WEBVTT - With God There’s Always A Meanwhile (Lysa TerKeurst) 0:00:01.520 --> 0:00:04.080 Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation 0:00:04.320 --> 0:00:06.560 Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank 0:00:06.600 --> 0:00:09.879 you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope 0:00:09.920 --> 0:00:11.959 it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to 0:00:11.960 --> 0:00:13.560 see God as moving in your life. 0:00:13.840 --> 0:00:16.560 Enjoy the message. 0:00:17.480 --> 0:00:22.280 Our key passage today is going to be Genesis fifty twenty. 0:00:22.920 --> 0:00:27.800 Genesis fifty twenty says this you intended to harm me, 0:00:30.240 --> 0:00:36.120 but God intended it for good, to accomplish what is 0:00:36.159 --> 0:00:39.720 now being done, the saving of many lives. 0:00:40.920 --> 0:00:42.480 Thank you Lord for this word. 0:00:42.640 --> 0:00:45.080 Thank you that it can get down inside of us, 0:00:45.200 --> 0:00:49.479 rearrange some thoughts that we have, motivate us to trust 0:00:49.520 --> 0:00:53.279 you more. God, you are faithful, You are good. In 0:00:53.320 --> 0:00:57.680 your Holy name. We pray and everyone said Amen. When 0:00:57.680 --> 0:01:04.280 I read this verse, I am absolutely struck by this reality, 0:01:05.200 --> 0:01:08.440 this person, this group, this entity. 0:01:08.840 --> 0:01:11.600 You intended to harm me. 0:01:12.680 --> 0:01:17.399 At the same time, God also has an intention. 0:01:18.640 --> 0:01:20.119 And God's intention is. 0:01:20.080 --> 0:01:24.800 To take whatever has happened and to use it for good, 0:01:25.240 --> 0:01:30.000 for the saving of many lives. You see, with God, 0:01:30.520 --> 0:01:35.440 there's always two things happening at the same time. There 0:01:35.560 --> 0:01:39.160 is the physical reality of what we see, and there 0:01:39.240 --> 0:01:43.600 is the certainty of the good that God is eventually 0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:46.319 going to do no matter what we walk through. 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:49.160 Amen. Amen, you guys can have a seat. 0:01:50.440 --> 0:01:52.600 I thought I would start off today by showing you 0:01:52.640 --> 0:01:56.480 some pictures of my family. My family has changed quite 0:01:56.520 --> 0:02:00.040 a bit, grown quite a bit, and so since you 0:02:00.120 --> 0:02:03.840 guys are such an important part, I wanted to go 0:02:03.880 --> 0:02:07.000 ahead and throw up some pictures here. Okay, So this 0:02:07.120 --> 0:02:11.680 picture is my whole family. And many of you know 0:02:11.760 --> 0:02:16.639 my story. I walked through a really, really devastating divorce 0:02:16.800 --> 0:02:24.400 many years ago, and in God's goodness and to my amazement, 0:02:25.680 --> 0:02:27.600 I learned. 0:02:27.160 --> 0:02:30.000 To trust again. And that was really hard. 0:02:31.160 --> 0:02:34.480 But God brought an incredible man into my life. And 0:02:34.560 --> 0:02:37.840 so in January of last year, we got married. And 0:02:37.960 --> 0:02:41.760 so there's my family. I know. Now I want to 0:02:41.800 --> 0:02:46.480 tell you something really fun. So this is my husband, Chaz. 0:02:46.520 --> 0:02:49.919 He's right here on the front row. Hey, babe. So 0:02:50.440 --> 0:02:55.320 when Chaz and I were getting together and learning about 0:02:55.320 --> 0:03:00.080 one another, I quickly learned he has two children. We 0:03:00.240 --> 0:03:03.280 have five children. Okay, So I just want you to 0:03:03.320 --> 0:03:06.440 help me do the math here. No, I have five children. 0:03:06.600 --> 0:03:10.000 His two children are younger than mine, and so at 0:03:10.000 --> 0:03:12.880 this point, it's just two children. I have five children 0:03:12.919 --> 0:03:15.480 who are a little bit older. Four of my five 0:03:15.560 --> 0:03:17.960 kids are married, one has a significant girlfriend. So when 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:19.560 you add all of that up, now I'm bringing ten 0:03:19.560 --> 0:03:22.480 people to the table, right. I also had three grandkids 0:03:22.480 --> 0:03:25.440 at the time, so now I'm bringing how many thirteen 0:03:25.480 --> 0:03:26.320 people to the table? 0:03:27.320 --> 0:03:27.799 Okay. 0:03:28.240 --> 0:03:33.240 And then in twenty twenty four, after we were married, 0:03:33.680 --> 0:03:38.040 but very shortly something miraculous and beautiful, beautiful. 0:03:37.600 --> 0:03:38.560 Started to happening. 0:03:39.160 --> 0:03:43.960 I had five grandchildren born last year alone. 0:03:44.120 --> 0:03:47.000 Okay, So now I'm bringing how. 0:03:46.840 --> 0:03:50.240 Many people to the table? Eighteen and et rings two, 0:03:50.320 --> 0:03:52.920 so between the two of us we have twenty people. Okay, great, 0:03:54.120 --> 0:03:55.560 all right, I want to show you a couple other 0:03:55.600 --> 0:03:56.760 pictures really quickly. 0:03:57.000 --> 0:03:59.000 Okay. So these are my three. 0:03:58.640 --> 0:04:03.839 Grandchildren I started off with at our wedding, and that's 0:04:03.840 --> 0:04:09.240 Susie Selena Unriiser precious, amazing gifts from God. And then 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:14.560 my son had twins born in February. That's legend in 0:04:14.600 --> 0:04:17.960 London and today is their birthday, first birthday. Have your 0:04:18.000 --> 0:04:22.159 birthday legend London, okay. And then my daughter had sweet 0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:24.880 little windsor l who is in the middle. We call 0:04:24.960 --> 0:04:30.320 her Winnie and then my youngest or my oldest daughter 0:04:30.360 --> 0:04:34.560 and my middle daughter had little boys in November, and 0:04:34.640 --> 0:04:36.360 their names are River and Percy. 0:04:36.600 --> 0:04:39.360 So that's my clan, right. 0:04:40.720 --> 0:04:47.040 So it's very, very easy though to look at those 0:04:47.120 --> 0:04:50.640 pictures of us all smiling and just go, Wow, what 0:04:51.760 --> 0:04:55.120 a neat family, right, And I am so blessed. I 0:04:55.160 --> 0:04:57.120 think I do have a really neat family. But make 0:04:57.200 --> 0:05:01.560 no mistake, my family's been through a lot, a lot. 0:05:02.000 --> 0:05:04.160 I don't have to tell you that because I would 0:05:04.200 --> 0:05:08.080 imagine in your own way and different circumstances that have happened, 0:05:08.120 --> 0:05:11.359 your family has been through a lot too, because there's 0:05:11.600 --> 0:05:13.120 really no one that gets. 0:05:12.880 --> 0:05:14.839 Through this life unscathed, right. 0:05:16.600 --> 0:05:20.880 And part of a big part of my story was 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:26.200 that I'd had my trust so broken, so shattered, that 0:05:26.400 --> 0:05:30.320 I started transferring the trust issues I had with another 0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:34.000 person and even other people. I started transferring those trust 0:05:34.040 --> 0:05:40.640 issues into my relationship with God. Trust is the oxygen 0:05:40.839 --> 0:05:44.960 of all human relationships. You starve a relationship of trust, 0:05:45.040 --> 0:05:47.479 and you starve at a vibrancy, You possibly even starve 0:05:47.520 --> 0:05:53.240 it to death. And what can so easily happen when 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:58.600 we are struggling in trust with another human is it 0:05:58.640 --> 0:06:01.440 can start to feel like, God, if you are really good, 0:06:01.520 --> 0:06:05.320 why aren't you fixing that situation? Why aren't you showing 0:06:05.360 --> 0:06:08.280 that person that they shouldn't be doing this? Why why 0:06:08.320 --> 0:06:11.840 aren't you taking care of things that you could prevent? 0:06:11.920 --> 0:06:15.120 And I don't understand why you didn't prevent it, and 0:06:15.200 --> 0:06:17.320 it can really start to mess you up. You see, 0:06:17.720 --> 0:06:21.880 our brain is wired for the confidence of knowing. Our 0:06:22.000 --> 0:06:26.960 brain is always scanning what we see, and we are 0:06:27.000 --> 0:06:29.360 depending on our brain to say you're safe or you're 0:06:29.360 --> 0:06:34.560 not safe. Right, And so as my brain sometimes scans 0:06:34.960 --> 0:06:39.240 what I'm seeing, if I don't remember that what I'm 0:06:39.320 --> 0:06:42.599 seeing is not the full story, then I can start 0:06:42.640 --> 0:06:46.200 to judge whether or not God is faithful based on 0:06:46.279 --> 0:06:49.160 the circumstances that are right in front of me. Right, 0:06:49.520 --> 0:06:52.800 that's right. So we've got to find a different way 0:06:53.160 --> 0:06:56.880 to look at what we're facing. I want to know 0:06:57.960 --> 0:07:01.040 what's going to happen. I want to know how it's 0:07:01.080 --> 0:07:02.719 going to turn out, and I want to know that 0:07:02.760 --> 0:07:07.240 it will eventually be really good. God just wants me 0:07:07.320 --> 0:07:11.080 to know him. God wants me to know Him and 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:15.360 his faithfulness and his goodness. Part of my morning prayer 0:07:15.440 --> 0:07:17.840 that I pray every morning. You've probably heard me say 0:07:17.840 --> 0:07:22.880 this before I intentionally verbalize out loud. God you are good. 0:07:23.880 --> 0:07:26.720 God you are good to me, and God you are 0:07:26.760 --> 0:07:31.640 good at being God. Even if people aren't good, circumstances 0:07:31.680 --> 0:07:36.400 aren't good, finances aren't good, situations aren't good. But God, 0:07:36.560 --> 0:07:40.160 I've got to approach every day, and I've got to 0:07:40.200 --> 0:07:42.920 make the lens through which I look at my day 0:07:42.920 --> 0:07:46.440 and all that i'll face today. God, you are good, 0:07:46.960 --> 0:07:49.520 You are good to me, and you are good at 0:07:49.560 --> 0:07:53.120 being God. But sometimes, right that's all true. We can 0:07:53.160 --> 0:08:01.800 celebrate that, yes, absolutely, but sometimes it's really really hard 0:08:02.800 --> 0:08:06.360 to trust that God really does have it all under 0:08:06.440 --> 0:08:12.760 control when suddenly situations go from hard to more hard, 0:08:13.320 --> 0:08:16.040 to even harder to more hard, to more heart to 0:08:16.120 --> 0:08:18.800 more hard. And I don't know if any of you 0:08:18.800 --> 0:08:21.120 guys have been in that place, or if you're in 0:08:21.160 --> 0:08:23.680 that place today, but I pray that this is a 0:08:23.720 --> 0:08:28.840 word for you. You see this verse Genesis fifty twenty. 0:08:30.080 --> 0:08:35.760 It's not where Joseph's life starts. Joseph is saying these 0:08:35.760 --> 0:08:38.480 words to his brother, but this is toward the very 0:08:38.640 --> 0:08:41.559 end of his story, or to a place of this 0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:44.720 story where things were more resolved than they are when 0:08:44.760 --> 0:08:50.280 we begin. And so Joseph has gone through a lot, 0:08:52.440 --> 0:08:56.560 and going through a lot has built a resilience in 0:08:56.679 --> 0:09:01.440 Joseph that has enabled him to say these words with 0:09:01.720 --> 0:09:06.520 absolute confidence. You intended to harm me, brothers, but God 0:09:06.880 --> 0:09:10.320 intends it for good, for the saving of many lives, 0:09:10.320 --> 0:09:12.920 to accomplish a purpose that is now being done. 0:09:13.120 --> 0:09:14.439 So let's turn back to. 0:09:15.880 --> 0:09:18.840 Earlier in Joseph's story, because I think when we turn 0:09:18.920 --> 0:09:21.360 back earlier in Joseph's story, we're going to get a 0:09:21.360 --> 0:09:25.479 better understanding of all that Joseph had to go through before. 0:09:25.160 --> 0:09:27.800 He said those amazing words. 0:09:28.080 --> 0:09:30.760 We go back to Genesis thirty seven, and in Genesis 0:09:30.840 --> 0:09:34.440 thirty seven, verse two, it says this, this is the 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:39.400 account of Jacob's family line. Joseph, a young man of seventeen, 0:09:39.960 --> 0:09:42.720 was tending his flocks with his brothers, the sons of 0:09:43.160 --> 0:09:46.560 hard Word and the sons of another hard word, his 0:09:46.640 --> 0:09:52.800 father's wives, and he brought their father a bad report 0:09:52.880 --> 0:09:59.600 about them. Now, Israel, this is the father. Israel loved 0:09:59.720 --> 0:10:03.480 Joe Joseph more than any of his other sons because 0:10:03.520 --> 0:10:05.440 he'd been born to him in his old age, and 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:09.240 he made an ornate robe for him. And when his 0:10:09.360 --> 0:10:12.920 brothers saw that their father loved Joseph more than any 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:18.000 of them, they hated him and could not speak a 0:10:18.360 --> 0:10:22.840 kind word to him. Now, let me explain something here 0:10:23.280 --> 0:10:26.800 about this robe. This was not just a lavish gift. 0:10:27.880 --> 0:10:32.080 It was also an outward sign that Joseph was not 0:10:32.120 --> 0:10:34.920 going to have to work hard or as hard like 0:10:35.000 --> 0:10:37.920 his other brothers, because you don't put on an ornate 0:10:38.000 --> 0:10:40.000 robe and go out into the fields and do the 0:10:40.080 --> 0:10:42.400 kind of work that all of his brothers were doing. 0:10:43.080 --> 0:10:46.040 So when job would put on, when Joseph would put 0:10:46.120 --> 0:10:51.359 on this fancy robe, how do you think the brothers 0:10:52.080 --> 0:10:53.840 felt day after. 0:10:53.600 --> 0:10:54.480 Day after day. 0:10:54.720 --> 0:10:56.840 It wasn't just that they hated him the day that 0:10:56.920 --> 0:10:59.320 he got the gift. It's that they hated him every 0:10:59.400 --> 0:11:02.600 other day that they had to go out into the fields. 0:11:02.679 --> 0:11:07.199 And Joe Joseph is sitting at home just chilling in 0:11:07.360 --> 0:11:12.000 he fancy wrote right now. The other dynamic that's happening 0:11:12.000 --> 0:11:14.959 here is that the father, when he would send his 0:11:15.000 --> 0:11:18.880 sons out to work, sometimes he would send Joseph out 0:11:18.920 --> 0:11:21.640 to go and spy on the brothers. And so what's 0:11:21.720 --> 0:11:26.720 happened here is that he is going out and he 0:11:26.920 --> 0:11:30.959 is spying on their brothers, and he brings the father 0:11:31.120 --> 0:11:35.440 back a bad report, and so they hated him and 0:11:35.679 --> 0:11:40.600 literally could not speak a kind word to him. Now, 0:11:40.600 --> 0:11:42.840 the next thing we see here is that Joseph starts 0:11:42.840 --> 0:11:46.680 to have a dream, and basically he has two dreams, 0:11:46.840 --> 0:11:50.040 and these dreams that he has basically is kind of 0:11:50.920 --> 0:11:54.800 showing the brothers that Joseph believes the interpretation of this 0:11:54.920 --> 0:11:56.760 dream is that one day he's going to rise up 0:11:56.760 --> 0:11:58.520 and be their leader and they're all going to bow 0:11:58.600 --> 0:12:02.400 down to him. He's saying this to brothers who already 0:12:02.480 --> 0:12:05.760 hate him. So how do you think the brothers feel 0:12:05.880 --> 0:12:08.520 when Joseph says, eventually, I'm about to be the boss 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:11.360 of all you people, right, they. 0:12:11.200 --> 0:12:15.360 Hate him even more. Then there comes a day that. 0:12:17.000 --> 0:12:20.080 The father sends the brothers out to go and work 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:23.640 and again says to Joseph, go out and check on 0:12:23.760 --> 0:12:26.760 your brothers. So I just wants you to remember this 0:12:26.840 --> 0:12:30.520 is a human dynamic happening in a very divine story. 0:12:30.679 --> 0:12:32.360 Okay, these people. 0:12:32.080 --> 0:12:35.839 Have real feelings, they have real anks, they have real 0:12:35.960 --> 0:12:39.080 stuff that's happening all around them. So the brothers go 0:12:39.160 --> 0:12:41.760 out and they're out in the field working and from 0:12:41.800 --> 0:12:44.640 a distance they see Joseph coming. 0:12:45.559 --> 0:12:48.800 Wherein he fancy Rowe. I don't know what he'd been 0:12:48.840 --> 0:12:49.440 doing at home. 0:12:49.520 --> 0:12:52.920 Maybe he was playing Nintendo, eating cheetohs, looking his cheesy fingers. 0:12:52.960 --> 0:12:54.959 I don't know. But what I do know is the 0:12:55.000 --> 0:12:57.840 brothers were not doing that. The brothers were out there 0:12:57.920 --> 0:13:02.440 working and from a distance Genesis thirty seven eighteen. The 0:13:02.520 --> 0:13:05.920 brothers see Joseph, it says, but they saw him in 0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:09.000 the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to 0:13:09.840 --> 0:13:14.040 kill him. There's never just a little bit of anger. 0:13:14.840 --> 0:13:17.360 There's never just a little bit of hatred. There's never 0:13:17.520 --> 0:13:20.000 just a little bit of bitterness. You see, Bitterness gets 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:21.760 down inside of this and it doesn't want to just 0:13:21.800 --> 0:13:24.360 be a feeling. It wants to be our consuming feeling. 0:13:25.720 --> 0:13:28.760 Here comes that dreamer. They said to each other, Come now, 0:13:28.880 --> 0:13:31.160 let's kill him and throw him into one of these 0:13:31.160 --> 0:13:34.160 cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then 0:13:34.280 --> 0:13:37.200 we'll see what comes of his dreams. And then one 0:13:37.240 --> 0:13:40.080 of the other brothers speaks up and says, actually, what 0:13:40.160 --> 0:13:42.360 will it profit us if we kill him? 0:13:42.640 --> 0:13:44.600 Why don't we sell him and at least we'll get 0:13:44.679 --> 0:13:45.679 money and. 0:13:45.679 --> 0:13:48.680 So their plan was to throw Joseph in the cistern, 0:13:48.760 --> 0:13:53.600 which that absolutely happens, and then wait for the merchants 0:13:53.600 --> 0:13:55.360 to come by, and then they pull him out of 0:13:55.400 --> 0:13:59.200 the cistern. They sell him to merchants headed toward Egypt. 0:14:00.640 --> 0:14:01.960 And they go home and they. 0:14:01.880 --> 0:14:07.040 Tell their father that a ferocious animal has killed Joseph. 0:14:07.160 --> 0:14:10.440 They take that fancy robe they stripped off of Joseph 0:14:10.559 --> 0:14:13.560 before they sold him. They tear it into shreds, dip 0:14:13.600 --> 0:14:15.480 it in animal's blood, give it to the father. So 0:14:15.559 --> 0:14:20.720 the father has no clue that Joseph is still alive. 0:14:21.920 --> 0:14:25.120 So I want you to vert just a minute, put 0:14:25.160 --> 0:14:32.960 yourself in Joseph's shoes. When his brothers betray him in 0:14:33.000 --> 0:14:38.000 such a horrific way, This isn't just an event in 0:14:38.040 --> 0:14:42.280 his life. This is the event of his life that 0:14:42.400 --> 0:14:46.520 will change everything for Joseph. 0:14:46.600 --> 0:14:49.240 So here's Joseph. He's been sold. 0:14:49.920 --> 0:14:52.960 And I don't know the condition of these merchants, with 0:14:53.120 --> 0:14:55.360 the condition they put Joseph in. I don't know if 0:14:55.400 --> 0:14:57.040 his hands are bound. I don't know if there's a 0:14:57.080 --> 0:14:59.680 bag of her said, I don't know, But what I 0:14:59.800 --> 0:15:03.080 do know is that Joseph had to be terrified. 0:15:04.200 --> 0:15:05.440 Joseph had to be terrified. 0:15:05.880 --> 0:15:10.520 And also Joseph had to be thinking about those dreams 0:15:10.560 --> 0:15:12.840 that he had that he truly felt like were visions 0:15:12.880 --> 0:15:14.800 from God that one day he was going to rise 0:15:14.920 --> 0:15:16.120 up and be a leader. 0:15:16.520 --> 0:15:18.840 But now now. 0:15:19.880 --> 0:15:23.720 He's a slave, and he's headed to a foreign land 0:15:23.760 --> 0:15:26.560 with foreign people, things that he doesn't know. And if 0:15:26.640 --> 0:15:31.840 I were Joseph, I would surely be thinking, God, this 0:15:31.960 --> 0:15:34.120 sure doesn't look like that vision that you gave me 0:15:34.160 --> 0:15:38.440 for my life. How could a good God let this happen? 0:15:39.200 --> 0:15:41.600 Like if I were Joseph, I would assume I would 0:15:41.600 --> 0:15:44.840 be sent to some leadership academy, some big training. I 0:15:44.840 --> 0:15:49.680 would have had no idea that this awful circumstance would 0:15:49.680 --> 0:15:53.840 eventually prove to be the perfect training. But it doesn't 0:15:53.840 --> 0:15:58.320 start out looking that way at all. So there's two 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:03.760 things happening simultaneous, slee right here. God has destined Joseph 0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:07.160 to be a leader, But in the circumstances that he 0:16:07.240 --> 0:16:09.160 was in with his brother and the hatred that his 0:16:09.240 --> 0:16:12.600 brothers had for him, do you think that anytime soon 0:16:12.640 --> 0:16:15.200 in that dynamic, that Joseph could really rise up and 0:16:15.240 --> 0:16:21.000 be a leader. Absolutely not. So God is going to 0:16:21.080 --> 0:16:26.040 take the rejection of those brothers and actually use it. 0:16:26.080 --> 0:16:28.720 God didn't cause it, but God is going to take it. 0:16:29.280 --> 0:16:31.280 He's going to take the rejection of the brothers and 0:16:31.320 --> 0:16:34.680 actually use it as a protection of the calling that 0:16:34.720 --> 0:16:39.640 he is absolutely placed on Joseph's life. But Joseph doesn't 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:43.440 see that at all. All Joseph sees is what's awful 0:16:43.520 --> 0:16:47.080 around him, and of course that's all he sees. So 0:16:47.200 --> 0:16:51.600 then Joseph gets to Egypt and he's sold into Potiphar's house, 0:16:51.640 --> 0:16:55.000 the captain of the guard. And when he's sold into 0:16:55.040 --> 0:17:00.480 Potiphar's house house, things are not great because joseph life 0:17:00.480 --> 0:17:02.640 doesn't look anything like he thought it was going to look. 0:17:02.760 --> 0:17:05.440 But things aren't horrible either. If we look at Genesis 0:17:05.440 --> 0:17:08.159 thirty nine, I'll go ahead and read you starting in 0:17:08.240 --> 0:17:08.680 verse two. 0:17:08.800 --> 0:17:11.040 The Lord was with Joseph so that he. 0:17:11.040 --> 0:17:16.280 Prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master, Potiphar. 0:17:16.840 --> 0:17:18.240 And when his master saw. 0:17:18.080 --> 0:17:20.359 That the Lord was with him, and that the Lord 0:17:20.400 --> 0:17:24.119 gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor 0:17:24.160 --> 0:17:28.080 in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him 0:17:28.160 --> 0:17:30.880 in charge of his household and he entrusted to. 0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:34.119 His care, everything he owned. 0:17:35.359 --> 0:17:38.359 Is Joseph in the ideal situation that he assumed that 0:17:38.440 --> 0:17:40.520 he would be in when God give them the vision 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:41.320 that he would be leader. 0:17:41.880 --> 0:17:43.199 Oh no, absolutely not. 0:17:43.960 --> 0:17:46.479 And I would imagine many of us are in this 0:17:46.600 --> 0:17:51.879 in between place right now too. It's like we had 0:17:51.920 --> 0:17:55.920 a hope, we had a dream, we have really trusted God. 0:17:57.000 --> 0:18:01.840 But then we're sitting there thinking, me, trusting God has 0:18:01.880 --> 0:18:05.359 gotten me to this place and I don't understand this place. 0:18:06.680 --> 0:18:07.160 But at the. 0:18:07.160 --> 0:18:10.760 Same time, we can see in Joseph's story that God 0:18:10.840 --> 0:18:14.119 is with him, that God is prospering him, that God 0:18:14.320 --> 0:18:18.000 is helping Potiphar to get a vision for Joseph that 0:18:18.080 --> 0:18:20.240 Joseph doesn't even have for himself. 0:18:21.400 --> 0:18:23.120 And so Joseph rises up. 0:18:23.119 --> 0:18:25.800 And now he is a leader, not leading the way 0:18:25.840 --> 0:18:27.760 he assumed he would be leading, but he is a 0:18:27.840 --> 0:18:30.680 leader in this small dynamic of Potiphar's house. 0:18:30.760 --> 0:18:33.159 Now there is this one. 0:18:33.000 --> 0:18:36.600 Complication that's sort of going to mess everything up for 0:18:36.680 --> 0:18:37.800 him in Potiphar's house. 0:18:38.280 --> 0:18:40.000 And you're not going to believe me when I say it. 0:18:40.960 --> 0:18:42.679 That's why I have my scripture prepared that I'm going 0:18:42.760 --> 0:18:44.600 to back it up okay, so are you ready for this? 0:18:45.080 --> 0:18:49.880 The complication was that Joseph was hot. I know, I know, 0:18:50.320 --> 0:18:52.320 I told you you were not going to believe me. 0:18:52.640 --> 0:18:55.000 But I'm going to read it straight from God's words 0:18:55.000 --> 0:18:57.879 Genesis thirty nine, halfway through verse six, and it says, 0:18:58.280 --> 0:19:02.119 now Joseph was well build and handsome. I do not 0:19:02.200 --> 0:19:04.160 have to take it back to the Hebrew to understand 0:19:04.160 --> 0:19:07.199 that that means Joseph was in fact, thank you. 0:19:07.600 --> 0:19:11.440 Okay, I'm just reading the Bible. Okay. 0:19:11.960 --> 0:19:14.040 So Joseph was well build and handsome. And after a 0:19:14.080 --> 0:19:19.199 while his master's wife took notice of Joseph and said, 0:19:19.800 --> 0:19:27.000 come to bed with me. I'm sorry, but what like 0:19:27.680 --> 0:19:29.600 if I ever had five words in the Bible, which 0:19:29.640 --> 0:19:31.800 I won't because God's word is complete. But if I 0:19:31.800 --> 0:19:33.560 ever did have five words in the Bible, I just 0:19:33.600 --> 0:19:35.679 probably don't ever want it to be those five words. 0:19:35.760 --> 0:19:36.600 Right. 0:19:38.280 --> 0:19:42.560 So she starts making advances toward Joseph. Now this is 0:19:42.680 --> 0:19:48.359 Joseph's boss's wife, right, and she won't stop. Joseph says no, 0:19:48.480 --> 0:19:51.040 and she doesn't take kindly to being told no, and 0:19:51.119 --> 0:19:53.440 so she keeps trying and keeps trying, and one day 0:19:53.480 --> 0:19:58.040 she literally throws him herself onto Joseph. Joseph turns to 0:19:58.200 --> 0:20:02.719 flee away from her. She grabs his cloak, takes it 0:20:02.720 --> 0:20:07.040 to Potiphar and says, Joseph has been making advances toward me, 0:20:07.119 --> 0:20:08.359 and who is Potiphar going. 0:20:08.280 --> 0:20:10.920 To believe his wife? That's right. 0:20:11.480 --> 0:20:15.639 So now Joseph is about to get a promotion, but 0:20:15.760 --> 0:20:17.919 it is not going to look like any kind of 0:20:17.920 --> 0:20:21.640 promotion Joseph ever thought that he would ever have. He's 0:20:21.680 --> 0:20:24.160 about to get promoted to prison. 0:20:24.520 --> 0:20:25.000 That's right. 0:20:26.600 --> 0:20:30.600 Now, I want you to notice what's happening here. With God, 0:20:31.320 --> 0:20:36.960 there's always a meanwhile. With God, there is always a meanwhile. 0:20:37.160 --> 0:20:40.000 There is the physical reality of what we see and 0:20:40.040 --> 0:20:43.200 what we're experiencing. And at the same time, there is 0:20:43.240 --> 0:20:46.840 the reality of what God is doing, and God is arranging, 0:20:46.880 --> 0:20:53.080 and God is really taking care of what we cannot see. 0:20:53.320 --> 0:20:58.160 So it started off the rejection of Joseph's brother actually 0:20:58.240 --> 0:21:00.360 proved to be a protection of his calling. He gets 0:21:00.359 --> 0:21:03.720 into Potiphar's house and Potiphar promotes him to be a leader. 0:21:03.760 --> 0:21:06.560 Now he's leading, he's learning leadership strategies and all of 0:21:06.600 --> 0:21:08.480 that not at all the way he thought it would, 0:21:08.560 --> 0:21:11.960 but still it was a protection of his calling. Now 0:21:12.080 --> 0:21:14.719 Joseph's about to get a promotion to prison, but that 0:21:14.920 --> 0:21:17.760 is not what Joseph is seeing at all. Joseph is 0:21:17.760 --> 0:21:21.320 seeing an unfair accusation and God is going to use 0:21:21.400 --> 0:21:23.360 that unfair accusation to give. 0:21:23.240 --> 0:21:25.080 Him a promotion to prison. 0:21:25.119 --> 0:21:28.639 You see, once he gets to prison, the prison guard 0:21:28.640 --> 0:21:33.200 takes notice of Joseph, and the lord's favor was on Joseph. 0:21:33.440 --> 0:21:36.760 So now Joseph is in prison and he's in charge 0:21:36.760 --> 0:21:40.240 of leading a much larger group of people. He's learning 0:21:40.320 --> 0:21:43.720 leadership skills in a much larger way, and he's having 0:21:43.760 --> 0:21:47.840 developed systems and strategies and all things that leaders need 0:21:47.880 --> 0:21:52.920 to know. But at the same time, he's still going 0:21:53.000 --> 0:21:58.320 to bed in a dungeon every night. So what is 0:21:58.440 --> 0:22:03.320 Joseph seeing. Joseph is seeing those present circumstances, the hardship, 0:22:03.560 --> 0:22:07.199 and how unfair it is that he is there. But 0:22:07.320 --> 0:22:14.119 God is seeing a development, a preparation, a vision that 0:22:14.200 --> 0:22:15.280 he's going to carry out. 0:22:15.840 --> 0:22:16.760 And it's not just. 0:22:16.800 --> 0:22:19.600 Going to be for Joseph's good, It's going to be 0:22:19.680 --> 0:22:22.920 for the good of so many other people. So now 0:22:23.040 --> 0:22:26.399 Joseph is in prison, and while he's in prison, he 0:22:26.520 --> 0:22:30.719 meets two other prisoners, the cup Bear and the Baker. 0:22:31.440 --> 0:22:34.119 Now the cup Bear and the Baker there in prison. 0:22:34.320 --> 0:22:37.720 They used to work for Pharaoh, but something happened, and 0:22:37.760 --> 0:22:42.120 now they're in prison. And these two, the cup Bear 0:22:42.119 --> 0:22:44.400 and the Baker, they have a dream. And who can 0:22:44.400 --> 0:22:45.360 interpret dreams? 0:22:46.119 --> 0:22:46.639 Joseph. 0:22:46.720 --> 0:22:51.920 That's right, And so Joseph is able to interpret their dreams. 0:22:52.280 --> 0:22:54.320 Now things don't go so well for the Baker. 0:22:54.400 --> 0:22:58.040 It's actually kind of gross what happens, and terrible, but 0:22:58.119 --> 0:23:01.280 I'll let you read that on your own time. But 0:23:01.480 --> 0:23:04.240 I am going to tell you what happens with the Cupbear. 0:23:04.480 --> 0:23:07.359 The cup Bear has a dream, and Joseph interprets the 0:23:07.440 --> 0:23:09.520 dream and says, in three days, you're going. 0:23:09.480 --> 0:23:10.280 To get out. 0:23:10.880 --> 0:23:12.639 And I want you to listen to the words that 0:23:12.760 --> 0:23:15.560 Joseph says to the Cupbear, so that you can have 0:23:15.640 --> 0:23:20.120 a deep insight of exactly what Joseph was thinking at 0:23:20.160 --> 0:23:26.080 this time. Genesis forty, verse fourteen. Joseph says to the cupbear, 0:23:26.160 --> 0:23:28.520 when all goes well with you, remember me and show 0:23:28.600 --> 0:23:31.760 me kindness, Mention me to Pharaoh, and get me out 0:23:31.800 --> 0:23:34.840 of this prison. I was forcibly carried off from the 0:23:34.920 --> 0:23:36.879 lands of the Hebrews, and even here, I've done nothing 0:23:36.920 --> 0:23:41.720 to deserve being put in a dungeon. This is such 0:23:41.720 --> 0:23:45.520