Joseph: Rooted Through Trials // HEROES OF THE FAITH

Ordinary people. Men and women whose lives are not defined by perfection but by being deeply rooted in Him. Through promise and trial, through courage and calling, their stories remind us that faith doesn't fade in the storm, it grows deeper. And now their stories become our invitation to stand strong and remain rooted in Christ. Heroes of the Faith, Rooted Edition. Who's happy to be in church today? It's good to be in church. If you're new here, my name is Virg. I'm the pastor here at Vertical Church. If you don't know about our church, we are the best-looking church in the Western Hemisphere of the world. That's what they say about the sheep and the pastor. Amen? Tell the person next to you, say, you're looking great. You're looking great today. You're looking great. That's right. Any Christians brought your Bibles to church? Any Christians who love the Lord or read the Word? You can open up to Genesis 37. Pastor, where's Genesis? Come on, everybody. Right at the beginning. Genesis 37. We'll be in Genesis 37. We'll be in Genesis 39. A little ahead, we'll have a verse in Isaiah 40. We are in the series, Heroes of the Faith, Rooted Edition. And throughout the summer, we're gonna be learning from the lives of some incredible men and women in Scripture who are great examples of what it means to be rooted, what it means to be founded upon in a solid way. The Word, the Lord, our faith. This series naturally connects to our theme for the year, which is Firmly Rooted, Faithfully Growing. And each week, we're gonna discover that the heroes of the faith weren't heroes because they were perfect. In fact, they all had flaws, failures, fears, doubts, weaknesses, and struggles, just like all of us do. Yet, despite the challenges they faced, they remained anchored in the Lord. And when life got difficult, they stayed rooted. And when opposition came, they stayed rooted. And when they didn't understand what was happening or why, they stayed rooted. And God used their lives. Last week, we spoke about Timothy, Rooted in Discipleship. And before I share about who we're talking about today, I want to talk a little bit about something that I learned some years ago from a good friend called Eric Samson, Eric the Flute Maker. Some of you might know or remember Eric the Flute Maker. He's a local guy. I've known

him for 30 years, I think. And Eric Samson, he has a ministry in different parts of the world. He's an American man with a nice long beard, if you've seen him recently. But he speaks Spanish perfectly because he's been a missionary in Latin America for many years as well. And one of the things about Eric is that he's a flute maker. And so a lot of the flutes and a lot of the instruments that he makes, he makes them out of bamboo. Everybody say bamboo. And I remember hearing him tell us a story years ago about bamboo. In fact, I was at his house where he has all kinds of bamboo growing in his backyard. It's like a bamboo paradise. And he's got his workshop where he makes all and crafts all of his instruments, including all of the flutes. And so he was telling us in this occasion that we went over there, and he was telling us a story about the fascinating bamboo. So a person, so him, when he first got started there in the house that he's in here in Davie, he planted the bamboo, watered it, you know, fertilized it. And his neighbors, I'm sure, were watching him do this when he was doing it at the beginning. But the interesting thing about bamboo is that month after month, year after year, nothing happens above the surface when you've planted bamboo. In fact, his neighbors, probably after the first year, were probably saying like, what are you watering there? You know, and after year two, they were like, are you sure there's something there? And after year three, because nothing is happening, and after year four, nothing is happening. But something happens during the fifth year. Remarkable. During the fifth year, the bamboo suddenly shoots up through the surface of the ground, and it shoots upward as much as 90 feet in six weeks. The question that I have for you is, do you think the bamboo grew 90 feet in six weeks? No, no, no, no, no. It had been growing underground, developing roots, building strength, and preparing for what was coming. Now, many of us, we want God to work quickly. We want immediate answers. We want immediate breakthroughs. We want immediate solutions to our prayer requests. But often, God is doing some of his greatest work beneath the surface. In seasons when we feel forgotten, delayed, confused, maybe even disappointed. And maybe today, some of you are in a season where you're feeling

like God is silent or absent. And maybe you're asking, why is this happening? When will this change? Where is God in all of this? And if that's you, this message today is for you. Now, I want to be honest with you. One of the most difficult things about following Jesus is not trusting him when everything is going well. It's trusting him when life doesn't make sense. It's easy to trust God when things are flowing. It's easy to trust God when relationships are healthy. It's easy to trust God and to say amen to the pastor when prayers are being answered and when finances are stable. But what about when life takes an unexpected turn? What about when you get an unexpected diagnostic on the last medical exams you take? When the job that you had for a long time disappears? When the relationship that you thought was doing okay breaks down? When the dreams that you had are delayed? When we're doing the right things but we're experiencing the wrong outcomes? These are the moments that test our faith and if we're honest, we've all experienced them. Now I've discovered something that I think you guys might agree with me. Most people don't struggle with God's power, they struggle with God's timing. Because we believe he can, we're just not sure why he hasn't yet. And that's where today's hero becomes very relevant to all of us.

Because the person we're gonna speak about today spent many years living between God's promise of things to come and the actual fulfillment of that promise. He was somewhere in the messy middle. Maybe some of you are finding yourselves there today. And so I think we can all be honest here. Nobody in their right mind or in the right sense, nobody raises their hand and say, I want to volunteer for trials and tribulations. Nobody wakes up in the morning saying, Lord, I'd really like some adversity today. When we get the menu of life, nobody takes out the menu and says, you know what Lord, I think I'll have big problems. Yet, trials, tribulations and problems are part of life. Research consistently shows that resilience, emotional maturity and long-term character are often developed not during seasons of comfort, but rather during seasons of adversity. And the Bible has been teaching this truth for long years before psychologists and sociologists did any studies on it. So we have some questions to address and wrestle with together today. The question is not, will we face trials? The question is, how will we respond when we face trials? Will we become bitter or will we get better? Will we run from God or will we root ourselves and be anchored deeper in God?

How do we remain rooted in God when life doesn't make sense? What do we do when trials seem unfair? How can we trust God's plan when we can't see God's hand? How does God use adversity to prepare us for the purposes he has for us? And so I'm gonna give it to you in one sentence, the big idea from God's word today that we're gonna wrestle with today is this. God often does his deepest work in us while we are walking through our darkest trials. The message today is Joseph rooted through trials. Can you say it with me? Joseph rooted through trials. Before we jump in and talk about Joseph, let's pray. Lord, we open up our hearts today and we position ourselves in a receptive way before you. I pray that the good seeds of truth from your word would land on good soil in every one of our hearts. Help us hear your word, understand your word, and commit to applying its principles in our lives. And I pray that these seeds would produce great fruit in our lives. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. So before kind of going into it, I wanna talk a little bit about this hero of the faith that we're gonna talk about today, Joseph. Now I wanna clarify, Joseph in Genesis Old Testament, not to be confused with Joseph, father of Jesus, New Testament, okay? So we're talking about Joseph, the son of Jacob

in the Old Testament. Joseph lived approximately 1,900 years before the birth of Christ. Joseph was the 11th son. What number was he? The 11th son of Jacob, but he was the firstborn of his mother, Rachel. Jacob, his father, had multiple wives. Rachel was his mother. He was the first of Rachel. And he had 10 older brothers. We know later throughout the story that he had a younger brother named Benjamin, also from his mother, Rachel. Now it's interesting because the story of Joseph actually pans from Genesis 37 all the way through Genesis 50, making it one of the longest continuous narratives about a single person in the Bible. It's an amazing story. It's good, it's worth taking a read throughout this week if you haven't. So let me paint the picture first real quick about Joseph. We understand that Joseph is number 11 of 12 brothers, sons of Jacob. Jacob, by the way, eventually would change his name. His name would be changed to Israel, okay? So Joseph is one of the 12 tribes. Joseph is one of the 12 sons of Jacob. Now the interesting thing specifically about Joseph is.

is that he was very highly favored by his father. This did not make him popular with his older brothers. In fact, his older brothers got to a point where they highly, highly disliked Joseph. In fact, I want us to read together Genesis 37, starting in verse two. Genesis 37, starting in verse two, and it says, this is the account of Jacob and his family, okay? And it says, when Joseph was 17, how old was Joseph? When he was 17 years old, he often tended his father's flocks. He worked for his half-brothers, the sons of his father's wives, Bila and Zilpah. But Joseph reported to his father some of the bad things his brothers were doing. So already, he's a tattletale, and so his brothers are getting told on by Joseph. And then it says, number three, Jacob loved Joseph's big mistake parents more than any of his other children because Joseph had been born to him in his old age. So one day, Jacob had a special gift made for Joseph, a beautiful robe. Some of your versions might say a coat or a tunic of many colors. But his brothers hated Joseph because the father loved him more than the rest of them. They couldn't say a kind word to him. They hated him so much that they couldn't say anything nice. I imagine even if they tried, they couldn't do it.

So this is kind of the picture that we're jumping into here. Joseph grew up in Canaan as part of this family through whom God had promised to bless all of the nations. And as a young man, here's an interesting thing about Joseph. Joseph was a dreamer. He would have dreams. Now, the interesting thing about the dreams that Joseph had is these particular ones that the Bible tells us about are particular dreams that if I would have been Joseph's friend and he would have told me first, I would have said, hey, Joseph, keep them to yourself. Don't share them with your brothers because they were dreams like, oh, there's 11 stars and they're all bowing down to my star, to which his brothers are like, oh my gosh, like if I could only smack him when dad's not looking, right? And then the next dream is like the sun and the moon and the 11 are also bowing to mine. So now the dad is saying like, really, Joseph? Like, what are we all gonna worship you type thing? And so all of these things added on to the built up dislike, the built up, maybe even hatred that they had for their brother, Joseph. Now, what happens next was very unexpected because here's what happens. On a given day, the brothers had already been out for some time with the flocks, probably in a far distant place. And the father says, Joseph, go find out where they are

and what they're doing. And of course, I can imagine Joseph skipping, right? Skipping with his tunic of many colors, eventually arriving. Can you imagine when the brothers could see Joseph coming from a distance in his, you know, coat of many colors? Can you imagine what they were thinking? Like, oh my gosh. So on this occasion, they hated him so much that they actually said, why don't we get rid of him? Like they serious, it was that much that they said, why don't we get rid of him? And so they came up with the idea, let's throw him into a pit. They took his coat off, they throw him into a pit. I imagine Joseph was probably used to getting bullied by them every once in a while. So he's probably like, okay guys, that's enough. You know, get me out of this pit. And so they're at the point where they're gonna actually leave him, like leave him for dead. Like leave him, let him to die, because this is the situation. One of them, his conscience speaks to him and he makes a suggestion. Genesis 37, verse 26. Genesis 37, verse 26. His brother Judah said to his brothers, what will we gain by killing our brother?

We'd have to cover up the crime. Instead, I got a better idea. Instead of hurting him, let's sell him to those Ishmaelite traders, like a slave. After all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood. Let's just sell him. And his brothers agreed. So when the Ishmaelites, who were Midianite traders, came by, Joseph's brothers pulled him out of the cistern, out of the pit, and sold him to them for 20 pieces of silver. And the traders took him to Egypt. So, Joseph is thankfully not killed, sold by his brothers as a slave. What did the brothers do? They took his coat of many colors, put some animal blood on it, took it back to the father, said, dad, we found this on the road, implying that he was probably mauled and eaten by an animal. The father wept and mourned for quite some time. And at 17 years old, Joseph's life appeared to completely be, completely shattered. You and I think like, oh man, this is crazy, this is how this ends, but this is just the beginning. So, I'm gonna. Paint a little bit of a quick picture of what happens. He's a slave in Egypt. Joseph ends up working at the leader of the guards of Pharaoh's palace court. He's at, his name is Potiphar.

He ends up working at Potiphar's house as a slave. And Joseph is so good, so intelligent, so smart, so outstanding, that he keeps getting more responsibility. Eventually, check this out, eventually he is in charge of everything in Potiphar's house. In fact, it says that the only thing Potiphar had to worry about is what he wanted to eat. Ceviche or shrimp, I don't know. And so, Joseph makes it all the way to the top of Potiphar's house. He's been faithful, he's doing good. Problem is that Potiphar's wife takes a liking to Joseph because it says that Joseph was a very handsome man. And so, she would come up and tell Joseph, come lie in bed with me every single day. To which Joseph would say, no ma'am, that's not for me. That's not one of my responsibilities in this house. Every day, Joseph, come lie in bed with me. Joseph, come lie in bed with me. Every day, Joseph says, how would I sin against my God and how would I sin against my master? Who is your husband, by the way? No, I'm not going to do it. And one day, she corners him. She grabs him and she says, come lie with me. He says no, and he runs, but she grabs his cloak. I don't know what it is with Joseph and the cloaks. So, he runs out, probably half naked.

She has his cloak. And then, so that she doesn't look bad, she falsely accuses Joseph and said, he tried to come and force himself upon me. And who are they going to believe? Potiphar's wife or the slave? They're going to believe Potiphar's wife. So, what do we do with Joseph? Send him to prison. So now, Joseph is falsely accused. Everybody knows he didn't do it, but they can't not do it because it's Potiphar's wife. He ends up in prison. And then, when he's in prison for a crime he didn't commit, he ends up being another prisoner. Over time, he is so smart, he is so intelligent, he is so helpful, he is so responsible that the warden in charge of the prison puts Joseph in charge of everything in the prison and in charge of the rest of the prisoners. Surprise, surprise. Now, if you know the story, while Joseph is in prison, he meets two interesting characters that work for the pharaoh, for the king, for the president. And they're both in prison because of a situation, and they both have dreams, two different dreams. Nobody can figure it out. They're concerned. They tell Joseph about the dreams. Joseph is a dreamer.

God gives Joseph the gift of interpreting these dreams. He interprets the dreams for the cupbearer and for the baker. Exactly what he says in the interpretation happens a few days later. All that Joseph says to them is, hey, whatever you do, please, if you find favor with the king, remember me. Remember that I am here, that I am unjustly, falsely accused, I shouldn't be here. Please remember me. Well, the cupbearer gets reinstalled, working with the pharaoh in the palace. He forgets about Joseph. It says that years go by. Check this out. Years go by, and all of a sudden, pharaoh, the king of Egypt, has these weird dreams, kind of like nightmare dreams, and he asks all the sorcerers and all the magicians to try to interpret his dream. Nobody can interpret his dream, but guess who remembers Joseph? The cupbearer remembers Joseph, and he says, pharaoh, there was this Hebrew slave that's in prison who interpreted my dream and the baker's dream and exactly what he interpreted, exactly what happened, and pharaoh says, bring him to me. They grab Joseph. They bring him to the palace.

Joseph's freaking out, like, what's going on, and pharaoh's like, they tell me that you interpret dreams, and Joseph says, well, you know, if God has an interpretation for you and he will use me, then I will tell you, and so pharaoh goes on to tell them about a dream. One of the dreams was these seven skinny, there's these seven fat cows, and then there's these seven skinny cows that come out of the water, and then they eat the seven fat cows, and what is this, and so God gives Joseph the interpretation, and Joseph says, pharaoh, God is giving you advance warning of what's to come. The seven fat cows represent seven years of abundance, abundance of food, abundance of resources, and the seven skinny cows that came and ate them represent seven years of famine, seven years of scarcity and need that are gonna come after the seven years of abundance, and so it would be wise, God is giving you advice now, to store up during the seven years of abundance so that you can have for the seven years of need, and so pharaoh finds him to be so on, so accurate, so good that he says, who else should be in charge of everything in the nation except this man himself and his faith in God, and Joseph goes from being a prison warden to being prime minister of Egypt under pharaoh king in the whole nation.

Anything that happens has to go through the authority and through the approval of, guess who? Joseph. All right, so that's the overall overarching story, right, from literally from the pit to the prison to Potterford. to the palace. Through him, God did some amazing things. Most importantly, Joseph's faithfulness helped preserve his own family. We'll talk about that a little bit ahead. Now, Joseph is a hero of the faith, not because he never suffered, not because he never faced adversity, not because life was easy, but because he remained faithfully rooted even when life got difficult. So I wanna unpack with you today four keys to staying rooted through trials. How many? Four keys to staying rooted through trials. You wanna stay rooted through trials? Here's number one, trust God's presence. Say it with me, trust God's presence. One of the most remarkable truths in Joseph's story is not what happened to him, but rather who was with him throughout everything that happened to him. Because if we're honest, when we read Joseph's story, it doesn't really look like God is blessing him, right? He receives a dream, he's betrayed by his brothers,

he is sold as a slave, he's disconnected from his family, he's taken to a foreign country, he's forced into slavery. If we were writing the story, we might conclude God must have abandoned him. But scripture says exactly the opposite. Look at Genesis 39 verse two. Genesis 39 verse two, look what it says. It says, the Lord was with Joseph. The Lord was what? With Joseph. So he succeeded in everything he did as he served in the home of his Egyptian master. This is Potiphar's house. Potiphar noticed this and realized that the Lord was with Joseph, giving him success in everything he did. We see it over and over in the story of Joseph and God and the Lord was with Joseph. Interesting, Joseph is a slave and it says, the Bible says, the Lord was with him. Sometimes we wrongly assume that God's presence is measured by our circumstances. We think, humanly, we think, if God is with me, then everything should be easy, right? If God is with me, then there shouldn't be any problems or obstacles in my life. If God is with me, I shouldn't have any challenges or adversity. In fact, that's kind of how people respond nowadays,

especially when difficult times come. It's like blaming God, not realizing that he is the one who can get you through what you're going through. Let me give you a line here. God's presence is greater than your problem. Always. God's presence does not mean the absence of problems. God's presence means we're not facing our problems alone. Can I get an amen? Faith is not believing that God will keep you out of the fire. Faith is believing that when you go through the fire, God will be with you. And I think that's what we need to learn from Joseph's story. He understood this. His confidence wasn't in his circumstances. His confidence was in God's presence. Maybe you're going through a difficult situation right now in your life. Maybe it's a health challenge. Maybe it's a family issue. Maybe it's a financial struggle. Maybe it's a season of uncertainty that you've stepped into. The question isn't how quickly can God change this? The question is, will I trust God's presence as I walk through this? So important. Number two. You wanna remain rooted?

You gotta remain faithful in adversity. Say it with me. Remain faithful in adversity. One of the greatest lessons from Joseph's life is that he remained faithful even when life seemed unfair. I mean, think about all of the opportunities that Joseph had to quit. His brothers betray him. He becomes a slave. He's falsely accused. He's forgotten in prison. If anyone had a reason to become bitter, it was Joseph. Throughout history, throughout everything that we read about Joseph specifically, we never see it in Genesis. We never see, and Joseph abandoned his faith. We never see, and Joseph threw his arms in the air complaining to God. Never once do we see that. That's incredible to me. I wonder if it'd be the same of our story. Instead, we repeatedly see him being faithful wherever God planted him. In Potiphar's house, Joseph worked faithfully. In prison, Joseph served the other prisoners faithfully. Before he ever led a nation, he learned how to be faithful in difficult, smaller places. One of the greatest tests of character is what we do when nobody notices. And this is a good question. Can we remain faithful when we're not getting the promotion?

Can we remain faithful when our prayers continue to go apparently unanswered? Will we remain faithful when life seems unfair? Here's what I've learned. Maybe not you guys, because you guys are special, holy, righteous people, but the people out there. People out there. Many people, they want to enjoy the palace, but few are willing to endure the prison. Many people want to receive the promise, but few are willing to persevere in the process that leads to the promise. God often develops us in the process before he releases us into the promise. I want you to read with me Genesis 39 verse 21. Genesis 39 verse 21. Again, here's the line. But the Lord was with Joseph in the prison and showed him his faithful love, and the Lord made Joseph a favorite with the prison warden. Before long, the warden put Joseph in charge of all the other prisoners and over everything that happened in the prison. The warden had no more worries because Joseph took care of everything. The Lord was with him and caused everything he did to succeed. Let me tell you, when you remain faithful, even through adversity, it's crazy what God can do in your life

and through your life. Notice that the place changed, the prison changed, God didn't change, the circumstances changed, God's faithfulness didn't change, the location changed, God's presence did not change, God's presence did not change, Joseph's faithfulness also remained. Have you guys ever noticed that we love microwave miracles? And so we pray like, Lord, Lord, please do this tomorrow by 8 a.m. You guys have never prayed that, but you know the people out there that do, right? And if we have a little more grace, Lord, by lunchtime, by next Friday, here's an important lesson of life, and I promise you, you're gonna wanna remember this in life, here it is. God is more interested in developing our character than accelerating our comfort. That truth right there, that truth right, that's a truth bomb right there. Ask me why, ask me why. Because if I'm honest with you, now this is not a good thing for a pastor to say, but in my humanity, because I am a human, in my humanity, I'm usually more interested in God accelerating my comfort. Would anybody be in that boat with me? Usually we're more interested in God

accelerating our comfort than in God developing our character, but if we think long-term and we think God purposes, he's more interested in developing our character. Joseph spent years learning what God wanted to teach him, but it wasn't easy. And some of you might be in a season that feels like you're in the season of the pit or the season of the prison or the season of Potiphar's house, or the season of Potiphar's house. I don't know what season you might be in, but don't allow your trial to define your future and don't allow your bitterness to replace your faith. Remain faithful, keep praying, keep seeking the Lord, keep trusting, keep obeying, keep showing up because God is not finished writing your story. No matter where you are today, God is not finished writing your story. Somebody needs to hear this today. We are called to remain faithful in the pit, to remain fruitful in the prison as God prepares us for his purpose in the palace. Number three, number three, you gotta wait on God's timing. Come on, give somebody an elbow, say wait, say wait. You gotta wait, you gotta wait on God's timing. One of the hardest parts of Joseph's story is not just the suffering, it's the waiting. Joseph receives these dreams as a teenager,

yet the fulfillment wouldn't happen for many years. Many, many years, many, many years of this story, many, many years of unexpected chapters in this story. Think about all the chapters and all the pain and all the suffering. Many of us struggle with waiting because we assume that delay means denial, but God's delays are often part of his preparation of what he has for us. God wasn't only preparing, here's what I've come to understand. The story of Joseph is so important for us to understand because we are not so much different than Joseph in that God has a purpose for our lives as well. He has a plan for our lives as well. The problem is sometimes we don't realize the why. We don't realize the what for. Listen to this, God wasn't only preparing a position for Joseph, he was preparing Joseph for the position. Do you understand me? There's no way Joseph's gonna be the prime minister of Egypt if he's not first in other leadership positions that are in different difficult scenarios for him to develop himself. Is anybody with me? It's so important to understand that. It's so important to understand that. The dream was immediate, but the preparation was gradual.

It took time, it took years. And the same is often true in our lives. Sometimes God gives us a promise quickly, but fulfills it slowly. Ask me why, ask me why. Because he loves us too much to release us before we're ready. It's the same reason why you don't give your 10-year-old child the keys to your truck. It doesn't mean that you don't want your child to one day have the responsibility of having a car and an automobile, but 10 years old is not the right time because that child needs to go through some processes, through some maturing, through some understanding, through some growth. Are you following me? and you don't give your child $50,000 when they're 10. Right? That'd be a lot of fees on Nintendo, right? You don't do that because it's not that you don't want them to be able to be entrusted with that at some point in the future, but it's because you know that if you release that to them now, the timing, it's the timing. I remember praying years ago, years ago, right before we became pastors of the church, Lord, growth, Lord, send the harvest, more sheep for our church, for Buenas Noches. Praying for more people.

And I remember at one point, God answered, I felt like God answered me, Holy Spirit whispered to me, and he said, Virg, if I answered your prayer, you don't have the structure to sustain the growth you're praying for. So that's why I'm not answering your prayer, because I'm not going to give you sheep to neglect. And that showed us we need to develop some structures and some systems to be able to have an infrastructure where we can raise up more leaders so we can shepherd and pastor more people. And when we began to do that, then we began to see the growth. But if God would have answered the prayer right there, we would not have been ready for it. I had been praying for a property for years, but we weren't ready for nine acres, six buildings, and the mortgage. We weren't ready 10 years ago. But throughout faithfulness over these 11 years, of just seeing God come through, of being faithful, of getting filled up, let's start another service, getting filled up, let's start another service, let's do it in another language, let's go for it. Being faithful stewards of what he entrusted us, over time, it prepared us for what's coming. Are you following me? Isaiah 40, verse 31, I love this verse. Isaiah 40, verse 31.

But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. Everybody say new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. Here's a good line. Waiting is not wasted when God is involved. Waiting develops trust. Waiting develops patience. Waiting develops perseverance. Waiting develops dependence. Often waiting seasons become growing seasons. Anybody remember the old, any old school people remember back when you had to develop photography in a dark room? Anybody remember that? Dark room, photography, film development. The image was already present, but it was invisible. Something important had to happen that nobody could, well, nobody could see it. And it's the same thing. God's greatest work happens in seasons when we can't see immediate results. Just because God appears silent doesn't mean that he is inactive. And just because you don't see movement doesn't mean he isn't working. Joseph teaches us to trust God's timing. God is never early and he is never late. He is always on time. Number four, number four.

You have to believe God has purpose through your pain. I expected one and a half amens and I got them. That's all right. But let me tell you why. That's a hard amen. That's a hard amen. And if you amen that, it's because you understand that, right? You have to believe God has purpose through your pain. As we come to the climax of Joseph's story, we arrive at a very key, crucial point in scripture. And remember, Joseph's life has drastically changed. Now when we get to the end, the slave has become a ruler. The prisoner has become the prime minister. The forgotten dreamer has become second in command in all of Egypt. Now check it out, for seven years, he was the one in charge of storing, of storing, of taking advantage of all the abundance and he stored up, stored up, stored up. And now famine has arrived. Now it's years of famine. Now check it out, check it out. Joseph is the prime minister in charge of this distribution of everything in Egypt. None of the other nations or peoples knew about this. So they're all in famine. All these people are lining up at the gates of Egypt. Lining up for what? For food, for rescue, for salvation.

Because nobody has food except for Egypt because of Joseph's stewardship and because of God's interpretation that he gave him. And he's seeing people of all over coming to be saved. And guess who Joseph sees in line for food? 11 men who look exactly like his 11 brothers, just a little bit older. 11 men standing in line that he identifies immediately the brothers that sold him as a slave. Now just for a second, just dream for a second. Can you imagine if you were Joseph? Talk about an opportunity for vengeance. Like I don't know about you. I know you guys are good, but people out there. I would be like, you know, hey guards, can you get those 11 guys and put them in the dungeon for a little bit, make them suffer? Like it would have been a perfect opportunity. Now we go on to read a little bit the story in the book of Genesis and it says that he immediately recognized them. They did not recognize him. Remember, they probably thought Joseph was dead, who knows what, you know. He recognized them, he starts to question them, who are you, using an interpreter, who are you, pretending like he didn't understand them. Who are you, and what are you doing here? Oh, we are brothers, and we have a brother who's no longer with us, and we have a younger one

who's with our father, and then he's like, I don't believe you, you're telling me a lie, and so he comes up with a whole thing about saying, like, no, I'm gonna keep you here, you're gonna send somebody to go back for the younger brother and bring him here and prove it to me, and he does this whole thing, and eventually, it's very interesting for you to read it, but eventually, when they're all back, eventually, when they're all back, he reveals himself, he takes off his royal garments, he reveals himself, and he says, it is me, Joseph. And in that moment, can you imagine? By the way, when they were in line asking for food, they were all like this. His dream came true, where they came, begging, bowing, to receive salvation. And in that moment, where he could have been so bitter and sour and told them, because of what you did to me, because of what you did to me, especially you and you and you, here's what I'm gonna do to you, right? Look what he says, Genesis 50, verse 20. Genesis 50, verse 20, Joseph says, brothers, brothers, you intended to harm me, but God, everybody say, but God. But God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.

Notice what Joseph does not say. He doesn't say, brothers, everything that happened was good. No, no, no. Because betrayal isn't good. Slavery isn't good. False accusation isn't good. Prison isn't good. Pain isn't good. Joseph is not minimizing the reality of suffering. Instead, Joseph is magnifying the sovereignty of God. And he is saying, what you intended for evil, God was able to redeem for good. This is one of the most important truths that we can learn from Joseph's life. And here's a line to finish off. God does not waste pain. Now, God doesn't cause everything that's painful, but he can redeem everything that's painful in our lives. He can bring purpose from pain. He can bring hope from heartbreak. He can bring strength from suffering. Even in times of adversity, he can bring growth and maturity. Now, Joseph could only see this because he looked backward through the lens of God's faithfulness. Sometimes you gotta look back to be able to see. Everybody follow me? When Joseph was in the pit, he couldn't see the story. When Joseph was in prison, he couldn't see it. When he was in Potiphar's house, he couldn't see it.

While he was waiting, he couldn't see it. But eventually, eventually, he was able to see it. You know what he was able to see? Romans 8, 28. Romans 8, verse 28. And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. It doesn't say all things are good. No, it says God causes everything to work together for the good. That's the difference. And I love this view of Joseph because it reminds me of a tapestry. A tapestry is a beautiful work of art, but let me show you the back of a tapestry. When you look at the back of a tapestry, I think, I don't know if we have the visual, do we have the picture? When you look at the back of a tapestry, okay, it looks like a mess. Knots, loose threads, cross lines, it's kind of like, what is that? And I think this is what Joseph saw. I think God was saying, Joseph, I'm working something beautiful. I'm working a tapestry in your life. And Joseph looking at it, he's like, nice, God. But when you look at it from the right side,

look at the front, let's look at the front now. When you look at it right side, that's the tapestry. That's the tapestry. It's a work of art, but often our view, let's put the comparison side by side. Often our view is this until we get the right angle and perspective and we can see. And Joseph at this point in Genesis 50, he now sees it. When he was going through it, he couldn't figure it out, but he trusted. But he trusted and he got to the point and God allowed him to get to the point where he could see it. And I'm asking you today, are you having trouble seeing what God is working in your life? Are you having trouble putting together? and understanding what this tapestry is because it just looks like knots and loose ends and messes and One day I promise you if you hang in there and you remain rooted you will discover that he is weaving something together in your life Far more incredible that you can ever imagine Joseph eventually saw it from the front side, but for years he had to trust God with just the backside with all he could see Here's a good line God can transform your greatest trial into part of his greatest purpose When you step back and look at Joseph's life one truth becomes impossible to ignore The greatest victories were not produced in the palace. They were produced in the pit Potiphar's house in the prison because it developed him he went through process He went through journey God used every season every betrayal Every adversity every false accusation every disappointment every delay God used it to prepare him You might feel like in your life. You're going through a pit. You're going through a prison. You're feeling delayed

Let Joseph's story remind you today that God is still writing your story He's still working on your tapestry and he set back might actually be a setup What feels like delay might just might just be preparation for what's to come so What trial are you facing right now? What adversity or challenge are you seeing as this huge huge huge problem and instead of asking God? Why is this happening to me I challenge you to ask you God What are you trying to teach me through this and what are you preparing me for? That whole perspective allows you to see the tapestry from the right side Instead of measuring God's faithfulness by your circumstances measure God's faithfulness by his presence in every circumstance Instead of giving up like many do persevere Instead of moving on stay rooted That's what Joseph did Because he remained rooted God brought him through God used Joseph's life to save many people including his own family Let's wrap it up with today's big idea started with it we end with it God often does his deepest work in us While we are walking through our darkest trials Let's pray Thank you Lord for the powerful example of Joseph's life Thank you for reminding us that you are faithful in every season Lord many of us are walking through challenges carrying heavy burdens facing adversity Waiting on prayers to be answered Lord today we choose to trust you help us remain rooted in your presence even when life gets difficult Help us to remain faithful even when circumstances feel unfair Help us to trust your timing even when the waiting feels long Help us to believe that you are truly working all things together for good even when we can't see it Strengthen the weary hearts encourage the discouraged hearts renew

Those who feel tired Lord and give us perseverance To keep moving forward in faith and to remain rooted in your word We place our families our futures and our circumstances into your hands in Jesus name. I pray Amen