Disrupted of Promotion

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Thanks for tuning in to the Met Church podcast. Here at the Met, we are all about connecting people to God and one another. If you have any questions or want more information about what's happening here at the church, then head to our [email protected] we would love to stay connected with you throughout the week through social media, so be sure to connect with us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Now. Enjoy the message. [00:00:24] Speaker B: Well, good morning again, everybody. Good to see you. We're beginning a brand new series this morning and it's designed to help us comprehend, kind of a navigate through some of the difficult experiences that are in our life. I'm just wondering this morning, it's just nobody here but us. I'm curious how many of you aren't afraid to admit. You're not afraid to admit that you have at least one problem in your life. You've got at least one. You're not afraid. My hands up. All right. You're not afraid to admit that. How many of you would then further admit, admit you're sitting next to one of those problems you've got in your life right now? Right? Yep. All right. I thought so. Well, what we're going to try to do in this time that we're together is understand that God has a purpose in the midst of the problems, that everything God does is intentional. It is purposeful. Someone well said. Has it ever occurred to you that nothing has ever occurred to God? He doesn't get caught by surprise. God can't learn anything. He cannot forget anything. God knows who you are. He knows where you are. He knows what you're going through. And if you belong to him, you're in his hand. And if you're in the hand of God, nothing can hit your life without God either allowing it or causing it to happen. So wherever you are in life this morning, if you're facing some problems, some difficulties, some adversity, if you're going through some turmoil and some disruption in your life, understand God is working something in and through your life. I believe that so strongly that I know that when I can see God at work in my life, when I can see it, I know he's working. But I also know that when I can't see God at work, in my life, he's still working. When I know God is up to something in my life, he's up to something. And when I can't discern God being up to anything in my life, he's still up to something. God is at work. You're not here by an Accident, you're here by an incident. God brought you here on purpose. I think there's a divine design that is at work in each and every person's life, regardless of who you are, from where you've come or what you're going through. And I just hope that through this series we, you and I can connect some dots and we can look at some characters in the Bible and see how God used the difficult experiences of life, the adversity, the disruption in life to bring about equality, a value, perhaps even a promotion or a position that they would not have attained had they not gone through what it was that they went through. Think about this. Probably the one of the most. Well, it is the longest collection of scripture in the Bible, the Psalm, the 119th Psalm. We don't call them chapters in Psalms. If you'll notice, all the other books of the Bible are chapters. But when you get to Psalms, Psalms is a songbook. And so each psalm is numbered. And when you get to the 119th Psalm, it's the longest psalm in that collection of hymns. And in the 119th Psalm in the 71st verse, here's what David wrote. And this is. He said, it is good for me that I have been afflicted. Now let that set on you for a second. It is good for me that I have been afflicted. David said, when I consider what I've been through and what I've gone through, I look back at it and I realized that probably was a good thing. It was hard thing, it was a difficult thing, it was a heartbreaking thing, a soul crushing thing, however way David might want to describe what he had been through. But he just kind of summarized it and said, I look back at that affliction and I know it was a good thing. And here's why he said that. For I have learned about your statutes. He said, I learned something about myself. And you will. When you go through something, you'll learn how strong you are or how strong you aren't. You'll learn something about you. You'll learn something about the people around you. When you go through a hard time, you'll find that some of the people you thought would be there aren't there there. And others will surprise you that were there, that you didn't really think they would be. And then you'll learn not only something about yourself and something about the people around you. You'll learn something about God. You'll understand more of his nature and you'll see more of his characteristics. When you go through these difficult times in your life when God allows the disruptions to come and they, they, they will come, these things are going to happen. It's inevitable. It is inescapable, as we're going to deal with in a moment. Life consists of two things. In life, you're going to go through seasons and you're going to go through cycles. Now, season is a period of time that you go through that is out of your control. Ecclesiastes 3. To everything there is a season. There's a time to every purpose unto heaven. If I'm going through something that's hard, I have to ask myself, is this a season? Is it something that is out of my control? It's something I couldn't have prevented it. I can't end it. It's a season that I'm in the middle of and life's made up of that. You may be whatever you're going through this morning, it may be a season. Now, the second thing you might have to ask yourself is, is it a cycle? If it's a cycle, then that's something that you can end. We can end cycles. We absolutely can say, look, I brought this on myself. You know, stupid is as stupid does. I've done this. I know why this is happening. This is a cycle. I just need to quit doing this. And I'm saying, when you're going through an adversity, you're going through a disruption. Ask yourself going into that, is this a season? I don't understand it. I can't comprehend it. I don't know what God's doing in it. Is it a season or is this a cycle? I know exactly what's happening, and I know how to fix what's happening. And so that's important that we discern the difference between the two. Because seasons change with time, but cycles will change when we do. And when you go through a season that's difficult, it's easy to question God, you know, why this and why me and why now? We've all had those moments, haven't we? It reminds me of the guy who was sitting next to this watermelon patch under this huge oak tree, and he's looking out, just chilling, relaxing. And he looked out at this watermelon patch and he saw these huge watermelons growing off these little tiny vines. And he looked up and he saw these little tiny acorns growing off of these massive branches. He said, that just doesn't look right. He said, in fact, if I were God, I would have done that a lot Differently. And suddenly a little acorn fell and hit him on the top of the head. And he said, man, I'm glad that wasn't a watermelon. Sometimes we assess and we evaluate things and we don't cut God enough slack to know he does know what he's doing, he understands what he's up to, and he has a design and he has a purpose. And if we can just trust him. And what will happen. Invariably when you go through a disruption in your life, it will do one of two things. It will either draw you closer to God or it will drive you farther from Him. And there are people who aren't in our church or aren't in anyone's church this morning simply because they went through some adversity in life that made no sense to them. It was a season that they went through that they could not comprehend and, and they couldn't get their head around why God would have allowed that to happen. And so the result of that, at least now for where they are at this point in time, is it has driven them away from God instead of drawing them to Him. Now, some of you are in this room, and you're in this room because you've been through something or you're going through something, and you've allowed that experience in your life to draw you closer to God. It's developed some qualities in your life that you've seen God at work in your heart. And when I look into the Bible, I see those things happening in the lives of so many people. No one in the Bible got out unscathed. Everybody in the Bible went through something. And when I was thinking about one of the qualities that God will use adversity and disruption in our life to develop is he will use those qualities and he'll use those things to develop the quality of promotion. God will use it to advance us. The Bible says that life is made up of steps. Psalm 37:23. The steps of a good person. Think about progressive. Life is a series of steps. You're at one level this morning and you're stepping up to the next level of life. And with each level comes the new devils. And you find new challenges. And God is preparing you at this level for not life at the next level. It's like our kids in school, if they're in fifth grade, everything that's happening is preparing them for sixth grade and sixth prepares them for seventh and so on. And I'm just saying that's true in life is one experience and one level and one season is preparing us for the next season. And so we move progressively. And God will use adversity, the tests and trials of life, to allow that to be a vehicle to promote us. This happened in the life of Joseph, that Old Testament character, Joseph. Joseph was a young guy whose life and world was disrupted. He didn't bring it on himself. It wasn't a cycle, it was a season. And Joseph went through one of the most difficult seasons of life. In fact, it was 13 years from where you first meet Joseph, and he first starts having his world disrupted, and he first starts facing this adversity. And he goes from one situation into the next situation. And you read the story, you go, oh, my goodness, at what point is he going to say, I, I quit, I've had it, I'm done? And yet you never see that happening. Joseph had this quality of just his trust in God and his faith in God, and he just maintained his integrity through the good times and the bad times and through all of that adversity, God used each step of young Joseph's life to promote him. And he went from this young man who was abused and misused to being elevated to the prime minister of Egypt. He was second in authority in the land of Egypt only to Pharaoh himself. But, man, when you roll the tape back and you start looking at where did that train, where did all that start happening? Where did all this disruption take place? It happened within his family. Jacob had. They had Joseph late in life, and so he was the favored child. Parents try not to play favorites with their kids, and if you do a good job, all your kids will think they're your favorite. But, you know, you try to treat all your kids and love them equally, and that's how it should be. But Jacob was not a great father. He favored Joseph over the other boys. Makes him a coat of many colors. That's before Dolly. And he did all that. And he was trying to just, you know, just to love his son and adore his son and all this sort of thing. But it made the brothers jealous of him. And they just. They hated him. They despised him. And the little piece of the story I'm going to highlight this morning to illustrate a part of the larger picture of Joseph's life is when they sold him, well before they sold him into slavery, when they threw him into a pit, and they threw him into this pit, thinking that he would die there. And here, this terrible affliction here, this terrible thing was coming from somebody that he trusted and from somebody he loved. Man, I don't know about you, but if you've ever gone through an adversity in life and it came from somebody you trusted and somebody you loved, it just adds misery to the circumstance. In fact, in the Psalms, when David was describing one of the things that he had experienced and he had gone through in his life, he said of himself in the 47th Psalm, he said, if it had been an enemy that did this to me, I would understand. But this was a friend. This was someone that I had fellowshiped with and someone I had worshiped with. And it came from that direction. And sometimes the adversity and disruption in your life, like it did in the life of Joseph, comes from people you trust and people you love. And that's hard to navigate through. And yet that's when we find Joseph. In fact, if you have a Bible, look, just a couple of verses this morning In Genesis 37, in verse 23, the Bible says, and it came to pass. One pastor read that and said, thank God it didn't come to stay. It came to pass, you'll get that on their way home. It came to pass when Joseph was come to his brethren. They stripped him out of his coat, his coat of many colors that was on him. They took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty. There was no water in it. And so here is the first time his life is disrupted. And it's disrupted his in a pit. And he's in the pit because of someone he loved who betrayed him. I just want to talk about that for just a few moments. The pit experiences of life that you and I will encounter, those things that we will go through in life sometimes that God will either cause to happen or allow to happen. But in the thing that happens, he has a purpose in it. And it's a step that he's moving us progressively along the way to something better. Before I go a little farther, if we could have sat down with Joseph, crawled down in that pit with him and said, man, I know your heart's broken, and I know you're discouraged right now. I know. But buddy, I've read the rest of your story. You're gonna be fine. Did you know one day you're going to have the keys of Egypt? They're going to be dangling by your side. You're going to be second in authority only to Pharaoh himself. You're going to have power. And you with that power are going to be able to save your family. Even these brothers who betrayed you one day will look to you as their salvation. And they're gonna look to you as their source of sustenance. So it's gonna work out. I mean, 17 years old, he's thrown in this pit. And if we could have told 17 year old Joseph that this thing was going to work out, I don't know, it might have brought him a lot more comfort. But unfortunately that's not how life goes. Don't you wish when you go through something that God would just speak audibly into your ear and say, if you could just see how this is gonna work, you would trust me more? Believe me, this is going to, this is. You think this is terrible, but I'm going to do something through this experience that's hard. I know it's hard, but it's going to work out for you. Trust me on this one. Paul kind of caught that a little bit when he wrote Romans 8:28. Paul would write, for we know that all things work together for good. He didn't say all things were good, he said all things ultimately work together for good to those who are called of God and those who are called to his purpose. And verse 29 follows up by saying that God is using everything that happens in our life to conform us into the image of His Son. In other words, he's trying to let us be an expression of who Jesus is. And sometimes it's not through the successes of life, but sometimes it's through the failures of life that he shines the brightest through the darkest moments. And if we could have had that conversation with Joseph in the pit to tell him it's going to be okay, maybe that would have encouraged him a little bit. But we didn't have to have that conversation with Joseph because Joseph had a faith in God. He probably talked to himself. He probably had a little conversation with himself. I know there's a reason. I know I didn't bring this on myself. This is not a cycle, this is a season. And I'm gonna trust God in the middle of this and I'm gonna believe God that somehow this is gonna work out for my good and his glory. And the first thing I think about when I think about the pit that he went into is that it was inevitable, but it was not inescapable. He went into the pit, but he didn't stay there. He went into an experience that he ultimately went through that experience. Isn't it interesting that in the text I read it says there was no water in the pit? Have you thought about that? The reason it says in my estimation there's no water in the pit is he wasn't gonna Be there long. It didn't say, hey, we got you some sandwiches in here. And by the way, there's some water. You'll be good to go, man. We got you a cot, so you're gonna be fine. No, this is an experience that he was going in, but he was just going to go through it. There are a lot of things in life you go through. You go in, but you don't go in to stay. You go through it. Goodness. Even in the last experience of life, in Psalm 23, when David says, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no over you. He didn't say, though I walk into the valley of the shadow of death. That would lead you to believe death is the experience you go into, you don't come out of. He said, even in death, the last experience we'll have on this life, it's still an experience that we go through. We don't go into it and stay. We go through it. So I don't want you to miss that. When you go through something, it is not permanent. When you go through something, God is keeping you there for a reason. It is an inevitable experience, but it is not inescapable. I gave you the steps of a person in that Psalm 37. I quoted you a moment ago. Down in verse 23, he says, the steps of this person are ordered by the Lord. Now keep this in mind. God is saying, I am guiding the steps of my kids. The steps of the Lord are ordered by the Lord. And then it said, he delights in his way. God is pleased with his life. And then the next statement says, though he fall. Though he fall, nobody plans to fall. A little while we walk out of this building. I hope you don't fall. Nobody's sitting here this morning and going about 15, 20ft out that door. I think I'm just gonna fall. No, it's accidental. Nobody plans to fall. But falls are inevitable. The more you move, and especially the more you run, the more likely you are to stumble and fall. Don't miss this. What God is saying in that 37th Psalm in that 23rd verse is applicable to what Joseph was experiencing here was a person whose steps were ordered by God. Let me break it down even a little more. This is a person that is doing exactly what God wants them to do. They're exactly where God wants them to be. They're sensitive to the Holy Spirit. They're walking in the Spirit. They're doing everything God is expecting of them. They're doing it Right. They're a good mom, they're a good dad, they're a good provider. You're checking all the right boxes. And then it says, though they fall, Joseph. This again was not a cycle. This was a season. Joseph had. Had. Had been thrown into this pit, not from any fault of his own. He was following God, doing what he was supposed to be, where he was supposed to be. And God allowed this experience to happen. So I'm saying sometimes these things you and I will go through in life, though they are inevitable, they are not inescapable. You're in it, but you're gonna get through it. In fact, man, James, when he wrote about this in James chapter one, he said to the saints that are scattered, going through persecution, he said, count it all joy when you go into problems, into diverse problems, Count it joy. Most of us count it joy when we come out of them. James says, count it joy when you go into them. I don't do that. I'm sorry. I should. I'm just confessing a sin. I should and we all should. But how many of you, when you're faced with a difficulty, say, thank you, God. I pray this would be a great day. And this has turned out pretty bad. Had trouble getting there this morning. I had difficulty on the way. Had car trouble, whatever the deal is, you know, I mean. I mean, you just name everything that can go wrong in your life and it, you know, debate with the mate. Thank you, Lord. We're having some tension. Things were going great. Now we're not getting on. Thank you for that. Oh, I don't know how we're gonna pay all the bills. We got more month than money. Thank you, Lord. Oh, thank you, Jesus. He said, count it all joy when you go into these difficult. Knowing that the difficulty is gonna work out for your favor. It's gonna work in your. That's the whole principle that I'm teaching this morning, is understanding that if we can get our head turned in that direction, to know these pits are inevitable, but they're not inescapable. Midst of it, God has a purpose. This is the second point I wanted to make, is these pits are defining, but they don't have to be defeating. Defining. What do I mean by that? You learn something about yourself in those hard times, in those difficult experiences. They're defining. They don't have to be defeating. Meaning that. Don't surrender to the idea of fatalism when you go through a hard time. Don't go negative and don't turn bitter on God. Realize I'm gonna go through this experience. It's not enjoyable. I'm gonna come out on the other side of it. And while I'm in the midst of it, I wanna learn what God is trying to teach me. I want it to define me. I don't want this to defeat me. You're gonna go through it. You don't wanna sit in it or stay in it. Think about IC units that we have in hospitals. Hope you never have to have one, but if you do, they're a great place to be if you're sick, you've had surgery, you've been in an accident, you've had some sort of a trauma. Those healthcare professionals are the best in the land and they will take great care of you. And their goal, let me tell you, their goal. Their goal is to get you out of there. Nobody goes into ICU and goes sweet. They feed me, they take care of me. I didn't have to move. I can just stay here and everything is done for me. By the way, the hospitals aren't selling ICU units as timeshares. The purpose of that unit is to get you out of there, get you back on your feet. I'm saying there's seasons when you have to be there and you need to be there, but you don't wanna stay there. You need to learn what you need to learn. You need to grow, how you need to grow. You need to get healthy, how you need to get healthy while you're in the season so that you can move on to the next thing. And this pit for young Joseph, it was a defining moment for him. It was a strengthening for him. It did not defeat him. It's obvious that it didn't defeat him. When he came out of that experience, he went into the next experience. And that could have defeated him. Instead, it was defining him. And when you find Joseph, you find him in Hebrews 11. And he's referred to as a champion of faith, meaning that he never gave up. He never gave up on the process. He never gave up on the providence of God. He trusted God in the midst of that adversity. It's interesting that there are two words that Jesus uttered more than any other words in all the world while he was on this earth. Two words. You know what those words are? Fear not. Fear not. He said that more than anything else. Because life is going to be made up of some disrupting moments when it will create some fear. And if you remember and remind yourself, I'm in his hand, this is not a cycle. This is a season. I'm gonna get through it. I'm gonna get out of it. And for some reason, God is using this to define me and not defeat me. It will change your whole mentality when you go through that season. Joseph never allowed the seasons of life to defeat him. Here's the third one. The third one is a pit is essential. It's not incidental. It's essential. It's not incidental. You are going to change. When you go through a hard experience, you will. You will not be the same person. Whether it's intentional or unintentional, you will come through it bitter, you'll come through it better, but you will not come through it the same. When you come out on the other side after your pit experience, after you've gone through that, it's going to change something about you. That's why when Paul was praying about the Christ followers in Ephesus, his concern was that they have insight. He prayed it this way. He said, I pray that the eyes of your heart be enlightened. The eyes of heart. Did you know your heart has eyes? We have these physical eyes that can see out, but we also have internal eyes. That's where we get the idea of insight from. You have eyesight, you have insight. And sometimes when the eyesight is telling you we're in a pit and this is a bad situation, you need insight to know God is at work. He can be trusted. I don't need to fear. I'm in his hand. He's got this. He's got me. I'm gonna be here until he determines it's time for me to go. And in the middle of all of this, I know I can trust my Savior. Think about this. There's not a place in the Bible where God ever says, understand me. Nowhere. Not a place in the Bible where God ever says, explain this. Doesn't say that. Here's what he says. Trust me and obey me. Now we get hung up on the, you know, explain yourself thing. I mean, when we go through that and we're in the pit and we're thinking about the people maybe that were responsible for us being there or the circumstances, and we're knowing God, you're strong enough. You could have kept this from me, but for some reason you allowed me to go through this and I don't understand it. That'd make fair. It's not fair. It doesn't make sense. Explain yourself. Can I tell you something, man? In my experience and my understanding of God's word, he seldom explains himself. Really. In fact, Isaiah Got so twisted at God finally through his just petulance and his just, you know, determination for God to tell him what's going on. He finally said Isaiah, as high as the heavens are above your head, so high are my thoughts above yours, and so high are my ways above yours. What he was saying, very sweetly to his Son, is, if I explained it to you, you wouldn't get it. So trust me. Trust me. One of my life verses is Proverbs 3, 5 and 6. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. He didn't say you don't have understanding. He said, be careful leaning too heavily. Why? Because we don't have all the facts. Lean not on your own understanding. He said, in all your ways, acknowledge him and he'll direct your path. Just keep leaning on him. Keep trusting him. The old song says, trust and obey. For there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. But, man, we get hung up on that. Explain yourself, God. We get hung up on that. Help me understand this, God. And he's. He may not explain it, and we may never understand it. I've told you before, there may be some experiences, some experiences in life we won't understand till we're in heaven. We may not be able to comprehend it. We may not be able to say all see all of it. But one of these days he'll make all of these things plain. But in the meantime, where you and I are down here trying to work our way through this thing called life, they're going to go through experiences where we just have to simply say, God, I don't understand it. I don't get it. But I'm gonna trust you in it because I know you are too good to do wrong and you are too wise to make a mistake. You cannot fail. And that's the kind of faith guys that we have to have two or three things and we'll go home. About these things being essential, not incidental. Number one, these experiences are not unusual. They're not unusual. That's the good thing about coming to church sometimes, is when you talk to other people, you find out you're not the only one going through something. There are people in this room that have had diseases. And there are people in this room that have gone through divorces. There's people in this room that have had betrayals. There's people in this room that had their heart broken. There's people in this room that have started businesses and struggled. There's every experience, trust me, there's every experience probably known to any of us that are represented on any given weekend in a service. And when you come, it's encouraging to know I'm not the only one. I'm not the only one that's struggling a little bit. And I'm not the only one going through this. Listen to 1st Peter 4, verse 12. Don't think it strange concerning the fiery trial that will try you. He's saying, when it hits your life, don't go, what is this about? Don't think it's strange. And then he went on to say, when his glory is revealed, you'll be glad with exceeding joy when his glory is revealed in God's timing. What is glory? What is that phrase, glory is revealed? What does that mean? Well, the word glory could be defined as everything that God is. So my understanding of what he's saying there in 1st Peter 4 is, When God is finished working that thing into my life so he can work that thing through my life where he is being revealed through that experience that I'm going through. People can see Jesus in and through me. He brings me out. So I shouldn't be surprised because God's doing something in me so that he can do something through me. Remember, Romans 8:29 conformed into the image of His Son. So God is allowing the fiery trials to come into our lives so that his glory might be revealed. Can I tell you, people will learn more about your character. They'll learn more about your strength in adversity than they will in your success. Your kids will learn more about you when they see how well you deal with difficulty than they see in how you deal with success. So I'm just saying, guys, to find the good things and the bad things and to try to find the light at the end of the tunnel. I'm just saying, understand, when these things happen, it's not unusual. Second thing I tell you about it, it's not unfruitful. That's been the whole premise of my message. God is going to do something through the experience. Listen to Isaiah 30, verse 18. Therefore will the Lord wait. He'll wait that he may be gracious to you. He's gonna wait before he brings you through this, and he's going to wait before he blesses you because of this. He'll wait so that something better can come a little later down the road. I remember when my dad would travel and he'd do revivals and meetings when I was a kid growing up, and he'd be gone for a period of Time back then sometimes they'd do two week meetings and three week revivals so we kids wouldn't see him. But when he came home after a long trip, he would always bring us something, some kind of a toy in a suitcase. Or he'd stop, you know, at the airport and go in there and just get a little something, you know. So we got accustomed, my siblings and I got very accustomed to when our dad got off a trip, we'd run by him to his bag, you know what I mean? Cause he knew he brought something back. And I heard about a father in a similar situation. He was a businessman and he had gone on a very successful business trip. And that had been his custom as well. But on one he didn't have time. And he said, here's what I'm gonna do. I just made a big sell. He said, I'm gonna take my kids to the toy store and I'm gonna let em pick out anything they want. So he talked to his wife about it. She said, honey, I think that's a great idea. Kids have been really good, let's do that. And they go to the toy store and the first thing they see when they go in the toy store, the candy had all the candy up front. And they look and says, mom, dad, you said anything, right? And he goes, are you sure? Look around, man. If you wanna get candy, we'll get you candy. But you look around, there's a lot of stuff in the store. One of them found a soccer ball, another one found a baseball. Another little girl found a little doll. Another one found, you know, they're finding these roller skates, they're finding all these things and they're holding them up. You said anything? And he goes, keep looking. I said, anything. And at the back of the store they found the bicycles. And they went, oh man. He said, anything, right? They said, dad, you said anything, right? And those kids came out of there with three brand new bicycles. What's the point of the story? The point of the story is they would have settled for candy when dad had a bike waiting on them in the back of the store. Therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious to you. God may be saying, not now, it's not time. Trust me, something better is going to come. I've got something I'm gonna develop in and through your life. Trust me, just trust me in the middle of this. It's not time yet, but when the time comes, I'm going to bless you and be gracious unto you. It's not Unusual. It's not unfruitful. Here's the last one. It's not unending. It's not unending. Psalm 30, verse 5 says, Weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning. Yeah, it's gonna get hard. There's gonna be some tears shed. There's gonna be some difficult moments in life. But God has promised, you're gonna get through this. You're gonna get through it stronger and better than ever. I'm gonna bless you because you've gone through it. And in Joseph's case, as I said, that pit was the first step to his promotion. And it didn't affect him, it didn't change him. When his brothers finally appear before him, and you know the story in Genesis 50, and he reveals himself to him, and they see this brother that they betrayed and they tried to kill, and they see him now standing as the prime minister of Egypt in control of their very life. Joseph said that famous line in Genesis 50, you thought evil against me, but God meant it for good. You thought this would destroy me, and that's why you put it on me. But God meant this for good. And friend, when you're in the pit, it's easy to get your head going in the wrong direction and think this is happening as evil against you. But realize if it's a season, God means it for good. The tears may come, the weeping may endure for the night. All that's true. But if you keep trusting him and obeying him, joy inevitably will come in the morning. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for the assurance that we have that even in the difficult experiences of life you're at work, you don't forsake us and you cannot fail us and you can be trusted. So I pray for my friends today. Everybody's going through something. I pray that they'll walk away from the room more encouraged than ever before. To trust you, to obey you, to continue, Lord, just to walk each day sensitive to your spirit, to love other people, to be generous, to be faithful, to share the faith with others who may not know you. Even though the storm clouds may be gathering in our life and we may be walking through a valley, I pray we'll still be able to give you praise because you're worthy and we know in our heart of hearts you will not fail. So, Lord Jesus, I pray for my friends today that they'll walk from this place in just a few moments now encouraged. And lastly, I pray for those in the room who may never have trusted you as savior. Maybe they're watching the service online and there's never been that moment in their life where they've humbled their heart and invited you in. I pray this might be the moment where they pray a simple prayer and say, Lord Jesus, with everything I know about me, I now trust all that I know about you. Come into my heart, forgive my sin, be a reality in my life. I trust you now and I'll give you thanks and praise in Jesus name. Amen. [00:36:01] Speaker A: Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you have any questions or prayer requests, please contact us by visiting metchurch.com so that we can follow up with you this week. We look forward to seeing you next week.