[MUSIC PLAYING] Would you turn in your Bibles
to the first book in that Bible, the book of Genesis,
the last chapter of that first book, Genesis 50? Most all of you know,
in fact, some of you have even used this online
auction called eBay. I have purchased
things over the years. Millions of transactions
have taken place where people buy and sell just
about anything and everything on eBay. Every now and then, odd
things show up for sale. And people have
made note of that and lists of all the weird
things eBay has sold. But here's a few
standout things. A few years back a grilled
sandwich sold on eBay. A grilled sandwich,
some of you saw that, with the face of
the Virgin Mary. It sold for $28,000 on eBay. Because supposedly, the little
sandwich had magical powers and was unaffected by
mold for over a decade, that was what they claimed. So somebody dished out $28,000. Then there was the haunted
rubber duck that sold on eBay. And it purportedly had the
power to possess children. Now who on earth would
ever want to buy that? Right? Or, for that matter, who
would ever want to sell it? Who'd want to let that go
and get out into the public and do damage? But it's sold on
eBay for $107,000. Then there was the case of a
10-year-old girl from England who tried to sell her
grandmother on eBay. [LAUGHTER] And the little ad
she took out on eBay said, about her grandmother,
she is annoying but cuddly. Of course, eBay
had to take it down because it breaches regulations
for human trafficking. You can't sell people on
eBay, even your grandmother. But perhaps the most
bizarre was a decade ago when a man got on eBay and
offered his life for sale. The ad ran like this,
"My name is Ian Usher and I've had enough of my life. I don't want it anymore. You can have it if you like. Whatever it is, it's all going
up for sale in one big auction, everything I have
and everything I am. On the day that it's
sold and settled, I intend to walk
out the front door with my wallet in one
pocket and my passport in the other, nothing else. And then get on the train
with no idea where I am going or what the future holds for me" What ended up happening is Ian
Usher was selling his life. He sold his home,
along with it beat up furniture, along with it
an old car, along with it a small motorcycle. He sold all of that for $305,000
and he moved to Australia. What he said is that
his wife had left him. Six years into their
marriage, she divorced him. And he said that he wanted
to remove all reminders of his life with his ex-wife. Now there's a lot of ways
you can deal with rejection. This has got to take the cake. I just want to sell my life. You can have it, all of it. I suppose if there could have
been one person in the Bible who would have said that, it
would be Joseph, because he had so many bad
things happen to him over the course of his life. One bad thing after another. His brothers hated him. The Midianites sold him. Potiphar jailed him. His cellmates forgot him. But God promoted him. It's an incredible story. And it's an incredible
story on a number of levels. Here's just one of them. Of all 50 chapters in the
book of Genesis, all of them together, one fourth of
the entire book of Genesis is devoted to Joseph. That in and of itself
is amazing given the fact that God uses
10 words to describe the creation of the universe. Genesis 1:1 "In
the beginning, God created the heavens
and the earth." That's 10 words. Then He gives two
chapters to fill in some of the details
of those 10 words. But 13 chapters in the
book are devoted to Joseph, his tragedies and his triumph. It's an incredible story. It's a rags to riches story. It's about how the son of
an obscure, poor Israelite herdsman goes from
total obscurity to become the second most
powerful man in Egypt, thus in the world. An incredible story. And the story
introduces us to one of the notable traits of God
and that is His providence, God's providence. We say that God is provident. When we talk about
God's providence, we're not talking about
His miraculous works. A miracle is where God
intervenes natural law. But providence is where He
cooperates with natural law to effect a supernatural
result. In providence, God is manipulating ordinary
events to effect an extraordinary outcome. And besides all that,
Joseph proves to us that no matter how bad
you had it growing up, no matter how you were
mistreated or mishandled or misjudged growing up,
you can live well now. Joseph shows that. It's an amazing story. Now a little quick
thumbnail sketch about Joseph's background. His family was
messed up, big time. The family of Joseph, with
his father Jacob and his 11 brothers, it was, to
say the very least, a dysfunctional family,
on a high level. First of all his, dad
had four wives, not four in a row, four at the same time. So that's bad. Then his brothers get
involved in all sorts of sinful activity, including
incest, rape, murder, and-- with Joseph-- human trafficking. When we get to chapter 50,
last chapter in the book, it is the crescendo. It is the high moment. It is after Jacob's death. Their dad has died. They buried him. They're back from the
funeral in Canaan. They're back in Egypt. And now these brothers
are really paranoid. Verse 15 of chapter
50 introduces us. "When Joseph's brothers saw
that their Father was dead, they said, perhaps,
Joseph will hate us and may actually repay
us for all the evil which we did to him. So they sent messengers
to Joseph saying, before your father died, he
commanded us saying thus you shall say to Joseph-- I beg you, please
forgive the trespass of your brothers and their
sin, for they did evil to you. Now please forgive the
trespass of the servants of the God of your father. And Joseph wept when
they spoke to him. Then his brothers also went
and fell down before his face. And they said, behold,
we are your servants. Joseph said to them,
do not be afraid. For I am I in the place of God? But as for you, you
meant evil against me but God meant it
for good in order to bring it about as it is this
day to save many people alive. Now, therefore,
do not be afraid. I will provide for you
and your little ones. And he comforted them and
he spoke kindly to them." This is the finale of
the entire Joseph story. All of the tension that
begins in chapter 37 and grows and mounts
comes to its high point here until finally
it is resolved. And through Joseph's
forgiveness, it is relieved. So the scene begins in fear,
but it ends in forgiveness. And there is one little
phase in between. So we are going to begin
and look at the three stages that Joseph's brothers go
to to bring resolution. First of all, fear. They are afraid of something. They have a baseless, I
would add a baseless, fear. Verse 15 says, "When
Joseph's brothers saw that their Father--"
that is Jacob-- "was dead. They said--" now, they're
talking among themselves. They have a conversation-- "perhaps Joseph will
hate us and may actually repay us for all the evil
which we did to him." This is their guilt speaking. The whole turn of
events with Joseph has been odd to these brothers. They are uneasy with
how it has come down. Joseph was sold by them. They captured him, put him in a
pit, because they were jealous, sold him to Midianites
who dumped him in Egypt. But everybody thinks
Joseph is dead. Jacob thinks he's dead
or thought he was dead. The brothers
thought he was dead. Come to find out,
he's not only dead. He's very much alive. And he's large and in charge. He is, in fact, the second
most powerful human being on the planet in charge of the
economy that is controlled, at that time, by Egypt. So on one hand, it's
sort of like a fairy tale ending for these boys. They are rescued by Joseph. They are saved from hunger. They are provided for. And they are now
protected by him. On the other hand, there is
now one person in the world that controls their
future and that is their brother whom
they sold years ago. So he's the guy in charge. He can kill them if he wants to. They are in his debt completely. And at any moment, he
could rescind his favor and protection. So they're scrambling. They're thinking, well, perhaps
dad's life was a buffer. While dad was
alive, Joseph isn't going to retaliate
because poor, old dad has had enough heartache. He's not going to add to that. He's going to wait
till he's dead. Now he's dead. Funeral's over. We buried him in Canaan. We're back now. Now, the chief impediment to
that revenge by our brother is taken away. We are completely vulnerable
before our brother Joseph. Dig a little deeper
in verse 15 and you'll notice that these brothers
feared two things. First, they feared
Joseph's personal emotion. Look at how they put it. "Perhaps Joseph will hate us." The word hate in Hebrew is
the word [SPEAKING HEBREW],, which means to bear a grudge. It speaks of a growing
resentment and bitterness. They are afraid of that. Something has been growing
inside the heart of our brother Joseph all this time. So they're afraid of
his personal emotion. Also, notice they're afraid
of Joseph's possible action. For they say, and he
may actually repay us for all the evil we did to him. The word actually could be
better translated fully. And he may fully repay
us for all the evil which we did to him. In other words,
our brother Joseph has been nursing a
grudge all these years and now he's going
to give full vent to that hatred and those
feelings in his heart. All I can say at this point
is a guilty conscience is an unbearable load. When you carry around with
you all the junk and stuff from years past,
your failures, what you did, and you carry that, it
becomes that guilty conscience. It is a heavy load and
sometimes too heavy to bear. Psalm 38:4, the
Psalmist said, "My guilt has overwhelmed me like a
burden too heavy to bear." And the reason that
it's so heavy to bear is that a guilty conscience
needs no accuser. Wherever you go, you carry
that conscience with you. It is its own accuser. You start filtering every
one and every action through the viewpoint, the lens,
the filter, of all that guilt. It can crush you. Charles Spurgeon said, "I'd
rather bear any affliction than be burdened with
a guilty conscience." So they're viewing Joseph
now through that guilt. They're looking at him, and
they're listening to him, and they're seeing all of that
through their own personality and their own action. They're projecting. You've heard that term before. That people project
things on other people. You see, they're
worried that Joseph is going to get rid of
them because they once tried to get rid of him. So they are seeing
Joseph through the lens of their own personality. And their conversation
in verse 15 reveals more about them
than it does about Joseph. And whatever you project
onto other people tell us more about you than
it tells about other people. Shakespeare said, "Suspicion
always haunts the guilty mind." Do you know how
many years it's been since they did this to Joseph? 40. Between chapter 37 and chapter
50, four decades have gone by. For 40 years, they
have been carrying that load of guilt,
unattended to, unresolved until this moment. And that's because guilt
distorts your reality. You don't see clearly. When you're around people,
you assume the worst. And you impose the
worst possible motives. I wonder why he said that. I know why he said
that, because-- you're just, that's you. And they're wrong. It's not reality. They think Joseph hates them. That's not true. Joseph loves them. They think Joseph
wants to kill them. Joseph doesn't
want to kill them. Joseph is going to
say, I think you guys need to be alive to
preserve your life. They think Joseph is
unforgiving and unrelenting. And that's not true. He's forgiven them
five chapters ago. They're still carrying the load. Guilt upon the conscience
is like rust upon metal. At first the rust just
discolors the metal. But after a while, it
starts creeping into it. And eventually, it eats out the
very heart and the substance of that metal. It rots it from within. Guilt will do that
to the human heart. So they come with this
fear, a baseless fear. The second stage
is a fabrication, a blatant fabrication. They're going to say something
that their dad supposedly said that is not true. Verse 16, "So they sent
messengers to Joseph." Mark that. They're so paranoid they
didn't even show up themselves. They send a team ahead of them. "--messengers to Joseph saying,
before your father died, he commanded us, saying, thus
you shall say to Joseph I beg you, please forgive the trespass
of your brothers and their sin for they have done evil to you. Now please forgive
the trespass--" listen to how they put it-- "of the servants of the
God of your Father." You don't want to hurt
God's servants, do you? "And Joseph wept when
they spoke to him. Then his brothers also went
and fell down before his face. And they said, behold,
we are your servants." Now, Jacob their dad may,
indeed, have actually said these words to them. But there is no record of it. There is no record in all of
the scriptures up to this point that Joseph ever actually gave
the 11 brothers this message to tell Joseph. And don't you think that
a message this important would be told eye to eye,
would have been given by Jacob himself? In fact, if you were to go
back one chapter-- not now-- but chapter 49 of Genesis,
one of the great chapters of the Bible, all of
the boys, all 12 men, are gathered around
the deathbed of Jacob. And in that chapter, Jacob gets
very direct with all 12 boys. He is unafraid to call
out their past sins. He is unafraid to
predict their future. And Jacob, the old man before
he died, he knew his boys. He knew the
disposition of these 11 and that you can't trust them
with a message this important. They had proven to be
liars throughout his life. So Jacob, if he
really did say this, would have said this
privately to Joseph or in the very least
publicly when they were all gathered around his
deathbed in chapter 49. So I believe this is a lie. It's a fabrication. Which means, if it is indeed
a fabrication, what it means is they're using their dead
father as the fall guy. They're using their dead
dad as the scapegoat. They're throwing him under
the bus, effectively. They're saying, well, you
know our dad's last dying wish was that you let
bygones be bygones. So this is their
collective personality. This is their group speak. This is who they are. They have had mercy
shown to them. They have been lavishly treated
by Joseph up to this point and by Pharaoh of Egypt. They have been relocated
from the land of Israel, who was suffering famine,
to the land of Goshen, a very lush place in Egypt. They have been given meals. They have been given provisions. They have been given protection. And they have already seen
the error of their ways and confessed already to
lying all of these years. But old habits die slow. Or as a friend of mine
says, people change, but not that much. [LAUGHTER] These boys have changed,
but not that much. They still are who they. They're paranoid. They're opportunistic. They want to save
their own hides. That's what all this
fabrication is about. Because they said so,
he's going to kill us. He's going to repay us. So they come up with this lie. In Proverbs 29:25, the
author says, "The fear of man brings a snare. But whoever trusts in
the Lord shall be safe." That one proverb contrasts
Joseph and his brothers. "The fear of man
brings the snare." That's his brothers. "But whoever trusts in
the Lord shall be safe." That's Joseph. It's like these guys lived
on two completely different levels. Joseph lives, and always
lived, on the "but God" level. He's always looking
for God in the picture no matter what happens to him. Not these guys. I want to so you something. Go back five chapters. Go back to chapter 45. Just for a few
moments, I want you to look at the very first time
the prime minister of Egypt, Joseph their brother,
discloses to them that he is their brother who's
not dead, but is alive. It's a fun scene. Chapter 45:1 "Then
Joseph--" his brothers are standing before
him-- "then Joseph could not restrain himself
before all those who stood by him. And he cried out, make
everyone go out from me. So no one stood with
him while Joseph made himself known to his brothers. And he wept aloud. And the Egyptians and the
house of Pharaoh heard it." Now you've got to
think his brothers are going what is going on? Who is this guy weeping? Watch this. "Then Joseph said to his
brothers, I am Joseph. Does my Father still live? But his brothers
could not answer him for they were dismayed
in his presence." In other words, this was
their great uh-oh moment. "I'm Joseph." Uh-oh. Not good. Then Joseph said to
his brothers, verse 4, "Please come near me." Now they're really going u-oh. "So they came near. And he said, I am
Joseph your brother whom you sold into Egypt." Uh-oh. But watch this. Watch it. Look at the different
level Joseph lives at. Verse 5, "But now
do not therefore be grieved or angry
with yourselves because you sold me
here, for God sent me before you to preserve life." Wow. "For these two years, the
famine has been in the land. And there are still five
years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. And God sent me before you to
preserve a posterity for you in the earth and to save your
lives by a great deliverance. So now, it was not you
who sent me here, but God. And he has made me
father to Pharaoh and lord of all his
house and a ruler throughout the land of Egypt. Hurry and go up to my father and
say to him thus says your son, Joseph, God has made me
Lord of all of Egypt. Come down to me. Do not tarry. You shall dwell in
the land of Goshen. And you shall be near to
me, you and your children, your children's children,
your flocks, and herds and all that you have." That's his level. That's Joseph's level,
the but God level. He always lived on, well,
this is bad, but God OK, they sold me as a
slave, but God-- OK. Now I'm in jail, but God-- That's how he lived. Not these 11 brothers,
especially the oldest 10. Benjamin, was another
story, but they didn't live on that but God level. They lived on the but we level. But we. For example, Joseph told us
his dreams, but we resent him. Joseph has come to give
us a message from dad, but we despise him. Here comes little Joseph
in his technicolor coat, but we will show him. We will sell him. Now, years later, standing
before the prime minister of Egypt, it's exactly the same. Joseph is the
prime minister now. Dad is dead, but we
will outsmart him. They come up with
this fabrication. Sir Walter Scott
once remarked, "Oh, what a tangled web we
weave when at first we practice to deceive." And so what do they do? They send messengers
first of all. And then after the
messengers come, because once the word gets out,
now they come. And they get all
grovelly before him. They come down. They bow down and say, dude,
we'll be your slaves, man. We'll serve you forever. This is called
self-preservation. That's all it is. They want to save their hide. Satan was accurate when
he said to God something true about human nature. He said skin for skin, yea,
all that a man has will he give for his life. When it comes down to it,
Joseph's going to kill us. Let's come up with this lie
and maybe he'll spare us. So from baseless fear to
a blatant fabrication, the third level
is the best level. And that is their
brother's forgiveness. So there they are. Can you picture them? They're groveling before him. Their heads are downcast. They said, we'll
be your servants. We'll be your slaves. And they expect
to look up and see a vengeful, fuming
ruler who's going to do something bad to them. They look up and they see
the prime minister of Egypt, their brother Joseph, weeping. There are tears in his eyes. Verse 17 "And Joseph wept
when they spoke to him." This is a sensitive guy. He cries a lot. Chapter 45 he was crying
before he revealed who he was. He had everybody go and
started weeping loudly. Now he's crying again. But what is crying for? Is he crying for himself? His tears aren't
friends for himself. He's not going, man, you
guys were really bad to me. He's not holding on to that. He's crying for who? Them. Them. He's weeping because
he sees their torment. He's weeping because he
knows they're scheming. He forgave them long ago. And now he repeats that promise
and he quells their fears. Verse 19, "Joseph said to
them do not be afraid." Why did he say that? Because they were what? Afraid. Afraid. They were afraid. He saw that. He saw their fear. "Do not be afraid. For am I in the place of God? But as for you, you
meant evil against me. But God meant it
for good in order to bring it about as it is this
day to save many people alive." I'll explain that in a moment. "Now, therefore
do not be afraid. I will provide for you
and your little ones. And he comforted them and
he spoke kindly to them." Having heard that, here's
the question I want to bring. Here's the question. How is it-- how does
love, forgiveness, come from the heart of
somebody who has been so mistreated like Joseph? How can kindness, compassion,
forgiveness, love-- how can that be
cultivated in a person who has been hurt, mismanaged,
misaligned, lied about, gossiped about for years? How can that be? The answer is found
in his answer. His answer to them, two
verses that I just read. And because these
two verses, Joseph is giving his theology
on pain and suffering. It's all in just
too little verses. It's very, very profound. This is what Joseph
believes about God. This is what Joseph believes
about life, about his life. This is what Joseph believes
about pain and suffering all put into two
neat little verses. This is Joseph's
theology on suffering. It can be divided into
three main points. Number one, God is in charge. God is in charge,
not me, not anyone. God is in charge. Because he says "Am I
in the place of God?" I'm not in charge. God is in charge,
not me, not anyone. Am I in the place of God? Now some rulers actually think
they are in the place of God. Some politicians think they
are in the place of God. Some kings and rulers
have thought, well, I'm sort of godlike. I'm in the place of God. Now in one sense, they're right. In one sense they really
are in the place of God, because young Daniel said
to King Nebuchadnezzar on the throne of Babylon,
he said the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, but he
gives it to whoever He wills. And then Paul, in Romans
13, said "Let every soul--" that's you and me,
you have a soul-- "let every soul be subject
to the governing authorities for there is no authority
except from God. And the authorities that
exist are appointed by God." Remember that with
your politicians. And he says about
those rulers, "For he is God's minister
to you for good." What Joseph have means when he
says am I in the place of God is look, guys. I may be the prime
minister, but I'm not God. I'm a servant of God, too. I'm a slave of God, too. Our problems begin when we
forget that God is in charge. Our problems begin when we
try to push God off the throne and we want that place. We're going to call the shots. I'm large and in charge. Paul said this, and
he asked the question. I'm going to have you answer it. Paul said, "Who has known
the mind of the Lord or who has become
his counselor?" Now you answer that. Who has ever become
God's counselor? Be honest. Because the true answer
is you have and I have. We've counseled God. Oh, maybe not out loud,
but we've thought that. In our prayers we have. Now, God, this is
what You ought to do. Or you know, God, You had a
window here, You had a chance. If You would have just listened
to the way I prayed about this, it would have been perfect. But You didn't do it. You blew Your chance. You've counseled God. You've thought He
has made mistakes in one case or another. When you feel like
things are out of control and you kind of want to push
God off that seat of His throne and you want to occupy
that and call the shots, your problems will mount. Joseph believes God is in
charge, not me, not anyone. Second thing he
believes in his theology is that God uses bad events
to bring about good results. God uses bad events to
bring about good results. In verse 20, he says,
"But as for you, you meant this for
evil--" I'm not letting you guys off the hook,
you had evil intentions-- "you meant this for
evil against me. But God meant it for good." What's the good? "In order to bring
it about as it is this day to save
many people alive." He has a clear understanding
that God is at work, that God is behind
the scenes, that I can trust God for the outcome. That's called providence. God works providentially. No matter what the intention
of people, whether good or bad, God's going to bring about
His own ultimate end. So Joseph is looking
at his brothers realizing I believe God
has a plan for you men. And that is you need to survive. It's crucial that
you live, not die. Why? Because I understand that
God has a plan for a nation He wants to develop. And for Him to enact
that plan of the nation, He has to enact that plan on
the leaders of that nation. And that's us, boys,
the 12 tribes of Israel. That they were transported
from a land where there was no food to
Egypt, a place where there was plenty of food. They were given a section of
the land, the land of Goshen. So that for the
next 400 years they could go from a 70 person family
to a nation of 2-3 million. That was God's plan. Why? Because God wanted a
nation on the earth to witness to His
glory and eventually bring the Messiah who would
be the Savior of the world. Joseph sees the big picture,
not all of it, but part of it. That God has a plan to
save many people alive so you guys need to be
alive because you're going to be the nation
that God is going to use to put on the earth. That nation will
bring the Messiah. Joseph simply sees his
suffering as part of the plan. So if my suffering means that
a nation can be preserved, I'm in. Now, Joseph's story that we
have just read and considered-- Joseph's story--
can be summed up in one verse in
the New Testament. You know it well. Romans 8:28. You know that verse? Yes. Paul said this, you know it. Paul said, "And we know--"
not we think, we hope, we cross our fingers, maybe-- "we know that all things
work together--" not some things, not most things,
not good things, not just the things that
I've pray about-- "all things-- And we know
that all things work together for good to those who love God
and to those who are the called according to His purpose." Don't you love that verse? Yes. It's what RS Torrey called "a
soft pillow for a tired heart." And how many times I've laid my
heart on that verse for repose. All things. All things. All things. William Newell says "Dark
things, bright things, happy things, sad things,
sweet things, bitter things, times of prosperity,
times of adversity." We know that all things-- what are the next two words? We know that all
things work together. Two words, one in
Greek [SPEAKING GREEK] is where we get our word
synergism or synergy. And synergism is the
interaction and cooperation of two or more things. Synergism means the working
together of various elements to produce results that
are greater than the sum. So that things by
themselves may be bad, but when you put them in
combination with other things, the result can be
very, very good. We see this happen in
the natural world you can take two substances
that are normally harmful, but in right combination,
they are beneficial. Example, sodium in its pure
form is not good for you. It can hurt you, can kill you. Chlorine, if you sniff
chlorine you die. If you mix sodium and chlorine
in the right combination, now you have sodium chloride,
that's table salt, yum. [LAUGHTER] Two bad things in right
combination can be beneficial. So God is able to take all of
those poisonous, toxic things in life-- good things, bad things-- and bring divine synergism to
it so that the result is good. Which means, you better be
very careful what you call bad. Well, why do bad things
happen to people? Why did that bad
thing happen to me? Be careful. That bad thing may actually
be something very good in a very clever disguise. I'll give you an example
from our own lives. We have a good friend,
an acquaintance of ours, lives in Florida who
recently got in a-- Paul Hackenberry, he got
in a motorcycle accident. I saw the pictures of him
in the emergency room. Didn't look good. You'd look at them
and go that's bad. But they did X-rays
and MRI scans. And you know when you have a
head injury you kind of look at not just the head, but the
neck, cervical spine, clavicle, upper thoracic. And so they're X-raying
him, doing MRIs. And they discover in the
upper thorax is a nodule. They just picked
it up on the MRI. And they found out
that was cancer. But it was in its early
stage, so they could treat it and he'd be fine. And so this accident
may have saved his life. Something that is bad has
turned out, by God's providence, to become good. So Joseph believes-- Joseph's
theology of pain and suffering is that God is in charge,
not me, not anyone else. God uses bad events to
bring about good results. And, finally, God uses
people to help other people. That's verse 21, look at it. He says, "Now, therefore, do
not be afraid--" now get this-- "I will provide for you--" I.
That kid that 40 years ago you put in a pit. I. The kid you
resented all your life. Me. That guy that you said I'm
selling him to the Midianite. Get rid of him. Kill him. This guy will provide for you. "I will provide for you
and your little ones. And he comforted them and
he spoke kindly to them." See what Joseph is saying is,
look, your act was an evil act. What you did was wrong. But if you wouldn't
have done that, then I wouldn't have been
sold to the Midianites. And if I wasn't sold
to the Midianites, then I wouldn't have
gone down to Egypt. If I hadn't gone
down to Egypt, they wouldn't have thrown
me in Potiphar's house. If I wouldn't have been
in Potiphar's house, I wouldn't be falsely
accused by his wife of something I never did. And if I was never
falsely accused of something I never did, I
wouldn't have gone to jail. And if I wouldn't
have gone to jail, I never would've met those
two guys who had dreams. And I told them what
their dream meant. And they forgot about me
for a couple of years, but then they remembered. And if that wouldn't
have happened, then I wouldn't have
been in Pharaoh's house to interpret his dream. And if that wouldn't
happen, I wouldn't be the lord of all
of Egypt, but I am because God took all of those
events and wove them together. And now, boys, I'm here to help
and provide for your future. How's that for gracious
love and forgiveness from a heart that has been
mistreated year after year? All of that to say that God
will use your suffering to help somebody else who suffers. Please don't let your
suffering ever go to waste. In the very least,
God can use your time of suffering and your lessons
to help somebody else who is going to go through that. That's what Paul
says, 2 Corinthians 1. "He comforts us in
all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When others are
troubled, we will be able to give them the same
comfort God has given to us. So when we are weighed
down--" speaking of we Apostles-- we, Paul,
Barnabas, Silas, Timothy-- "when we are weighed
down with troubles, it is for your benefit
and salvation." I'm not going to waste this. God's going to use this. I want to close with a
little article I found, a hypothetical situation. This is written by
Jonathan Haidt, a New York psychologist, New
York City attached to a prominent university. This is what he says. "Imagine that you have a
child and for five minutes you are given a script of what
will be that child's life. You get an eraser. You can edit. You can take out
whatever you want. You read that your child
will have a learning disability in grade school. Reading, which comes
easily for some kids, will be laborious for yours. In high school, your kid will
make a great circle of friends and then one of them
will die of cancer. After high school, this
child will actually get into the college
they wanted to attend. While there, there will be
a car crash and your child will lose a leg or go through
a difficult depression-- and go through a
difficult depression. A few years later, your
child will get a great job and then lose that job
in an economic downturn. Your child will get
married, but then go through the grief
of a separation." This is the script
of your child's life. And you have five minutes
to edit that script. Question, what would you erase? Wouldn't you want to take
out all that stuff that would cause them pain? He continues, "I'm a part of
a generation of adults called helicopter parents,
because we're constantly trying to swoop into our
kids' educational life, relational life, sports
life, et cetera, to make sure no one is mistreating them,
no one is disappointing them. We want them to experience
one unobstructed success after another." Then he continues,
"One Halloween, a mom came to our door
to trick or treat. Why didn't she send in her kid? Well, the weather's a
little bad, she said. She was driving so he didn't
have to walk in the rain. But why not send
him to the door? Well, he had fallen asleep
in the car, she said. So she didn't want to
have to wake him up. I felt like saying, why don't
you just eat all this candy and get the stomach
ache for him, too. Then he can be
completely protected. If you could wave a
magic wand, if you could erase every failure, every
setback, suffering, and pain, are you sure it
would be a good idea? Would it cause your
child to grow up to be a better, stronger,
more generous person? Is it possible that in some
way people actually need adversity, setbacks, maybe
even something like trauma to reach the fullest level
of development and growth?" One question that only
you can answer as we close, how big is your God? The God you say you
serve, the God you say you love, the God you
say you're committed to, how big is that God? Is that God big enough to take
the bad things of your past and weave them together with
all the things in your life and produce something of
great value and great beauty at the end? Is He big enough to do that? That's the God that we serve. That's the God that
gives us those promises. That's the God who
did this for Joseph. Is your God that big? Can you trust Him? Right now in perhaps
the worst point at your life, and
say, Lord, but God-- not but me, but we,
but him, but God. Yeah, but--but God. But you don't-- but God. What level are you
going to live at? Their level-- these 11
brothers-- or the level Joseph lived in? But God sent me here
to preserve life. "Father, You are a good God. We confess that. We thank you for it. You know our weakness. You know our humanity. You know our frame. You know how easily we get
upset when somebody upsets us. You know how quickly we
are to retaliate or cherish thoughts of doing it. You know how human we are. You know how sinful we are. It's why Jesus
came to this earth to pay a price to
redeem us to You. And Lord, You, have
made a covenant with us not only to forgive
us of all of our sins, but also to take every part
of our lives, every thing that happens to us, with us,
and bring about, effect in the end, your plan and your
purpose for our greatest good and for Your highest glory. [MUSIC PLAYING] Lord, some of us are suffering. For some of us, it's legit. We're going through things that,
like Joseph, are alienating and very painful, traumatic
events physically, emotionally, spiritually. I pray, Lord, that this
message will have enabled us to peek behind the curtains
just a bit and say, ah, but God is doing something. Don't know what, but I
can't wait to find out. In Jesus' name, Amen. We hope you enjoyed this message
from Skip Heitzig of Calvary Church. How will you put the truths
that you learned into action in your life? Let us know. Email us at
mystory@calvarynm.church. And just a reminder, you can
support this ministry with a financial gift at
Calvarynm.church/gift. Thank you for joining us for
this teaching from Calvary Church.
