God is in control of my plan

Well, good morning, everyone, and welcome to church. Let's stand together all across the room today. We're gonna lift up the praises of the Lord in this place. So let's put our hands together like this. Let's lift our voices. Let's praise Him, come on. ♪ I have felt the hands that bear the skies ♪ ♪ Reach down and rescue me ♪ ♪ I have known the love of a father's heart ♪ ♪ A prodigal now redeemed ♪ ♪ From where I was to where I'm now ♪ ♪ It's overwhelming ♪ ♪ The more and more I see you move all around me ♪ Come on, you sing it. ♪ Oh, I can't help but praise you, praise you, Lord ♪ ♪ I can't help but lift up chimes of joy ♪ ♪ When I think about good you've been ♪ ♪ Faithful now to the end ♪ ♪ I can't help but praise you, praise you, Lord ♪ ♪ For the love you've spilled to save me ♪ ♪ For the love you've spilled to save my life ♪ ♪ A debt I cannot repay ♪ ♪ For the cross you bore with open arms ♪ ♪ Salvation that called my name ♪ ♪ From where I was to where I'm now ♪ Come on. ♪ It's overwhelming ♪ ♪ The more and more I see you move all around me ♪ ♪ I can't help but praise you, praise you, Lord ♪ ♪ I can't help but lift up chimes of joy ♪

♪ When I think about good you've been ♪ ♪ Faithful now to the end ♪ ♪ I can't help but praise you, praise you, Lord ♪ Come on, sing it out. ♪ I can't help but dance cause I'm free ♪ ♪ Got no chains on me, I'm healed every day ♪ ♪ Oh, I can't help but call on the name ♪ ♪ That buried my shame, who opened my grave ♪ ♪ Oh, I can't help but dance cause I'm free ♪ ♪ Got no chains on me, I'm healed every day ♪ ♪ Oh, I can't help but call on the name ♪ ♪ That buried my shame, who opened my grave ♪ ♪ I can't help but praise you, praise you, Lord ♪ ♪ I can't help but lift up chimes of joy ♪ ♪ When I think about good you've been ♪ ♪ Faithful now to the end ♪ ♪ I can't help but praise you, praise you, Lord ♪ ♪ I can't help but praise you, praise you, Lord ♪ ♪ I can't help but praise you, praise you, Lord ♪ ♪ I can't help but praise you, praise you, Lord ♪ ♪ I can't help but praise you, praise you, Lord ♪ You sing it out. ♪ I can't help but lift and shout some joy ♪ ♪ Cause when I think of how good you've been ♪ ♪ Faithful now to the end ♪ ♪ I can't help but praise you, praise you, Lord ♪ Get our hands together and praise the Lord this morning. He is worthy. He is the Word of God. God is the kingdom, the truth, and living word of God

and the life of Jesus. Amen. Don't you love that music? I feel like we should all hug and have a good cry right now. It's just great to be here at church with you. Welcome. If you're brand new today, welcome to you. And man, what an Easter we had last weekend, as you heard. Thanks for inviting people. And if you are one of those who came for the first time, last week and maybe you've made your way back to church. Welcome, really excited that you're here. You'll get to see more of a normal church service now and a normal series of sermons, so glad you're here. And I'll be out of the first time guest today. We'd love to meet you after the service. But if you've got a copy of God's Word, why don't you grab it? Genesis chapter 37 is where we're gonna be. If you have been with us for a while, you know what I'm about to say. If you're new, you don't know, but we have been really in the book of Genesis for the majority of this year. We began the journey all the way back in September. Let me remind you where we've been in the book of Genesis because I told you we're gonna do five distinct series. And guess what? We are on number five.

This is the finality to the Genesis series. And so we began with a series called Bringing Clarity to Confusion out of the first three chapters of the Bible. We covered that really from September to November. Then in the month of November, we talked about Noah's life. We spent the holidays in December talking about Abraham and building a life of faith. And then the last couple months here together, we covered One Big Happy Family, which is the story of Isaac and Rebekah and their two sons, Jacob and Esau. And now we are rounding third base, heading home here, and we are going to walk into a series today called God Meant It for Good. And this will take us through the next five weeks into the month of May. And we're gonna cover a guy by the name of Joseph. This is not Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus. This is Joseph, who has a roller coaster of a life. Anybody like roller coasters in the room? I have retired from roller coasters. I've also retired from snorkeling for totally different reasons, but I don't like either one really at this point in my life. I'll talk about that in another sermon at some point. But roller coasters and me, we don't get along like we used to get along. When I was a teenager, loved them,

loved a good theme park. I'm 42. I get motion sickness when I'm just watching TV. So I just can't do it much anymore. And I gotta stay off the roller coasters. Well, if you know nothing about the life of Joseph, you're about to experience a roller coaster of a ride. His life, and I'm just gonna like forecast where you're gonna be. You're gonna be reading parts of this story and you're gonna be like, man, where is God right now? Like, why is God allowing this? And why does God not stopping what's going on? And you may read that about the life of Joseph, but some of you are at that same point in your own life today. You're wondering, man, I've come to church to get any sense that God is aware of what's going on in my life, that he's around me, that he cares about me, that he loves me, that he is aware of the plan of my life. And you've come here kind of in a broken spot. Well, if that's you, you're in for a great series that God's gonna speak directly to your heart. If you're not at that point, here's what I'd tell you. I got bad news for you. You will be at some point. And you'll probably be at that point sometime soon where your life is not how you thought it would be. We'll talk a lot about that today here at the end.

But really, here's the overarching idea of this series. When we say God meant it for good, here's what we mean, God is in control. And every one of the weeks that we have in this series, we're gonna talk about how God is in control of several things. And today, the title of our message is this, God is in control of my plan. Sometimes God takes our plans and he chunks them out the window. Ever been there? Sometimes God takes our plans and he overcomes their deficiencies. Sometimes he picks us up from rock bottom after our plans did not flesh out in the way that we thought they would. And we've all been there before. So I want us to look at this passage. Let's begin reading chapter 37 and we'll begin reading right here in verse three. Here's what the Bible says. Now Israel, stop there. Who is Israel? Yell out his name. Jacob, right? Remember, we just finished the whole series about Jacob and Esau and God changed his name to what? To Israel. So now Jacob's got his own kids. He says he loved Joseph, subject of our story,

more than any other of his sons because he was the son of his old age. And he made him what? A robe of many colors. Some of you have been in church before when you were a kid, been out for a while, you're coming back, it's clicking, you're like, oh, that's where the robe of many colors, okay. Verse four, it says that when his brothers saw that their father loved him, underline that, more than all his brothers, they what? Hated him and could not speak peacefully to him. Now you got a bit of favoritism going on here. Remember, this was the case in the story of Isaac and Rebekah. Rebekah favored Jacob, Isaac favored Esau, and you had the whole dysfunction in that family. Guess what happened here? Dysfunctional family patterns are now repeating in the next family. Now you got Jacob, who's now called Israel, in his own family, got all these sons. And it says that Joseph, he favors more than all the others of his sons because he was the son of his old age. is old age. When Meredith and I do premarital counseling, which we don't do that a lot anymore, but every now and then we'll do it. And every session I talk to the couples at the beginning, I say, hey, how did your parents handle this?

And we'll go through that on gender roles, we'll talk about that. I see some kids in the room, we talk about that in the levy times, you know what I'm talking about? Did your parents talk about that or did they not talk about that? We'll talk about that related to money, how did your parents handle money? And if you're not married, I'm gonna tell you something that all the other married people know. Here's what that is. Is that the greatest struggle that you will have in your marriage to come will be overcoming sinful patterns of your family or just weird patterns of your family. Every family's got weird patterns, okay? And all the spouses are nudging one another, like it's your family, who's the weird one, okay? But here's what you're gonna find is you're gonna marry a guy one day and you're gonna have thoughts of like, there's no way he's ever gonna grow up and be like his mom or dad. I mean, he knows they're weird, their friends know they're weird, my family knows their family's weird, he's not gonna be like them. Guess what he's gonna be like?

He's gonna be like them. And then you're gonna marry some girl and you'll be like, surely for the love, she's not gonna be like her mother. And she's gonna be somewhat like her mother, okay? And so you have these family patterns that in order to have a successful marriage and family life, you've got to identify something that Jacob did not identify. You gotta identify where our parents have gone wrong, favoritism, and not repeat it in your own family. That could be favoritism, that could be things like greed, that could be things like bad communication, you name it, family patterns can go from generation to generation. It's exactly what's taking place here. Now look at the play on words here in the Bible. How'd you underline these words? It says, when the brothers saw that the father loved Joseph above all of them, they hated him. Who knew such love could produce such hate? And all of his brothers are jealous. And it hits a climax of jealousy when Joseph tells his brothers, hey, I had this dream last night and like all of y'all were bowing down to me. Side note, how would that go with your brother? I've got one brother, his name's Josh. If I call Josh on the phone and I was like,

hey man, I had a dream last night. And one day I believe that you're gonna bow down before me. I don't even know how it'd be possible. He would somehow reach his arm through the phone and slap me, okay? Like he'd smack me right in the moment. So it's not abnormal that the brothers are a little turned off by this, but all this hatred, all this jealousy had been building. And then you got this guy telling him he's got a dream that we're gonna bow down to him. And it all hits a head when all their brothers are out tending the flocks in the fields. And Jacob, Israel, sends his son, Joseph, the youngest of all of them, out to see how everything's going. Skip all the way down to verse 18. We're gonna have to skip a lot through this passage. This story is 13 chapters over the next five weeks. So I'll sum up some, read some, skip some, and so on, all right? It says, they saw Joseph from afar and before he came near to them, they conspired against him to kill him. They said to one another, here comes this dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits, and then we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him and we will see what has become of his dreams. Everybody say, not good.

This is not good, not a good story. His brothers turn on him. This goes from jealousy to a desire for murder. And Joseph is walking into a death sentence and doesn't even know it. Think about this moment. It is a moment of betrayal and Joseph's about to be blindsided, okay? He has no idea that this is coming at all. Any survivor, people in the room that you still watch Survivor? Okay, two people, there we go. That's great. I have also retired from Survivor. So roller coasters, snorkeling, and Survivor, I'm all done with, okay? Meredith is still going strong, watching Survivor, but it's just too much for me at this point. If you've never seen Survivor, at some point in the story, you know it's a game where you outwit, outplay, outlast, right? Isn't that the thing? And so, so you gotta do all that. I was just, for many years of watching it right there. It's not in the notes. Are y'all proud? Okay, that's good. And so there's a moment where somebody in the story or in the show betrays somebody else and they blindside another person at tribal council

and they vote him out. And on the screen, they'll literally put hashtag blindside. In the Bible, you could put hashtag blindside right here in the margin because that's exactly what's going on here. Let me make this. How about your own life? Have you ever been betrayed? Anybody ever been blindsided by somebody you didn't expect to blindside you? There's something deeply painful about betrayal, people you thought who were for you, who weren't for you, who you thought they loved you, but they don't ultimately love you. Several years ago, I went through, really, a deep, dark season of betrayal, and it was a season, not a moment, but like a season. Seemed like it came from every angle in my life. I don't know if you've ever felt that or sensed that. I had friends who went AWOL. I had people who I never expected would pile on, piled on. I had people who I expected to do the right thing who did the wrong thing, and it was just profoundly disappointing. You ever been there? And thankfully, God's done a work in my heart where I've forgiven all these people, but even as I think back on it freshly, it's just still disappointing. So like no anger or resentment left, but still just like a,

hmm, I just wish they wouldn't have done that. It's one thing when your plans get frustrated or canceled. So if you're like, well, we're gonna go to the mall today after we go eat, we're gonna go shopping. Oh, but then we got a flat tire, so we ended up at the tire store. It's like, that's one level of disappointment, and it's way down here. It's a whole other thing when you are disappointed with people. That's what this passage is all about. I would say it to you even this way. It's one thing to be betrayed. It's another thing to be betrayed by people in your family. That's the life of Joseph here. There's nothing in the text that makes us seem to understand that Joseph is expecting all this. He just walks into it blindsided, and they are there to kill him. I want you to write a statement in your journal today, or write it in your Bible if you just got your Bible today. I want you to write this. I want you to write the unseen hand of God, the unseen hand of God. So far, you're reading the story, and you're like, this doesn't look good. I mean, this is not very good. And if you know the story of Joseph, I'm just gonna like ruin the story for you.

It's about to get a whole lot worse. And so what you're gonna see throughout chapter 37 all the way to chapter 50, the end of Genesis, is you're going to see the unseen hand of God, God moving behind the scenes, even when we don't see it. So you're gonna read this story, and you're gonna ask a question like this, well, where is God right now in the midst of Joseph's betrayal? He's right there with him. And maybe you're thinking that in your own life, well, where is God right now in the midst of my own betrayal? He's right there with you. If you could read on through the next few verses, God elevates one of the brothers. I call him Reuben the Rescuer, because God calls him basically to rescue Joseph out of the hands of his brothers. And instead of killing him, Reuben's like, hey, why don't we not kill him? Everybody slow down a little bit. Why don't we just throw him in a pit? And it's not like gracious, you know, but he's like, he had a plan of I will go later when all this is calmed down, and I will get him out of the pit. So he's really trying to rescue his brother and help him not to be killed. And so I want you to just notice this,

because everybody look at me for a second. It's so easy to read the Bible like this, that sometimes you miss the overarching story. So why don't you look at the Bible like this, all right? And here's what I mean. In the midst of a really devastating situation, God did send someone to rescue him. When you're the one walking through all this, it's like right here and you struggle to see, but what I want you to understand is that God will send people into your life. And not only is God sovereign over those people, we'll talk about them in a second, but God is also sovereign over the people who are doing the wrong. And I would say it this way, if you respond rightly to the Lord and you handle pain well, and return that to the Lord in trust, then God can use the very people who are trying to harm you to be some of the greatest blessings you've ever experienced in your life. There was a show when I was a kid called Rescue 911. Anybody ever seen that show? Remember that? Rescue 911 was a show that they would take real 911 calls and they would try to play out the scene for the show. And so it'd be like, 911, this is the operator. How can I help you? And this woman would be frantic.

I'm in my house, my garage. My husband fell off the ladder and his head is bleeding. He's not responding. Well, keep him calm as you're breathing. And it kind of goes back and forth between the operator and the person. And all the time you're seeing the fake husband on the ground in a fake puddle of blood. And then the first responders come and they help. It was one of my favorite shows when I was a kid. I was in seventh grade, went to a sleepover, it was over in East Springdale, I'll show you more of that. I was raised in Northwest Arkansas. I was what's up, right? And so I was raised in Northwest Arkansas, went to a sleepover, and it was like a bunch of boys all together at this friend's house. So we're driving back home the next day, like driving back into town from where this guy lived, and it's like a full car of boys, and so I'm in the front seat, because it's the only seat left, next to the mom. So the mom's here driving, I'm in the passenger seat, and it's a snowy, slick day, and she slips on ice while she's driving. We go off the road into the wooded area right off the highway, and a branch shatters my window. I'm like a seventh grade little boy, like freaking out inside, but all my buddies are in the back, so I'm like, I'm fine.

You know, I'm just freaking out. And so we're there, I don't even remember how long we're there, but we were there long enough to where a first responder shows up at my window with a blanket, and I'm like, dude, I'm on rescue 911, or right here, I'm living it out. So in the midst of that traumatic experience, there was a rescuer. As I told you a moment ago, we often tend to see the trials of our life like this. We think about all the people who were not there, all the people who did go AWOL, all the people who did wrong us, and betray us, and stab us in the back. Here's what I would encourage you to look for. Look at the people that God has sent you to rescue. Look at the people who God has given to encourage you in the midst of really hard times. You know, a good little application out of this would be when you leave church today, you oughta think about those people who they were there for you in a really difficult season in your life, a teacher, a coach, maybe it was a grandparent, aunt or uncle, maybe it was a friend, pastor, somebody in your life, Sunday school teacher, and I think it'd be a great thing for you to walk out and to text them while you're sitting in your car before you start driving, obviously, but you just text them and say,

hey, I was reminded of you at church today how when I was 22 years old, you were really there for me, or when I walked through the divorce, you were really somebody who stood in my corner, and man, you were there alongside me. When this happened in my life, man, you were there for me, and I just, I praise God for you, and I just wanna thank you yet again. And you never know how that may encourage somebody in your own life today. Keep on reading. Look down at verse 25. It says, and they sat down to eat, and looking up, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead with their camels bearing gum, balm, and myrrh on their way to carry it down to where? To Egypt. Verse 26, then Judah, key guy in this story, said to his brothers, what profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our own flesh. It's like he feels bad, and they're like, I mean, we can't kill him. He is our brother, after all. And his brothers listened to him. Then Midianite traders passed by, and they drew Joseph up and lifted him up out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for 20 shekels of silver.

How much is your brother worth? And then just look at this last phrase, underline that in your Bible. They took Joseph to Egypt. God raises up a second brother who, it's not necessarily like a mark of righteousness, but he didn't murder him. He's like, listen, guys, you know, we don't want his blood to be on our hands, and so we're not gonna make any money if we do that. Why don't we sell him into slavery? And in case you know this story too well, and you're like, yeah, I know that part. They sold Joseph into slavery. Can we like make this about your own family? Anybody got a brother or sister? And anybody feel like your parents favored them? Somebody like, tell me something I don't know, okay? Always been the favorite over there. Let's say that that burned in you as a jealous hatred, and you thought, well, I'm gonna kill him. I'm gonna kill her. Then you thought, I can't kill her. I'll get arrested. What if I sold her or him into slavery in a foreign country? Sounds a little more weird that way, right? This is peak dysfunction. This is crazy, it's wicked. And so I just want you to like, let's look at the screen. I'm gonna give you, here's five things

about Joseph's life so far. I'm gonna give you, here's five things about Joseph's life so far, and let's see his pathway to success. You ready for this? Here's his life so far. He was his father's favorite, then he was hated by his brothers. They wanna kill him. They throw him in a pit. They sell him to slavery. How's that look to everybody about a life well-lived? This dude's life is heading nowhere good. Everybody look back up here. This is his life right now, just spiraling out of control. You can imagine him trying to grasp and get ahold of it. And it's just spiraling further and further and further out of control. I think this gets real personal. If you are here today and you've dealt with significant pain, this story is for you. If you've been abandoned by a family member, been wronged in some way, you've been betrayed by people, you fill in the blank in your life. If you've experienced significant pain, this story is for you. Maybe you look at your life and say, Nick, I've been dealt a tough hand. We say things like that. What I would tell you is this,

is that God is sovereign over your life just as he was sovereign over the life of Joseph. Here's a great word for your life. Write this statement down. God is in control over your pain. In fact, guess what next Sunday's all about? That right there. God's in control of your pain. He sees, he knows, and he can use all things for good. And at this point in the story, as I mentioned, Joseph's life is spiraling out of control. Reuben hears about this and he's heartbroken and he just can't imagine that his brothers have done this. And the brother's deceitfulness goes further. They kill a goat and they spread the blood of the goat all over the coat of many colors and they take it back to their dad. Joseph's been killed by a wild animal. They just lie. And Jacob thinks his youngest son is dead. The chapter closes with this. I want you to look all the way down to verse 36. I want you to circle the first word in your Bible. Meanwhile, the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, key guy right there, you may wanna underline, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard. This verse is like a cliffhanger. It connects to the rest of the story, but it's like a cliffhanger like this. You ever watch Netflix and you get to the end

of the episode and you're like, oh, what's going on? And it's 1 a.m., but the next episode starts in four, three, two, and you're like, are we doing this, are we doing this? Meredith and I were here last week. It was like 10 til midnight and we got on a cliffhanger. We're like, oh, huh, and we went to bed, okay, because we're responsible, all right? With verse 36, the word of God is connecting the dots to the story of Joseph and connecting the dots to the rollercoaster of his life. I got a question for you that I think is straight from this chapter. Through what lens will I view the events of my life? You gotta answer that personally. Through what lens will I view the events of my life? I have glasses, as you see. I have progressive lenses. Anybody else have progressives in the room? Progressives are, basically if you don't know anything about it, it's kind of like normal glasses and bifocals on the same lens. And so the further I look down, the bigger it gets. You don't really notice it once you get used to them, but I need these primarily for reading or my eyes get tired. So if you see me around town, I often don't have them on, but I have them with me and I'll throw them on. My eye doctor knew I was a pastor, and so she didn't just want to give me readers,

because she was like, you'll do this the whole time. I'm like, read the Bible, and then look at the people. Read the Bible, look at the people. So she said, you need progressives. So I see the world through my progressive lenses. And unfortunately, the older I get, the more I have to see the world through my progressive lenses. I want to ask you, through what lens do you view your life? It's easy in the vein of Genesis 37 to see your life through the lens of people and not through the lens of God's plan. Let me say it to you again. It's easy to view your life through the lens of people instead of through the lens of God's plan. This is this story, by the way. A dad who wrongly favored his son, brothers who were wrongly jealous, brothers who wrongly wanted to kill him, and instead decide to sell him into slavery. You ever wonder what Joseph was thinking on the way to Egypt? Like, is he in a caravan? Is he in like a caged wagon? Is he on a donkey or a horse? Is he walking? We don't really know. But I wonder if he's on that ride to Egypt. And I wonder if he's thinking through all the people in his life

who had ruined the plans he had for his life. I thought one day I'd marry a woman and have a family. Ruined. Thought one day I'd get to grow up and I'd have a flock of my own to take care of. Ruined. Can I wrap up like this? Can we talk about ruined plans? Doesn't that sound like a feel-good way to end today? Some of you are sitting in the ashes of the plans of your life. Something has not turned out the way you expected it to. You thought your relationship with your parents would be one thing, but it's not. You thought marriage would be one thing, but it's not. You thought your career would be at a point, but it's not. And so life has just not turned out the way you want it to. And again, if you're not there now, I just wanna encourage you with some bad news. You will be there at some point. Nobody in this room bats 1,000 in life. Every one of us deals with disappointment. If you are batting 1,000, come out and see me in the lobby. I'd like to meet you, because you lived a good life. But let me talk about this as I wrap up. Let's talk about when plans get ruined. I wanna give you two thoughts. When plans get ruined, number one, we think people are in charge, therefore people are at fault. We think people are in charge of our life,

therefore people are at fault. We have thoughts like this. Well, you betrayed me. You stabbed me in the back. You talked about me. You ruined the plan I had going. Our family's not what it could be because of your sin. And we have this false sense that people are in charge of our situations, therefore I have every reason. And I am justified in holding bitterness against you, resentment against you, anger against you. Some of us live with the mindset of what could have been. Well, my life could have been this way if she had not. My life could have been this way if he had not. My career would have been at this level if he had not. And we just had this mindset that people are in charge. I mean, Joseph could have easily wondered the same thing. Well, what if my father wouldn't have favored me? Maybe I wouldn't be in this position. What if my brothers didn't hate me? And what if those dang Midianites wouldn't have come by at just the wrong time as they were debating all this? Do people do wrong things, yes or no? Yeah, no doubt. Do people do wicked things? Yes or no? No doubt about it. Are people responsible for their actions? Yes, absolutely.

Are people responsible for your future? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. You're gonna see that through the life of Joseph over the next four weeks beyond today. Here's the second thought. When plans get ruined, God is really in charge of the plans of my life. He's really in charge of the plans of my life. My point is this. No one is in charge of your future but God. No one is in charge of your plans but God. When you think about the future, what comes to mind? Like if I were to just sit down at a coffee shop with you today and say, hey, what do you think about your future? What's coming up? Some of you would have a hopeful look. You think, man, there's a lot of things that could be in my life. Some of you have a doubtful look. Well, I don't expect much. I said that in the 8 a.m. service. And a husband pointed at his wife like, that's her. I don't expect much. I'm still laughing two hours later. Others have a painful look. Man, if only they hadn't, then this is what would be. Can I give you, I'm gonna like, I'm gonna give you a harsh, blunt word.

Are you ready for it? I don't know if you're ready to receive it. This is one of those free hugs in the lobby after the service if you need it after this, okay? Your life is not one big pile of people's actions against you. I'm gonna say it to you again. Your life is not one big pile of people's actions against you. God's in charge. So as a follower of Jesus, I'm not talking about this all day. I'm just gonna talk about it right now. As a follower of Jesus, we don't play victim. We play victor because of God. No matter what I'm facing, no matter what I've been through, and some of y'all have been through this. Things that, gosh, my heart breaks for you. I'd hug you if I knew. And even when you've been through the worst of the worst that humanity can offer, God can make you a victor through Christ. By the way, is this not the story of Jesus? Rejected by the ones he came to save? Hated by the religious leaders of the day? Killed by the ones with whom he came to save? We just went through the whole Easter weekend, Good Friday, the crucifixion, and Easter, the resurrection,

and you may be wondering like, hey, where was God when Jesus was getting killed? He's working a plane in the background to send his only son to die on the cross for your sin and my sin. Three days later, rising from the dead. He's in the background doing the biggest miracle that's ever been done. That's what God's doing in the background. I'll close with this. Go back to verse 36, and just let's throw that up on the screens again. Can I teach you the Bible today as we wrap up? This word, meanwhile, it's not in the Bible. You say, I think it's in the Bible. What are you talking about? Old Testament was written in the Hebrew language, and this is not there. You say, why is it in the Bible if it's not in the Bible? It's a translation, and any time you translate from one language to another language, there's gotta be connective words. There's gotta be words that explain the thought of what's going on in Hebrew, and the thought is this, that meanwhile, while Joseph's going through all this, God's working a plan in the background. So meanwhile, while the Midianites have taken Joseph, they have now sold him to a guy named Potiphar that is basically key in the remainder of the story.

Is that what, what's the point? Here's the point for your life today. God is working in the meanwhile over your life. He's working in the meanwhile in your life. The things that you can't see, the things you can't feel or touch, God is working in the meanwhile. That actually gives some of you incredible hope today. Maybe you're here today, and you've honestly lost faith that God has got control of your situation. Like you're a follower of Jesus, but man, you're like, man, I don't sense that God is aware. I don't sense that God's involved at all, but Nick, I wanna believe what you're saying. I wanna believe the word of God. I'm just gonna invite you to the altar today. Like, here's what I tell you. We are responsive people to the word of God. Sometimes that means you come forward at the end of a service like that just to do business with God. Other times it means that you leave church and you make a phone call to somebody you need to call. Other times it means you walk in obedience that has nothing to do with anything in this room, but you're walking in obedience outside the room. We are responsive people to the word of God. And that's one way to respond. Lord, I've lost faith that you're there,

but God, I do believe it, and I'm just asking you to help me believe it. Maybe you're here today and you've been deeply hurt by people. When I talk about you view people as those who have ruined your plans, and you just need God to do a healing work over some wounds in your life, I'm just gonna invite you to come. Maybe you're here and you're like me several years ago now where there needed to be a deep work of forgiveness in my heart. Only service I've said this, but maybe it's for you. Again, several years ago now, we were coming up on Easter weekend, still working on the forgiveness thing. And there's something like every preacher before Easter weekend, you feel like I gotta be like on with the Lord. I gotta be fully right with God, confessed up, like walking in the Holy Spirit. And so I wrote down, I wrote down 20 people's names that I had bitterness, unforgiveness, and resentment against over what they had done to me. And I went through it again, Lord, and I went name by name. Lord, I choose to forgive him, and I choose to forgive her,

and I choose to forgive him. And I went through all 20. Here's what I've learned. Forgiveness happens immediately, and it's gotta happen continually. You have things that continually remind you of the wrong that people have done with you. And R.T. Kendall says it this way. He says, forgiveness is a life sentence. Some of you hear me say that today, and you're like, Nick, you have no idea what the wrong that people have done to me, and you have the gall to stand on that stage and tell me that I must forgive them. And yeah, I do. And I say it first and foremost because you wanna be right with God. And I say it secondly because there is a sense of forgiveness that you release the person from the offense, from the wrong done against you. But you also forgive for you. Some of you are in chains and in bondage to unforgiveness, you don't even know it. It's been so long, it feels so normal, it feels so natural, I got every right to be angry. You do. But do not let their sin turn into your sin. And so if you're here today and you think, Nick, this is crazy talk, I can't believe you're even talking about this,

but man, I know that, that's gotta be a God thing in my life, I cannot do that on my own. God can do it. I'm gonna ask you to come and say, Lord, I know I need to forgive, I don't know how. I don't know how with this person, but I'm choosing it. Some of you need to see your life through the lens of God's control. Like I showed you with my glasses. Through what lens are you viewing your life through right now? Some of you, there needs to be a perspective shift here. I'm just gonna invite you to come. Maybe you're here today and you need to trust Jesus for the very first time. I'm gonna invite you to come. And maybe you're here on Easter last week and you heard the gospel real clearly and you're like, man, I didn't do it last week, but man, I've been working on it. But man, I've been waiting all week. This is the time right here. We call this the altar. It's just the front of the stage. You know why we call it the altar? In the Old Testament, the altar is where they would perform sacrifices. In other words, the altar was a place that things came to die.

So, a lack of faith dies at the altar. A lack of belief in the sovereignty and the control of God dies at the altar. Unforgiveness dies at the altar. Anger dies at the altar. By the way, there's an altar here. Some of you need to create an altar in your home as well. Just next to a chair. For some of you who need Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives within me. Can we bow our head all over this room today? Please, no one moving or leaving. The most important thing we'll do is right now, our staff's gonna make their way to the front of each aisle. If you're here today and you say, Nick, I know that I need Christ, I'm gonna make my way to the front of each aisle. You're a believer. You're a believer. You're a believer. You're a believer. You're a believer. If you're here today and you say, Nick, I know that I need Christ, like that's my step. I'm gonna invite you in just a moment. We're gonna stand and sing a final song. As soon as we stand, I'm gonna invite you to come to one of these men or women.

They are here for you. They're here to pray with you about anything in your life. But specifically, if you're here today and you need Christ, I'm gonna invite you to come to them. All you gotta say is this, I need to give my life to Jesus, and they will lead you to faith in Christ here today. Answer any question that you have. If that's you, would you move in just a moment? For the rest of you who would say, Nick, I know that I'm a follower of Christ, but man, there's some things in my life that I need the help of God in. I need a lack of faith to die in my life. I need resentment to die in my life. I'm just gonna invite you to come. Join me in the process that I've been in for several years, walking in victory now. God can do that in you. However God's asking you to respond, would you respond today? Lord, as we wrap up our service, it is our prayer that the Holy Spirit of God would convict us in ways that only you can and move us in ways that only you can. Give victory in ways that only you can. And it's in the name of Jesus that we pray, amen.