So Potiphar, smart guy, left everything he had in Joseph's care. 00:16:22.720 --> 00:16:28.000 With Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food that he ate. 00:16:28.559 --> 00:16:31.759 Now, Joseph was well built and handsome. 00:16:31.919 --> 00:16:33.519 Good for you, big guy. 00:16:34.000 --> 00:16:41.279 And after that, a while, and after a while, his master's wife took notice of him, hmm, and said, Come to bed with me. 00:16:41.600 --> 00:16:42.639 But he refused. 00:16:42.879 --> 00:16:43.919 This is so important. 00:16:44.159 --> 00:16:49.679 With me in charge, he told her, My master does not concern himself with anything in the house. 00:16:49.840 --> 00:16:52.000 Everything he owns, he's entrusted to my care. 00:16:52.159 --> 00:16:54.159 No one is greater in this house than I am. 00:16:54.320 --> 00:16:59.200 My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you're his wife. 00:16:59.840 --> 00:17:03.279 How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God? 00:17:03.519 --> 00:17:10.000 And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her. 00:17:10.400 --> 00:17:18.960 One day, dun dun dun, he went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants were inside. 00:17:19.359 --> 00:17:22.240 She caught him by the cloak and said, Come to bed with me. 00:17:22.400 --> 00:17:25.279 But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house. 00:17:25.440 --> 00:17:29.920 When she saw that he had left his cloak in her hand and run out of the house, she called her household servants. 00:17:30.079 --> 00:17:37.839 Look, she said to them, this Hebrew that was a d derogatory, racist name for them, has been brought to us to make sport of us. 00:17:38.000 --> 00:17:40.799 He came in here to sleep with me, but I screamed. 00:17:40.960 --> 00:17:45.359 When he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house. 00:17:45.599 --> 00:17:48.720 She kept the cloak beside her until his master came home. 00:17:48.880 --> 00:17:50.079 Then she told him this story. 00:18:18.480 --> 00:18:22.559 What is God up to when the difficulties of life are threatening to derail your dreams? 00:18:23.359 --> 00:18:23.920 What could it be? 00:18:24.480 --> 00:18:34.319 That difficulties, pain, challenges, or the process of chipping away the extra superfluous things that are keeping you from becoming who you are made to be. 00:18:34.720 --> 00:18:35.039 Why? 00:18:35.519 --> 00:18:38.079 Difficulty is not a derailment, but development. 00:18:38.240 --> 00:18:47.440 I want to give you three areas that God uses to shape our character in the midst of these uh difficulties, in the midst of these trials. 00:18:48.319 --> 00:18:53.039 The three areas, the faithfulness check, uh, the word check, and the integrity check. 00:18:53.119 --> 00:18:55.759 The faithfulness check is best versus easiest. 00:18:55.920 --> 00:18:57.839 I want you to notice something about Joe. 00:18:58.400 --> 00:19:08.720 Betrayed by his brother, sold into slavery, finds himself in a foreign land, learning a new language and culture, with no foreseeable hope of anything changing, period. 00:19:09.279 --> 00:19:11.680 From his perspective, this was his new lot. 00:19:11.839 --> 00:19:16.079 His God-given dream, dead, his circumstances appear to be final. 00:19:16.160 --> 00:19:20.240 He had two choices best or easiest. 00:19:20.640 --> 00:19:22.880 The easy thing to do, give up. 00:19:23.119 --> 00:19:25.200 The easy thing to do, quit. 00:19:25.680 --> 00:19:26.480 Quiet quitting. 00:19:26.559 --> 00:19:28.880 You can still show up and just not really show up. 00:19:29.200 --> 00:19:31.359 Eke his way through life. 00:19:31.519 --> 00:19:36.319 Have a pity party, throw a tantrum, blame God, blame his family. 00:19:36.480 --> 00:19:41.359 But Joseph made the choice to be faithful where he was placed. 00:19:42.240 --> 00:19:46.720 It wasn't ideal, it was a dead-end job. 00:19:47.519 --> 00:19:49.680 It wasn't his dream job. 00:19:49.920 --> 00:19:54.720 The painting of his life was dark and filled with betrayal. 00:19:56.720 --> 00:20:00.319 He's like, I'm placed here, I'm going to be faithful. 00:20:00.559 --> 00:20:04.799 From a human perspective, it certainly could have felt like punishment. 00:20:05.680 --> 00:20:10.799 From an internal perspective, it was divine positioning and preparation. 00:20:10.960 --> 00:20:16.480 And I want us to recognize Joseph didn't know the end of the story. 00:20:18.559 --> 00:20:21.039 And you don't know the end of your story. 00:20:22.240 --> 00:20:28.559 All he knew is God had given him a dream, and now he's sold into slavery. 00:20:29.039 --> 00:20:31.359 And this divine positioning, think about this. 00:20:31.519 --> 00:20:33.519 He was in an obscure part of the ancient world. 00:20:33.599 --> 00:20:46.240 Now he's uh brought into the world superpower of Egypt, and he was sold to be a servant, a slave of Potiphar who works for Pharaoh himself. 00:20:47.599 --> 00:20:54.880 God is at work behind the scenes in ways that we can't understand, and from our vantage point, we can't see. 00:20:56.880 --> 00:21:02.720 And it's so easy to opt out, to give up, to complain and be done. 00:21:02.799 --> 00:21:07.599 And it's like, no, no, will you choose what's best or will you choose what's easiest? 00:21:07.759 --> 00:21:10.880 Being faithful, being faithful. 00:21:11.839 --> 00:21:17.279 Some of you are waiting for the right circumstances to be faithful. 00:21:18.640 --> 00:21:30.240 God, when you give me the promotion, when you send me the right person to marry, when you place me in the perfect job, when I finally grow up, when I'm finally older, then I'll follow you and be faithful. 00:21:32.160 --> 00:21:40.000 God's classroom for character development isn't in the big moments, it's in the small, hidden moments. 00:21:41.279 --> 00:21:42.400 He develops you. 00:21:42.559 --> 00:21:44.880 He develops me when nobody's watching. 00:21:45.119 --> 00:21:48.880 So you'll be ready and he can trust you when everybody is. 00:21:49.839 --> 00:21:54.640 Galatians 6 9 says it this way let us not become weary in doing good. 00:21:56.400 --> 00:21:59.599 Why does Paul say not to become weary in doing God? 00:22:00.640 --> 00:22:11.759 Because at some point you get weary, you get tired, you get beat down, you go like nobody notices. 00:22:11.920 --> 00:22:13.680 I'm completely overlooked. 00:22:13.839 --> 00:22:16.160 I'm stuck in this dead-end job. 00:22:16.319 --> 00:22:20.640 I'm trying to love my spouse the best, but it's she's not noticing it. 00:22:20.799 --> 00:22:22.480 He's not noticing nothing's changing. 00:22:22.640 --> 00:22:25.039 I don't know what to do with my kids, but I'm just showing up. 00:22:25.119 --> 00:22:30.720 I'm trying to be faithful, what's in front of me, but I'm sowing seeds, but I'm not reaping yet. 00:22:30.880 --> 00:22:34.559 And some of us we have given up before God can show up. 00:22:34.880 --> 00:22:37.359 Do not grow weary and being and doing good. 00:22:37.440 --> 00:22:37.759 Why? 00:22:37.839 --> 00:22:42.319 For at the proper time will reap a harvest if you do not give up. 00:22:44.400 --> 00:22:47.039 Jesus would say it this way, Luke 16, 10. 00:22:47.440 --> 00:22:54.480 The one who is faithful with a very little thing will also be faithful with much. 00:22:56.240 --> 00:23:01.839 Let me ask you, do you feel like you have little? 00:23:03.920 --> 00:23:12.160 Like a little opportunity, a little role at work, little finances, little relationships? 00:23:13.440 --> 00:23:15.839 Be faithful with the little. 00:23:17.519 --> 00:23:22.319 Because it's the decisions that we make in obscurity that shape our destiny. 00:23:23.599 --> 00:23:35.200 Joseph had no idea that this moment was preparation as he was put in charge of Potiphar's household, learning leadership skills, learning management skills. 00:23:35.680 --> 00:23:40.160 He's being shaped in ways that he had no idea that this was not a setback. 00:23:40.319 --> 00:23:44.079 This setback was actually a setup for what God had for him next. 00:23:44.240 --> 00:23:48.160 But he had to be faithful with where God placed him in that moment. 00:23:48.240 --> 00:23:54.799 Because if he wasn't faithful, he wouldn't have developed those skills to be able to step into second command and lead a nation. 00:23:55.680 --> 00:23:57.599 But we despise the little. 00:24:38.160 --> 00:24:39.599 Second, the word check. 00:24:39.680 --> 00:24:42.000 Will we address or will we avoid? 00:24:42.480 --> 00:24:45.279 But if their wife notices them, tries to seduce him. 00:24:45.440 --> 00:24:46.960 This is not a one-time deal. 00:24:47.039 --> 00:24:50.079 This is a constant, daily engagement. 00:24:50.319 --> 00:24:52.960 Joseph's response is incredible. 00:24:53.599 --> 00:24:59.759 He doesn't avoid it, he doesn't minimize it, he doesn't flirt, he doesn't try to, you know, he addresses it. 00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:03.440 I've been entrusted, and so I'm going to be trustworthy. 00:25:03.680 --> 00:25:05.599 I will not betray my master. 00:25:05.759 --> 00:25:07.039 That's wrong. 00:25:07.359 --> 00:25:11.599 And something that you may not get, Potiphar's wife, we don't get her name, Mrs. 00:25:11.759 --> 00:25:12.799 Potiphar. 00:25:13.680 --> 00:25:16.160 And I get that we don't have the same convictions. 00:25:16.319 --> 00:25:17.519 I understand that. 00:25:20.079 --> 00:25:23.920 But for me, I will not sin against God. 00:25:26.079 --> 00:25:27.440 Here's my clarity. 00:25:28.720 --> 00:25:32.240 See, part of the way God develops and grows us is with a word check. 00:25:32.400 --> 00:25:35.440 Will we speak truth and love even though it's difficult and hard? 00:25:35.680 --> 00:25:40.319 It's uncomfortable, might cost you personally, financially, relationally. 00:25:40.960 --> 00:25:49.200 Ephesians 4.15 says, instead, speaking the truth in love will grow to become in every respect the mature body of Him who is the head, that is Christ. 00:25:49.359 --> 00:26:02.960 There's something powerful, this hard, that when we begin to not speak our truth, by the way, God's word, God's truth, in love, it's not just like shouting at somebody. 00:26:03.279 --> 00:26:07.200 God's word, God's truth, in love. 00:26:08.000 --> 00:26:11.599 We receive God's word and truth from another in love. 00:26:11.759 --> 00:26:15.359 That's how he begins to chip away and grow us. 00:26:15.519 --> 00:26:17.519 So many of us are resistant to that. 00:26:17.680 --> 00:26:22.640 We either don't want to step into what's uncomfortable or we don't want to hear it. 00:26:22.880 --> 00:26:26.640 That's how he grows us and shapes us. 00:26:27.039 --> 00:26:30.799 You're in a meeting and your manager says, let's just adjust the numbers a little. 00:26:31.039 --> 00:26:34.319 Make the report look a little cleaner, if you know. 00:26:34.640 --> 00:26:38.720 It's not technically illegal, but it's definitely not honest either. 00:26:39.039 --> 00:26:40.160 Do I speak up? 00:26:40.400 --> 00:26:42.799 Do I stay silent to protect myself? 00:26:43.039 --> 00:26:48.480 You're dating someone who's amazing, but your physical, emotional boundaries that keep getting blurry. 00:26:48.559 --> 00:26:51.119 You know it's not healthy, it's not honoring God. 00:26:51.359 --> 00:26:53.680 It feels easy to just not talk about it. 00:26:53.839 --> 00:26:58.160 Should I bring up the difficult conversation, risk the relationship? 00:27:00.240 --> 00:27:02.720 Or do I continue pretending it's fine? 00:27:03.200 --> 00:27:08.000 At work or in class or a group chat, someone starts tearing down another person. 00:27:09.359 --> 00:27:12.720 You can say, ah, it's harmless, it's no big deal, but you know it's wrong. 00:27:12.880 --> 00:27:16.000 Do you redirect, do you address, or do you stay quiet? 00:27:16.799 --> 00:27:19.119 So you don't sound too uptight. 00:27:19.920 --> 00:27:24.079 Silicon Valley faith is seen outdated, narrow, and anti-intellectual. 00:27:24.160 --> 00:27:28.720 So when your beliefs come up in class or at work, you feel the tension. 00:27:28.799 --> 00:27:29.680 Do I say something? 00:27:29.839 --> 00:27:30.720 Do I speak up? 00:27:30.960 --> 00:27:36.640 Do I lovingly represent Jesus or do I hide my faith behind, quote, professionalism? 00:27:37.599 --> 00:27:40.480 Your friends drifting, making destructive choices. 00:27:40.640 --> 00:27:42.480 You see it, everyone sees it. 00:27:42.720 --> 00:27:46.240 But you don't want to be, quote, judgy, so you stay silent. 00:27:46.880 --> 00:27:48.559 Do I risk the friendship? 00:27:49.519 --> 00:27:53.119 Or do I risk their future by staying quiet? 00:27:54.000 --> 00:27:57.359 Word checks are those moments when truth and love collide. 00:27:58.000 --> 00:28:04.480 We think avoiding hard conversation keeps the peace, but all it really does is postpone pain. 00:28:07.200 --> 00:28:14.480 Faithfulness check, best versus easiest, word check, address versus avoid, integrity check, finally. 00:28:14.640 --> 00:28:16.079 Conviction versus compromise. 00:28:16.240 --> 00:28:20.799 Joseph's going about his job and he gets blindsided, put in a terrible situation. 00:28:21.519 --> 00:28:24.960 Potiphar's wife has emptied the house. 00:28:25.119 --> 00:28:26.799 She's planned it out. 00:28:27.599 --> 00:28:30.559 Compromise seems like the only option. 00:28:31.039 --> 00:28:35.440 Literally could mean not just losing his job, but keeping his life. 00:28:35.599 --> 00:28:37.839 Instead, he flees from the room. 00:28:38.160 --> 00:28:43.680 Joseph puts into practice 1 Corinthians 6 long before it was ever written. 00:28:43.759 --> 00:28:47.039 The Apostle Paul writes this: flee from sexual immorality. 00:28:47.279 --> 00:28:48.880 Run from sexual immorality. 00:28:49.039 --> 00:28:50.960 Don't stay in the presence of it. 00:28:51.119 --> 00:28:51.920 What do we run from? 00:28:52.079 --> 00:28:57.200 We run from things that if we entertain them, they'll take us over and they'll take us down. 00:28:57.440 --> 00:28:58.640 He says, run from it. 00:28:58.720 --> 00:29:03.599 All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but the one who sins sexually sins against their own body. 00:29:03.759 --> 00:29:09.599 Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit of God who is in you, whom you have received from God? 00:29:09.759 --> 00:29:10.720 You are not your own. 00:29:10.880 --> 00:29:12.240 You are bought at a price. 00:29:12.480 --> 00:29:14.319 Honor God with your body. 00:29:14.880 --> 00:29:16.960 Honor God with your body. 00:29:18.319 --> 00:29:20.240 Joseph literally does this. 00:29:20.400 --> 00:29:23.039 He's caught in a compromising situation. 00:29:23.279 --> 00:29:24.799 Will he hold to his conviction? 00:29:25.039 --> 00:29:29.359 I'm gonna honor God with my body or compromise in the moment because it's easier. 00:29:29.519 --> 00:29:31.440 Compromise in the moment because it's safer. 00:29:31.599 --> 00:29:34.799 Compromise in the moment because you feel like you have no other choice. 00:29:34.960 --> 00:29:38.160 And he gets up and he runs. 00:29:39.039 --> 00:29:42.799 You know, I remember this passage from like my high school group, by the way. 00:29:42.880 --> 00:29:44.640 I remember my high school pastor Dan Kimball. 00:29:44.720 --> 00:29:46.319 We've had him speak here a few times. 00:29:46.480 --> 00:29:50.720 Uh, he gave this talk on um dating guidelines, you know, dating rules. 00:29:50.799 --> 00:29:55.519 I've used them, you know, and uh we even yeah, and so like these are so helpful. 00:29:55.599 --> 00:30:02.559 And he gave a few of these, like you know, the bikini rules, like don't touch anything in the bikini area, guys and girls, underneath or overclosed. 00:30:02.640 --> 00:30:03.440 I'm like, oh, that makes sense. 00:30:03.519 --> 00:30:04.079 That's good, okay. 00:30:04.160 --> 00:30:06.400 That's kind of the H factor, he talked about that. 00:30:06.480 --> 00:30:10.880 Don't get horizontal, you know, you're already, you know, kind of in a precarious position. 00:30:10.960 --> 00:30:13.839 You're watching a movie and you just kind of slide down, right? 00:30:13.920 --> 00:30:19.359 Uh, you know, nothing good happens after midnight, is another one, and there's like all sorts of studies that say, yeah, that's really true. 00:30:19.519 --> 00:30:23.920 Um, you're you go down in cognition uh and like decision making. 00:30:24.079 --> 00:30:27.200 And then the last one he said was Joe's secret weapon. 00:30:27.519 --> 00:30:29.519 And Joe's secret weapon was run. 00:30:30.240 --> 00:30:37.359 It's like literally, there's some times in your life where you realize to hold to your convictions, you just gotta get out of there. 00:30:37.599 --> 00:30:51.599 I remember as a friend, um he was upstairs in his apartment, downtown Capitola, uh, and he was with his girlfriend, and things started to get hot and heavy, clothes were starting to come off, and uh, and he remembers Joe's secret weapon. 00:30:51.920 --> 00:30:53.200 Seriously, no lie. 00:30:53.440 --> 00:31:03.119 He gets up in the middle of this moment, runs down the steps, and he rumps across the street, over the sand, and jumps into the ocean. 00:31:03.359 --> 00:31:05.359 Literally cools himself off. 00:31:06.640 --> 00:31:12.400 Like there's just this conviction, like, okay, what conviction do you have? 00:31:15.839 --> 00:31:18.640 We live in a culture of compromise. 00:31:22.720 --> 00:31:32.400 One of the things that I've talked to my kids over the years is just this whole idea of doing the right thing regardless if things go right. 00:31:33.920 --> 00:31:42.799 See, the reason we struggle with conviction is well, if I hold to this conviction, things are not gonna go right. 00:31:43.839 --> 00:31:48.799 I might lose my job, I might lose that friendship, I might be impacted. 00:31:49.279 --> 00:31:52.000 And we we kind of justify it, don't we? 00:31:52.799 --> 00:31:54.559 Well, they made me do it. 00:31:54.799 --> 00:31:57.359 I had no other choice. 00:31:58.079 --> 00:31:59.519 The answer is you did. 00:31:59.680 --> 00:32:02.319 You had lots of other choices. 00:32:07.680 --> 00:32:13.279 Small compromises eventually lead to big consequences every time. 00:32:13.920 --> 00:32:16.480 No one suddenly wrecks their life. 00:32:17.200 --> 00:32:22.640 It's rarely, if ever, a single decision, it's a thousand small ones that go unchecked. 00:32:22.799 --> 00:32:28.640 No one plans to cheat on their spouse, no one plans to lose their job over dishonesty, no one plans to shipwreck their faith. 00:32:28.799 --> 00:32:31.759 It just happens one small compromise at a time. 00:32:31.920 --> 00:32:33.200 It's just a shortcut. 00:32:34.480 --> 00:32:39.599 In business or in school, you justify the moral gray areas because it's personally beneficial. 00:32:40.400 --> 00:32:44.480 It's not technically wrong, but it's not right either. 00:32:44.720 --> 00:32:50.079 You put others down in order to push yourself up, take credit for something that wasn't really yours. 00:32:50.160 --> 00:32:51.599 We have this justification. 00:32:51.759 --> 00:32:53.599 Everyone else is doing it. 00:32:53.839 --> 00:32:56.400 It's what you have to do to survive. 00:32:56.720 --> 00:32:59.359 It's just the world we live in. 00:33:00.559 --> 00:33:03.440 I mean, in sexuality, it's hookup culture. 00:33:03.599 --> 00:33:04.559 I'm lonely. 00:33:04.640 --> 00:33:06.079 It's just what people do. 00:33:07.440 --> 00:33:10.480 You scroll, you send a harmless quote DM. 00:33:10.960 --> 00:33:14.079 You change your route at work or lunch so you can see him or her. 00:33:14.160 --> 00:33:18.799 It's just a series of small choices that take you down a path of pain and destruction. 00:33:18.880 --> 00:33:26.880 It's the hidden habits, the private browser, the fake account, the story we tell others, and the one you're actually living. 00:33:30.160 --> 00:33:35.039 Walter Brugerman, theologian, says this about Joseph. 00:33:35.440 --> 00:33:40.640 It is not a calculation about personal well-being that things go right. 00:33:41.039 --> 00:33:46.880 More likely, it is an understated sense of being a man of destiny. 00:33:47.519 --> 00:33:51.039 A destiny not to be squandered on a fling of passion. 00:33:51.279 --> 00:33:53.680 Joseph is not a passionless man. 00:33:53.839 --> 00:33:58.400 He has passions, but they are of a very different kind. 00:33:59.359 --> 00:34:02.720 Like, what is your integrity worth to you? 00:34:04.319 --> 00:34:10.480 We compromise all these little areas and we miss out on God's best for our life. 00:34:12.719 --> 00:34:14.079 Integrity check. 00:34:15.039 --> 00:34:18.639 Conviction versus compromise. 00:34:20.559 --> 00:34:36.559 What if the difficulties, the pain, the challenges of life are the process of God shaping, chipping away the extra, the superfluous things that are keeping you from living out who you are made to be? 00:34:37.199 --> 00:34:43.280 Difficulty, it is not derailment from your God-given dream, but development. 00:34:43.679 --> 00:34:53.039 What if instead of a blank canvas you are already a work of art in the process? 00:34:55.599 --> 00:34:58.639 Like I said, uh Pope Julius II commissioned this. 00:34:58.719 --> 00:35:01.039 It was a big, big project. 00:35:01.199 --> 00:35:06.400 Um and um they adjusted it because of expenses. 00:35:06.480 --> 00:35:10.960 It took like 30 years for Michelangelo to do this. 00:35:11.280 --> 00:35:14.639 Um there's four sculptures that didn't get finished. 00:35:14.800 --> 00:35:16.320 Um, these are them. 00:35:21.039 --> 00:35:28.480 I feel like in my early days of walking with Jesus, this is how I felt, if I'm honest. 00:35:29.360 --> 00:35:47.360 In my early days, I felt like this canvas and things that I've done or things that have been done to me, that I was a failure, I was a mistake, I was just a chaotic mess, and I was just messed up, and like it's just not working out, and like, oh my goodness, and the weight and the pressure, like that's it. 00:35:47.599 --> 00:35:51.920 And what I've come to see is like I feel a whole lot more like this dude right here. 00:35:54.880 --> 00:35:56.559 Like, am I where I want to be? 00:35:56.800 --> 00:35:57.119 No. 00:35:59.119 --> 00:36:14.880 But God has chipped and God has shaped, and there's part of his design and his fulfillment that are starting to show and starting to be formed, starting to come through the messiness, through the chaos, through the difficulty, through the pain, through the trauma, through the hardships, through the things of life that he has been forming and shaping. 00:36:15.039 --> 00:36:18.159 And by the way, this is where you are at. 00:36:22.079 --> 00:36:23.920 You're a masterpiece. 00:36:25.280 --> 00:36:27.199 You're a work in progress. 00:36:28.880 --> 00:36:45.440 And God is lovingly, actively working, Romans 8.28, all things together for the good of those who love him, who are called according to his purposes. 00:36:46.719 --> 00:36:48.880 Read Romans 8, by the way. 00:36:50.719 --> 00:36:57.679 That one line is in a very dark, hard chapter. 00:37:00.239 --> 00:37:07.519 And the apostle Paul was someone who knew pain, knew difficulty, knew betrayal. 00:37:13.119 --> 00:37:19.280 What if you're in the process of God? 00:37:21.199 --> 00:37:24.159 Andrew Murray's has this formula for trials. 00:37:24.239 --> 00:37:26.000 It's been something through the years. 00:37:26.159 --> 00:37:30.400 I I first read this in my twenties that I just go back to. 00:37:33.840 --> 00:37:43.679 And the reason is because the picture over here, there's something that I think we buy into that's just it's broken in our culture. 00:37:43.920 --> 00:37:49.519 And what we buy into is that we are both the artist and the piece of art. 00:37:50.639 --> 00:37:56.639 We're both the painter and the canvas, we're the potter and the clay. 00:37:56.960 --> 00:37:59.199 And truth be told, you can be. 00:37:59.840 --> 00:38:01.440 And most of us are. 00:38:01.679 --> 00:38:06.639 We pick up our paintbrush and we're painting and we're working on it, but we don't know what to do with that. 00:38:06.800 --> 00:38:09.679 And I just want to ask you, how's it working for you? 00:38:12.800 --> 00:38:21.119 Andrew Murray reminds me of just saying, okay, God, I'm gonna let you be the great artist of my life. 00:38:21.760 --> 00:38:28.559 I'm gonna let you be the master designer and architect and sculptor. 00:38:30.079 --> 00:38:37.360 That you actually know what you're doing, and so I'm gonna entrust, entrust you where you have me. 00:38:37.519 --> 00:38:40.480 He writes, He brought me here. 00:38:41.199 --> 00:38:45.039 It's by his will I'm in the straight place or difficult place. 00:38:45.599 --> 00:38:47.440 In that fact I will rest. 00:38:48.320 --> 00:38:53.280 He will keep me here in his love and give me grace to behave as his child. 00:38:53.519 --> 00:38:58.559 Then he'll make the trial a blessing, teaching me the lessons he intends for me to learn. 00:38:58.880 --> 00:39:02.159 In his good time, he will bring me out again. 00:39:02.400 --> 00:39:04.960 How and when only he knows. 00:39:05.360 --> 00:39:14.000 So let me say, I am here by God's appointment, in his keeping, under his training, for his time. 00:39:16.320 --> 00:39:20.400 I don't know what you're walking through in the pain and the heartache. 00:39:20.639 --> 00:39:24.079 I do know in a room like this there's a lot of pain. 00:39:24.880 --> 00:39:41.039 And what I want to invite you to do in this moment is to bring to God the paintbrush of your life as you're struggling to figure it out and bring to him the heartache and the pain, and just say, I am here by your appointment under your keeping, under your training for your time. 00:39:41.119 --> 00:39:44.079 And God, I give it over afresh to you today. 00:39:44.320 --> 00:40:01.840 God, I'm struggling in the midst of this and the chipping away with my doubt and my anxiety, my insecurity, the chipping away of that betrayal and that anger and that's the relationship and the health issue and all the things that are going on and hurting that you just go, God, I bring this to you. 00:40:02.159 --> 00:40:03.679 Gotta bring this to you. 00:40:05.519 --> 00:40:07.280 Gotta bring this to you. 00:40:11.199 --> 00:40:13.519 Because honestly, I just keep making a mess. 00:40:13.679 --> 00:40:16.079 It feels like a chaotic mess. 00:40:17.360 --> 00:40:21.920 And today, in this moment, I'm gonna trust that you are at work. 00:40:22.000 --> 00:40:27.440 And I don't get it because I I don't understand how you can take my messiness, the world's messiness, what others have done. 00:40:27.599 --> 00:40:32.320 I don't understand that, but you are sovereign and you are good and you are faithful. 00:40:32.480 --> 00:40:36.480 Even when I am faithless, you remain faithful, for you cannot deny yourself. 00:40:36.559 --> 00:40:38.639 And so you're faithful in my story. 00:40:38.719 --> 00:40:44.719 And what I know is that he who began a good work in me will be faithful to complete until the day of Christ Jesus. 00:40:44.880 --> 00:40:54.239 So if I'm not dead, you're not done with me, and you're showing up in this moment, and you hand him the brush of your life and say, Jesus, I'm all yours. 00:40:57.199 --> 00:40:58.719 I'm all yours. 00:41:01.920 --> 00:41:08.159 I trust you through the heartache and the pain and the hurt. 00:41:11.599 --> 00:41:12.559 Have your way. 00:41:14.480 --> 00:41:15.360 Have your way. 00:41:20.000 --> 00:41:21.280 So, Jesus, we come. 00:41:29.760 --> 00:41:54.960 We come as as hurting, as broken, as messy, filled with doubt and anxiety, carrying the weight of the world as it would seem on our shoulders. 00:41:58.639 --> 00:42:08.239 And confess, God, we've been trying to paint our own picture, and in this moment we hand you the brush of our life. 00:42:12.159 --> 00:42:16.880 Would you be and take in me and be the great artist? 00:42:21.039 --> 00:42:22.880 So let me say I'm here. 00:42:24.960 --> 00:42:26.239 Under your training. 00:42:28.000 --> 00:42:29.119 In your keeping. 00:42:33.679 --> 00:42:35.599 I'm actually in your keeping. 00:42:35.760 --> 00:42:37.599 In this moment, you are with me. 00:42:37.760 --> 00:42:41.599 In every moment moving forward, you are with me. 00:42:50.960 --> 00:42:52.719 And so give me the grace. 00:42:53.119 --> 00:42:54.239 Give us the grace. 00:43:03.039 --> 00:43:06.960 The hard places, the cover-up places, the secret places. 00:43:08.800 --> 00:43:09.920 Over to you. 00:43:10.800 --> 00:43:12.480 In Jesus' name. 00:43:13.039 --> 00:43:13.679 Amen. 00:43:15.519 --> 00:43:17.760 We hope you are blessed by this message. 00:43:18.000 --> 00:43:22.400 Please subscribe to our podcast for access to every episode as they're uploaded. 00:43:22.559 --> 00:43:24.639 And hey, we'd love to connect with you. 00:43:24.800 --> 00:43:30.719 Take a next step by filling out our virtual connection card at awakeningchurch.com slash card.