The Bigger Picture | Trip Lee

Well, hey, Pando family. Thank you so much for clicking on this video to worship with us here at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky. If we've never met before, my name is Derek. I am our online campus pastor here at Southeast. And for me, for our church, we just wanna say thank you again for worshiping with us. We feel like today will be a special and valuable Sunday for you and your walk with Jesus. And we love every single week, we have dozens of letters that show up to our Southeast online ministry here at Southeast from people just like you, people that are going through a lot of different difficult circumstances. And we love to be able to come beside you in your walk with Jesus and pray for you. And so if you would, over the course of the next few weeks, to take a pen, a paper, and send us a letter to Southeast, we would greatly enjoy being able to read those and be able to respond to you. And so to see the address to our church, you'll be able to find that in the description to this video. Y'all, but at the same time, we would also ask that you would subscribe to our Southeast Christian Church channel.

When you do that, you join 33,000 other people from across the United States, just like you, who are enjoying our weekly worship services, our podcasts that come out every week, our Bible studies, because there are going to be people just like you that are going along with that at the same time. Y'all, but today you're going to get to hear from a guy who we've had at Southeast several times before. He is a singer, he's a rapper, he's an artist, a producer, and he's also a really good preacher. His name is Trip Lee. And so he's going to be wrapping up our Meant for Good sermon series today, talking about the life of Joseph and how we fit in to the bigger picture of what God is doing in the world. Y'all, we love you. Again, thank you so much for being here with us today. I hope that worship encourages your heart and encourages your faith. So for now, y'all, prepare your hearts and let's go worship together. ♪ Oh, thank you, Lord, for the joy ♪ ♪ Would you pour it out on us, Lord? ♪ Let's sing together. ♪ Oh, this is the day you made ♪ ♪ So I'll rejoice and be glad, rejoice and be glad in it ♪ ♪ This is where I believe ♪ ♪ That you are more than enough, more than enough for me ♪ Our God is faithful.

♪ You are faithful to your promise ♪ ♪ You are strong when I am weak ♪ ♪ And when I'm standing in your presence ♪ ♪ I have everything I need, we see the joy of the Lord ♪ ♪ The joy of the Lord is my strength, yes it is, I believe ♪ ♪ The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength ♪ ♪ Come on, let's sing it, oh my soul, let it sing, sing ♪ ♪ All I need is to feel you sing the joy of the Lord ♪ ♪ The joy of the Lord is my strength, oh oh oh oh oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Jesus, come one day ♪ ♪ You are worthy of all, worthy of all my praise ♪ ♪ For you are faithful to your promise ♪ ♪ He is strong when I am weak ♪ ♪ I have everything I need, the joy of the Lord ♪ ♪ Oh, the joy of the Lord is my strength ♪ ♪ And it's more than I'm feeling ♪ ♪ The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength ♪ ♪ Oh, my soul, oh, my soul, bless his name ♪ ♪ Oh, that it is within his name ♪ ♪ The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength ♪ ♪ I've got the joy, I've got the joy ♪ ♪ Oh, and it's my strength, yeah, thank you, Lord ♪ ♪ Let it rise up like a river ♪ ♪ Overflowing, Holy Spirit, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Let it, let it rise up like a river, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ And pour out with all their might ♪ ♪ Overflowing Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ Let it rise up like a river ♪ ♪ Overflowing Holy Spirit ♪

♪ Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ And pour out with all their might ♪ ♪ It's overflowing Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ Come on we've got the joy and it's more than a fear ♪ ♪ Yes it is, thank you Lord ♪ ♪ Come on we sing, we celebrate the joy of the Lord ♪ ♪ The joy of the Lord is my strength ♪ ♪ Yes it's more than feeling the joy of the Lord ♪ ♪ The joy of the Lord is my strength ♪ ♪ So I will sing for my soul ♪ ♪ And all that is for my soul, for my soul blessed ♪ ♪ And all that is within me saved ♪ ♪ All my soul bless his name ♪ ♪ All that is within me saved ♪ ♪ The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength ♪ ♪ Yes it is, thank you Lord ♪ ♪ Come on we sing, we celebrate the joy of the Lord ♪ ♪ The joy of the Lord is my strength ♪ ♪ So I will sing for my soul ♪ ♪ And all that is within me saved ♪ ♪ I thank you Jesus, for the joy I'm actually in Lord ♪ ♪♪ ♪ When I think of the Father sending us His Son ♪ ♪ So we can all inherit the riches of His love ♪ ♪ I can't help but exalt Him ♪ ♪♪ ♪ When I think of the power held within His hand ♪ ♪ Impossible is nothing according to His plan ♪ ♪ Oh I can't help but exalt Him ♪ ♪ Oh I can't help but exalt Him ♪

♪ Now to Him is able to do so much more than we ask or imagine ♪ ♪ Glory to Him and the pride in Jesus through all generations ♪ ♪ Forever and ever, glory to Him ♪ ♪ All honor, all power, all glory to Him ♪ ♪♪ ♪ When I think of the cost and how He set us free ♪ ♪ From hell into heaven for all eternity ♪ ♪ Oh I can't help but exalt Him ♪ ♪ It'll be a holy moment when we walk through heaven's door ♪ ♪ And pain will be behind us and tears will be no more ♪ ♪ Oh I can't help but exalt Him ♪ ♪ And lay my crowns down before Him ♪ Come on you sing. ♪ And now to Him is able to do so much more than we ask or imagine ♪ ♪ Glory to Him and the pride in Jesus through all generations ♪ ♪ Forever and ever ♪ ♪ All glory to Him, all honor, all power, all glory to Him ♪ Oh, we give You glory, Lord. You so deserve it. Oh, He's singing this love. ♪ How deep, how high, the love of the Father ♪ ♪ How strong, how wide, the arms of the Saviour stand ♪ Come on, we sing. ♪ And how deep, how high, the love of the Father ♪ ♪ How strong, how wide, the arms of the Saviour stand ♪ ♪ I'll stand in awe, and I'll worship forever ♪ ♪ I can't help, but it's all Him ♪ ♪ Oh, I can't help, but it's all Him ♪ ♪ Yeah ♪ ♪ And now to Him is able to do so much more than we ask or imagine ♪

♪ The glory to Him in the prime in Jesus ♪ ♪ Through all generations forever and ever ♪ ♪ The glory to Him, all honor, all power, all glory to Him ♪ Amen, church. All honor, all power, all glory is His in Christ Jesus. Amen, church? Amen. Y'all can take a seat. Amen. You know, we just sang the phrase, when I think of the Father sending us His Son so that we could experience the riches of true love. When I think of the cross and how it set us free from the grip of hell and gave us heaven as our eternity, amen. When I think of, and that's what we do every time, every week that we commune. If you remember the old communion table that would sit down front, it would say across the front, in remembrance of Him. That's what communion is. It's a time to think of. It's a time to ponder. It's a time to remind ourselves of the mystery that took place on that cross, that the perfect Holy Son of God would die in my place, would die in your place. And that somehow, some way, He would take all of my sin,

all of your sin of past, current, future, all the things that you regret most in your life. He would take that upon Himself and He would nail it to a cross and put it to death. What a mystery. And that's what we do when we commune together is we think of that. And so I'm gonna ask us to just take ourselves there. Sometimes I can have a hard time, even over the last two songs, I had a hard time just focusing in and putting my mind on the realities of Jesus. It's easy to get sidetracked, easy to think of the next thing or this thing over here, what's going on after church. But can we just take a moment to sit and take ourselves to the foot of the cross and behold Jesus, where I should be, where you should be upon a cross, taking the punishment for my sin. Can you take yourself there? See Him washing away the sins of the world so they are no more. And I believe it's in that place that we experience a new depth, a new width of the Father's love for you and I, no matter how far we've ran or what we've done. The grace, the blood is sufficient, amen. So as we commune together today, I'm gonna ask you just to stay there at that spot,

beholding Jesus as He dies in your place. And you commune whenever you're ready. And then we're all gonna stand and we're gonna tell Him just how worthy He is. And because we've been forgiven much, and because we've been forgiven much, We're gonna express our love very much and then take communion when you're ready I am an instrument of exaltation I was born to lift your name above all names You hear the melody of all creation But there's a song of praise that only I can bring Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one, only You, Jesus Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one, only You, Jesus You are the infinite God of the ages Yet You chose to make my heart Your dwelling place You heal my brokenness, show me Your glory So I have songs of thanks, not even angels sing Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one, only You, Jesus Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one, only You, Jesus Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one, only You, Jesus Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one, only You, Jesus We thank You, Jesus We lift Your name There's no one like You, Jesus No one worthy but You, Jesus We sing Lamb of God Lamb of God, a mighty One Who was and is and is to come Seated on the throne above Righteous One who shed His blood He proved to us the Father's love Jesus Christ be lifted up Holy, Holy Lamb of God A mighty One Who was and is and is to come ♪ Christ the God who's seated on the throne above ♪ ♪ You're holy, so holy, oh righteous one ♪ ♪ You're true to us, the Father's love ♪ ♪ Jesus Christ, we lift it up ♪

♪ Who else is worthy, who else is worthy ♪ ♪ There is no one, only you Jesus ♪ ♪ Who else is worthy, who else is worthy ♪ ♪ There is no one, only you Jesus ♪ ♪ Never proud and lowly is he one who walks in his name ♪ ♪ Who walks in his name is the God who's seated on the throne above ♪ ♪ He's holy, so holy, oh righteous one whose shame is gone ♪ ♪ You're true to us, the Father's love ♪ ♪ Jesus Christ, we lift it up, we sing holy, holy ♪ ♪ Never proud and lowly is he one who walks in his name ♪ ♪ Who walks in his name is the God who's seated on the throne above ♪ ♪ He's holy, so holy, oh righteous one whose shame is gone ♪ ♪ You're true to us, the Father's love ♪ ♪ Jesus Christ, we lift it up ♪ ♪ Who else is worthy, who else is worthy, we sing ♪ ♪ There is no one, only you Jesus ♪ ♪ Who else is worthy, who else is worthy ♪ ♪ There is no one, only you Jesus ♪ ♪ Only you Jesus ♪ ♪ There is no one, only you Jesus ♪ ♪ There is no one, only you Jesus ♪ Jesus, we declare that there is no one worthy but you. And we fix our eyes only on you, Jesus. And we remember the cross and we say, holy, holy, holy. To the God that saves, that forgives, that loves us. We declare that you are holy and we can't help but worship you. Jesus, we love you and we thank you. Let's sing your name, we pray, amen. Y'all can grab a seat.

We're gonna be weaving every part of a story together. Before Trip comes, just a quick reminder, the next week we kick off our At The Movies series. This is one of my favorite times of the year. Partly because it's just such an easy way to invite somebody that you've probably been meaning to invite to come to church. A friend, coworker, a neighbor, a gym bro, a family member. It's always amazing to see how God uses powerful stories to point people to him. So grab your Bible, lean in. Let's welcome Trip as he comes to preach tonight. Good morning. How's everybody doing? Good, good. Thank you so much for having me again. It's a privilege to be here. Thank you to Pastor Kyle for inviting me. And yeah, I told him, he texted me, told me that he was praying for me and I thanked him for trusting me enough to continue to ask me to come back and to open God's word. It is a privilege for me. I do not take that lightly. I do not take that lightly. Thank you for trusting me. And we are going to pray that God would meet with us, would speak to us now in this world. Let's pray. Father, we come before you in Jesus' name. Father, we're so grateful that we have access to you through Jesus, the worthy one.

There's no other name under heaven by which we can be saved. And Father, we pray that you would make us like Jesus. And one of the reasons we sing about how worthy Jesus is is because Jesus is great, and we want to be like him. Make us like Jesus, Father. God, we pray you speak to us in your word. Move anything in our hearts that would keep us from hearing from you, please, Father. And we pray that you would work in our midst. We need you. We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Well, this morning I have the privilege of closing out this series in Genesis, and in the life of Joseph, one of my favorite sections of Scripture. And I want to begin, as we talk about the bigger picture, I want to begin by saying this. What you focus on will determine what you see. What you focus on will determine what you see. Let me give you an example. In the last few weeks, I have tried to watch the World Cup. I gave it all my might. I saw all the joy and excitement that it brought other people, and I said, I'm missing out on this joy and excitement, so I've tried to watch it, and I'm struggling. I'm used to sports like basketball and football, where people score points. And so, I'm struggling. I was at a coffee shop, and I was working, and they had a World Cup game on. And every time somebody even looked at the goal, everyone got so excited. People were getting up and bumping chests, and I'm like, nothing happened. So I'm like, I clearly don't understand this game enough. Y'all are seeing something different than I'm seeing. It just looks like they're just kicking it back and forth.

And so, I need someone to help me. What you focus on will determine what you see and how you respond to what you see. Their response told me they were seeing something different than I was. You've heard people talk about missing the forest for the trees. And of course, when people say this, they mean you could be looking at individual trees and not realize that it was part of an entire forest. Maybe you've seen videos with drone footage where it looks like a field, and then you realize that field is in the middle of a city, or satellite footage where they keep pulling out, and you see a city, a state, a country, a hemisphere. I bring all of that up just to say we cannot understand parts unless we understand what they're a part of. We're talking about the bigger picture, and we can't understand all these parts unless you know what they're a part of. And sometimes we will look at the trees of our life, and we will miss the forest that is God's work, what He's doing. You know, we'll go through our daily life. We'll wake up. We'll go to work. Spend time with our family. We're not thinking so much about how this fits into the bigger story that God is telling. You know, me and my wife went on a date the other night, and I, knowing that she is an ice cream lover, found an ice cream place around the corner trying to get extra cool points. And so, we go to this ice cream place, and we're thinking we're just going to sit and eat ice cream and just talk to each other, whisper sweet nothings in each other's ears, whatever. But we didn't realize that this ice cream place was inside of a food hall, and that one of the places in the food hall was having an open mic night. And so, instead of whispering sweet nothings to each other, we were listening to mediocre to poor singing all night.

No offense to the people at the open mic. I support their dreams. I would rather support them from another building, though. The ice cream place was there. We knew that, but we didn't understand what it was fully a part of. What's happening in your life fits in the context of something bigger, and when we don't look at that bigger story, there's things we'll miss, and we may not respond to it the way that we should. And when we overly just look at the little picture of what's happening in each individual moment, we can kind of make everything that's happening in the world about us. We'll only interact with it as much as it impacts what we're thinking about our story. This book of Genesis that we're wrapping up, looking at these final chapters, when we look at this book, and we see Joseph, and we see Jacob, and we see all the brothers, this is not just a story about them. This is mainly the bigger picture is about this Creator God and the work that He's doing in the world, and that shapes the way we see everything that happens in this book, and it should shape the way that we... see everything that happens in our lives. The main thing that I want to drive home today is this. To walk your path, you have to know your place. To walk your path, you have to know your place. If you would turn with me to Genesis chapter 50, because we are looking at what's happening from 46 to 50 here at the end of this book, but we're going to zoom in on our anchor verses. They're going to be verses 19, so if you turn Genesis 50, we'll start at verse 19. We'll read 19 and 20. Genesis chapter 50, verses 19 and 20. And here Joseph is going to talk to his brothers who have, of course, wronged him. They're worried about what he's going to do. And this is what Joseph says to them. Verse 19, but Joseph said to them, don't be afraid.

Am I in the place of God? You planned evil against me. God planned it for good to bring about the present result, the survival of many people. That is an incredible thing for somebody to say when they've had happened to them what Joseph had happened to them. Talking to the people who robbed him, threw him in a pit, sold him into slavery. After that, he's shipped to a foreign place and accused of assault. And what he says is, am I in the place of God? You planned it for evil, God made it for good. This is someone who understands the bigger picture. So many situations in our lives we could navigate better if we asked that question, am I in the place of God? We normally would not—none of us, I think, are saying that. Like I'm in the place of God, I'm God. But we can still very sneakily put ourselves in the place of God without saying it. As an example, let's say that my oldest son woke up one day, and when I saw him, he started trying to give me chores to do. That would be strange. And asking about bills that need to be paid, that would be strange. You know, going and getting the trash bins and bringing them back to the house. I would actually like it if he did that. But the other two, it would be like, wait. Even if he wasn't calling himself dad, it would be like, it still seems clear that you feel like you're functioning in that way. And there are many ways we are not calling ourselves God, but we put ourselves in the place of God. For some people around us, we act as if we're the final judge, like you can't be at peace unless all of your decisions make sense to me. You're putting yourself in the place of God. Some of us act like the entire universe revolves around us, and we're so confused when everything

doesn't go our way. We've put ourselves in the place of God. The universe doesn't revolve around you. Some of us, every plan we make, we hold to it as if it is a decree from heaven, and that the world ends if our plans don't work out. Family, you're putting yourself in the place of God. To walk your path, you have to know your place. And so, what I want to do is I want to look at three things in these last chapters, three areas that I think we need to know our place. All right, y'all still with me? Okay, number one. We need to know our place, number one, in the lives of others, in the lives of others. When I was a teenager, there was an older man in my life, and he liked—one of his favorite shows was Seinfeld. I would say to him, you have horrible taste. This isn't good. And I lost respect for him because of that. I was like, why don't you like good shows? And I got a little older. I watched it later, and I was like, all right, my bad. This was hilarious. There's one episode where George Costanza is dating this woman, and she has a son, and he's trying to like tolerate the kid just so that their relationship can go well. And so, they have this birthday party for the kid. And so, they have this birthday party, and they have clowns, and George Costanza's trying to tolerate the party. And he smells something, and he's like, is that smoke? And he goes in the kitchen, and he sees there's a fire. So, George Costanza screams fire, runs out of the kitchen, pushes a clown down. He sees an old lady with a walker, pushes her down, pushes children out of the way,

and runs out of the apartment. As you can imagine, this did not go well for his relationship. He assumed that he had no responsibility for anybody but himself. The only thing he was concerned with was self-preservation, and this is how many of us go through our lives. As if we have no role, no part to play in the good of anybody. but ourselves. What do you think your role is in the lives of others? We get to see the way that Joseph thinks through that. One of the things that we'll do sometimes, because one of the things that keeps us from caring for others is just thinking about ourselves, we'll treat other people almost like they are supporting actors in a movie that's all about us. Like if the movie's Lion King, we're Simba and they are Zazu. If it's Batman, we're Bruce Wayne, they're just Alfred. And when we treat everybody around us as a supporting cast in a story about us, that means a spotlight has to remain on us. That means everything that happens, we have to look good. We have to be the hero of every victory. We got to be the victim of every failure. It's about making us look good. And that makes us treat everybody and every interaction as if they're a servant just to help our story go well. One of the main problems with that is that is not how the Bible calls us to interact with others. To treat everyone as a servant to help our story go well. In fact, when our Lord came to earth, He said, I did not come to be served, but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many. So I want to encourage you that one of the things that can help us not treat other people like our supporting cast is knowing our place. We know that Joseph was thinking of the bigger picture in part because of what he said in the chapter before. And you know, when he was talking to his brothers, he said, God sent me ahead of you to establish you as a remnant within the land and to keep you alive by a great deliverance. Joseph is saying you sold me into slavery, but God was sending me ahead in order to provide for you when this famine comes up. That's the reflections of someone who sees the bigger picture. One of the things that we do is we get afraid that if we don't try to keep control of everything and make sure everything goes well for our story, that no one else is going to care about us or take care of us. So we treat every interaction as some zero-sum game where either you're taken care of or I'm taken care of. No one's going to think about me,

but me. This is not how the Bible encourages us. Listen to what Jacob does, what Joseph does in Genesis chapter 47 after his family has come to Egypt away from the famine. Genesis 47 verse 12, it says, and Joseph provided his father, his brother, and all his father's family with food for their dependence. A couple things are remarkable about this. Joseph could have said, my family betrayed me. He could have just treated them as like his villain origin story, like these are the monsters who made me who I am today. Or he said, we'll just leave them in the past. Things are going well for me. That's not what he does, even though they have horribly wronged him. Why? Because he understands they're not just random characters in his story, that he and them are all characters in God's story in this bigger picture that God is telling. And the story that God was telling, he wanted to provide for Joseph's family. And so Joseph says, let me play the role that God sent me to play. When God is the one telling the story, there is more at play than you. Philippians 2, Paul tells us, don't just look out for yourself. Don't just look out for your own interests, but also for the interests of others. And the example he gives of this is, of course, Jesus. I want to encourage you in this that there is nothing that exempts you from paying attention to the interests of others. You don't get to say, I'm having a hard time, so I don't see what anybody else is going through. You don't get to say someone has wronged me, so I don't have to love them anymore. Now, you may figure out what that looks like, but sacrificial love is our call no matter what's going on. You have a role in the lives of other people. There have been times in my life where I've been convicted that I'm not thinking enough about the interests of others. And one of the ways that I can tell is that I'm treating other people in my life as unwelcome interruptions in my life. Like they're an obstacle that I have to get past to do what I'm doing. I mean, this is especially true if you're like me and you have young kids. And there can be times when, you know, sometimes I'm trying to rush out the door to get to something important, and my five-year-old is like, Dad, I want to show you this Lego sculpture I made. I'm like, can it be a sculpture if it's made out of six tiny bricks? Who knows? Who am I to say? But I just want to encourage you, whether it's young kids, whether it's your neighbors, whether it's your coworkers, the people in your life are not an interruption to your life. The people in your life are your life.

Loving your neighbors, loving those around you, is not an obstacle to what God called you to do. Loving those around you is what God has called you to do. The number of times God has had to remind me, all the people around you and all the things that have needs from you that you need to meet, this is not keeping you from living your life. This is your life. And Joseph understands that other people are not an obstacle or just a nuisance. I want to ask you, is there anybody in your life who you're treating like a nuisance instead of thinking about the role that God might be calling you to play in their life? There may be ways that God is trying to provide for them through you. There may be needs that God is trying to meet through you. And when we only see them as something to tolerate or get past to get back to business, we're ignoring what God has called us to. Some of us in this room need to get to know our neighbors. Some of y'all, I mean I hesitate to say it, may need to go to a HOA meeting. I went to one recently. It was horrible. It's an opportunity to build a relationship and to talk about what our lives look like collectively. Other people are not a nuisance. They're made in the image of God, and you have responsibility towards them. But it's not just his family that he's thinking about caring for. Look at Genesis 47 verse 13. Because of this famine, right, that he's helping to care for his family and bringing them to Egypt, providing for them. It also says this, 13, there was no food in the entire region, for the famine was very severe. The land of Egypt and the land of Canaan were exhausted by the famine. And so what happens is Joseph wants to use his resources, his closeness to Pharaoh to

find a way to provide for those who don't have food. Now one of the reasons this is interesting is that Egyptians don't like Hebrews, Israelites. They do not like them. They found it detestable to even eat with them. It says they find it detestable for people to be shepherds. Joseph could have been like, y'all don't like me anyway, sorry. That's not what Joseph does. Instead Joseph is trying to figure out a way to provide for them. So Joseph can't just be like, hey Pharaoh, just give them stuff, because I serve a generous God. Pharaoh is not going to like that. But what he does do is he finds a way to use his influence with Pharaoh to provide for them. So he says, what about silver? And so they trade their silver and Joseph says, okay, y'all can be fed. And they said, we're all out of silver. We can't just die right before you. He says, okay, what about livestock? And then labor and land, but he keeps finding ways to care for them. Now Joseph again could have said, y'all, it's going good for me. I keep having to go to Pharaoh to ask for ways to feed y'all. But instead he finds a way in wisdom to both serve his boss well and to care for others. Do not treat the needs of other people as just an unwelcome obstacle in your life. God may have sent you there to meet a need, even from those who detest you. And they thank Joseph for it saying, you have saved our lives. He saved their life because he understood his role in the lives of others. I will say this, generosity is a function of security. We're able to be generous because we realize we're safe. Joseph understood that he served a big God who was with him. And so he doesn't have to be afraid that any kindness he does from somebody else may hurt

him. He's saying, God has me. Last thing I'll say is this, if you're having trouble being aware of other people, your role in other people's lives, something that helps is just serving. Just find a way to serve. You would be amazed at how if you're too wrapped up in just what's going on in your life, just serving other people will shake you out of that stupor and remind you that other people exist and have needs as well. And it's kind of a cycle. And then once you do that, you're more aware of needs and you find more ways to serve. I want to encourage you. That's a great way to form your heart and your soul is to serve others. To walk your path, you have to know your place, one, in the lives of others. And number two, in the future. To know your role, you have to know your place in the future. If I was to talk to, if I was to ask everyone in this room, what are your greatest fears right now? A lot of those fears would have to do with the future. You know, will I be a part of this next round of layoffs? I don't know. ever be able to conceive? Will I ever finish school? Will my marriage improve? You know, is this health thing that I'm worried about, is that test going to come back positive? And so sometimes we respond to those, you know, fears about the future by trying to just get control of everything. We think, no, no, no, the more I can control, the more peace I can have. That is a lie that we tell ourselves. You are not in control. The greatest way to peace is acknowledging you're not in control and submitting to the one who is. And so we see this in the story. One of the things that happens when we read these Bible stories is we almost forget that these are just regular, like these are just regular people. So we think like, man, that would be hard if you had to move from one place to another because there's a famine in your land. But good thing these are Bible people

because they're fine. No, no, no. It's hard for them too. And there are more things going on with that in this story, but you know, Jacob is an old man, a father, and a grandfather, and Joseph is a son, and a brother, and a father. And God is sometimes upending their lives for this bigger picture. Look at Genesis 46, verse 3. God is speaking to Jacob, and he says this. God said, I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you back. Joseph will close your eyes when you die. Jacob left Beersheba. The sons of Israel took their father Jacob in the wagons Pharaoh had sent to carry him along with their dependents and their wives. They also took their cattle and possessions they had acquired in the land of Canaan. Then Jacob and all his offspring with him came to Egypt. His sons and grandsons, his daughters and granddaughters, indeed all his offspring he brought with him to Egypt. Now of course, God is reiterating the plans, the promises he'd already given his father and grandfather. He will make a great nation of them. And God is saying, yes, I understand this is an interruption to the plan. I'm telling you, you should go to Egypt. And he's reiterating, I will do what I said that I will do. Surely, Jacob is wondering, can God be faithful to what he said? If now there's this famine, he's promised us this land, and we have to go to this other land. God is saying, this is hard. Trust me, I'm at work. I have a bigger picture at work. You can go to Egypt. I am going to provide for you there. And so Jacob obeys, and he takes everything to Egypt. Look, I moved a few years ago. It's only five of us, and it was horrible. Seventy, this is like 70 people that they're picking up and moving. And I do not think that they could rent U-Hauls back then. And they go, and they trust God. One of my questions for you is, how do you respond when it seems that God is calling you to something that is not your plan for the future? When you get a curve ball, do you listen with open hands? Some of us may need to work less so we can love our family more. Some of us may need to make sacrifices to love our neighbors better. Are we open-handed enough to listen when God tells us to go? Then listen to what happens in chapter 46, verse 30. Because now Jacob is reunited with his son Joseph. Right now he gets to Egypt. He hasn't seen Joseph in decades, and it says, Israel said to Joseph, I'm ready to die now, because I've seen your face and you are still alive. This is a joyous moment. He's seeing his son again. But when he says,

I'm ready to die now, it's not just because he's happy to see his son again. It's because seeing his son again is a picture that God is the promise-keeping God that He said He was. It's showing that God's promises have not been stopped and interrupted by everything going on in our lives. I wonder what kind of things give you peace about your life and if it has anything to do with God's promises. He's saying, I'm so happy that I could die now, even though he's been forced to move his family to a new place. How do you gauge whether you can have joy? The other thing is, how much do you pay attention to examples that God is keeping His promises? Some of us have an eagle eye for something going wrong. We can sniff out failure in the room from a mile away. But then when there's a picture of God's doing work, we turn into Stevie Wonder. We can't see it at all. Brothers and sisters, I want us to be the kind of believers who have an eagle eye for God's grace at work. Who are easily encouraged by seeing the Spirit working in other people's lives. You know that's good for the morale of a loving community. Some of us are great at pointing out flaws in people's lives, but we are not very good at seeing and calling out and encouraging where we see the Spirit of God at work. Some of us are saying, God, please show me a sign that you're at work, and God is like, I keep showing you, but you're not looking. I want to encourage you, pay close attention, pull out a magnifying glass, look for all the ways that God is reminding you that He is keeping His promises in your life. The last thing here I want to talk about as we're talking about the future is that, you know, Jacob, so he gets to the land, he lives there for 70 years, God continues to keep His promises. They continue to grow as a family, and this is what happens in 4821. He says this to Joseph, look, I am about to die, but God will be with you and will bring you back to the land of your fathers. The interesting thing about him talking about death this way is usually death is the end of our story. I love that he says, I'm about to die, but God will be with you. He's like, I'm not going to be able to walk with you in this next season.

Who knows what's going to come? I won't be able to see all God's promises come to pass. What I do know is that God will be with you. This is someone who trusts in God's promises and their role in the bigger picture. He still has hope even though his time is done, and then he gathers everyone around and he says, let me tell you about what's going to happen next. Now if you are on your deathbed, I would encourage you, don't do this unless God told you what was going to happen. Don't just make up prophecies for people, but Jacob, God had told him what was going to happen, and so he begins to talk to them about what the future will look like. And he trusts in God, in part because of what he's already said elsewhere that God has been so faithful. He says the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day, the angel who has redeemed me is like God, has been faithful, and I trust he'll continue to be, and here's what he said. So as he goes through all of his sons and he tells them what's going to happen based on what God has shown him, one of the most interesting parts is when he gets to Judah, and he talks to Judah, and he talks about this scepter, this reign that's not going to leave from the line of Judah, and the reason I bring this up is because of course we know that King David came from the tribe of Judah and that the Lord Jesus himself is a descendant of King David. The Revelation 5 talks about Jesus as the lion from the tribe of Judah, and what's so incredible to me about that is that all the way back then in the book of Genesis, the first book in the Bible, God was already thinking about his plan to send Jesus. That in the same way that all the way back before the famine even happened, God sent Joseph ahead in order to save his family, that way before you even existed that God had already planned and had sent the Lord Jesus ahead for your salvation. And in a way that's even more amazing than salvation from famine, it is a salvation from separation from God, from not being whole, from brokenness that he sent Jesus, and one of the ways that encourages me is if I'm confused about if God's plan is big enough to endure through all of life's ups and downs, it's an incredible reminder that God had already

planned it way before I even existed, and he executed that plan. This is the God whose bigger picture we find ourselves in. We have to know our place in the lives of others, in the future, and finally, number three, in the midst of pain. We have to know our place in the midst of pain. The reason I say that is because pain has a way of making us just focus inward, right? When we're hurting, we're just thinking about our pain and how to care for ourselves. But what we see with Joseph is, someone who has been through an incredible amount of pain, he doesn't just focus inward. I know that you talked about forgiveness a bit last week in the last section of text, but we still see more with Jacob's incredible forgiveness in this part of the text. I remember when I first got married, I read this book, and there was an insight on forgiveness that I've never been able to forget, where he reminded me in this book that our spouses, when they sin against us, they're not only sinning against us, they're primarily sinning against God. And then when we only think about it as a sin against us, we're not able to respond. So, let's say my wife—now I'm going to make something up. I'm not going to bring up my wife's actual sins here. That would be rude. But let's say my wife was a liar. She's not, for the record. Not a liar. She doesn't lie to me. But let's say she lied to me. If my response is, how dare you even think about lying to someone? as important as me, and that's where it stops. I have not served her or loved her well. Because this is, my life is not just a story about me. We are two characters, two sinners, and a story about a big God.

And so what I wanna think about is how can I help my wife and how she relates to God to not be a liar? The best and most healthy thing for her is not just to consider her just a character in my story. Some of our marriages, I think, would be more healthy if instead of just thinking about our spouse's actions and how they relate to us, if we thought about our spouse's actions and how they relate to God in this bigger picture. And this is what Joseph does here. So his brothers, their dad dies, they're worried. Genesis 50, verse 15, it says this. When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said to one another, if Joseph is holding a grudge against us, he will certainly repay us for all the suffering we caused him. Like stop for a moment. You can tell they feel guilty if this is one of their first thoughts after their dad died. And then they say this. Now this part, I'm not, they might be lying. I'm not sure. Listen, because they sent a message to Joseph. Hey, before he died, your father gave a command. Say this to Joseph, please forgive your brothers transgression in their sin, the suffering they caused you. I mean, did he say that? I don't know. It's pretty convenient.

Hey, before dad died, he said, give me $1,000. He said it. I don't know. But they said, so therefore, please forgive the transgressions of the servants of God of your father. Here's how Joseph responds. Joseph wept when their message came to him and said, we are, they said, we are your slaves. Oh, his brothers also came to him, bowed down before him and said, we are your slaves. But Joseph said to them, don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You planned evil against me. God planned it for good to bring about the present result, the survival of many people. Therefore, don't be afraid. I will take care of you and your children. And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. This is radical forgiveness. Some of us, when we forgive, we forgive a little bit like I forgive you, but only because Jesus said I did. You're lucky Jesus said that. That's not what Jesus does. Some of us like the credit of having forgiven people while also wanting them to still feel, you know, the pressure that, but just so you know, I didn't forget what you did. That's not what Joseph does. He completely says, I forgive you. Do not be afraid.

And he speaks kindly to them and promises to care for them. This is radical forgiveness that we are uniquely enabled to do because that's the way we have been forgiven by Jesus. Sometimes the self-righteousness that cannot believe that another person was sin against you forgets about how kind God has been in forgiving us for sinning against him in much greater ways. We should be the forgiveness people. We're the ones who have been forgiven greatly by God. Now that does not take away from what people do. They still have responsibility, but God has called us to this kind of radical forgiveness. It is a great way for you to show what Jesus looks like in your life to forgive people. And it doesn't have, you can forgive people even who did something to you a long time ago as Joseph does here. And I think it is very powerful that Joseph, seeing the big picture is saying you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. It's hard to understand how someone could do evil and it was still part of God's plan for good. There's one author who helpfully said that God does by their hands what he himself has decreed. So it's like God had a plan. They do evil and God uses their evil act to do what he already planned to do. And family, that should give us a kind of peace and hope like nothing else.

If even when someone tries to do the worst harm to me, if God just uses that action to do good to me, if even when you plot and plan and do evil, God uses it as part of his good plan, then what could you ever do to me? Even your worst, even your worst intentions get superseded by God's good intentions. Oh, we serve a sovereign and good God. Even when people are up to evil in your life, God is up to good. You know when you haven't heard from somebody in a long time, you're like, man, I wonder what they're up to. You know what God is up to? Good. All the time, for all of eternity. Sometimes you haven't heard from somebody in a long time and you find out they're not doing well. Maybe there's scandal, maybe there's difficulty. With God, there is never. scandal. Look into it. What is God up to? Goodness. What is God up to? Love. What is God up to? Righteousness. Goodness. Always. And that's the God who's saying, you're part of this bigger picture. It's not discouraging that our part is just a part of His bigger picture, because it is a beautiful bigger picture to be a part of. And we see that in the lives of Jacob and Joseph. The reason that Joseph can't forgive is because he understands God's plan cannot be overtaken. In chapter 50, Joseph is dying, and he says something similar to what Jacob said. Verse 24, Joseph said to his brothers, I am about to die, but God will certainly come to your aid and bring you up from this land to the land He swore to give Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So Joseph made the sons of Israel take an oath. When God comes to your aid, you are

to carry my bones up from here. Joseph died at the age of 110. They embalmed him and placed him in a coffin in Egypt. Joseph dies. And what I find very interesting is that this book, Genesis, that began with the creation of life, it ends with the death of one of our favorite characters. But that does not mean it's the end of the story. He said, I'm dying, but God will continue to do what He promised to do. And that's true of all of our stories, is that God is at work with the bigger picture. I'll close by saying this. Joseph was an incredible example of forgiveness that we could follow, and we watch him do it, and then he dies. But there is someone named Jesus who was an incredible picture of forgiveness, an incredible example, and he did die, but then he got up from the grave. Not just as an example of forgiveness, but as the one who forgave us and the one who empowers us to forgive. He got up from the grave and then called us to come after Him into a life of forgiveness and wholeness and love and joy. And my prayer is that God would give us the grace to see that bigger picture and want all of our life to exist in there. Right, to be able to walk our path because we know our part. Let me pray. Father, we come before You in the name of Your Son, Jesus. We thank You so much, God, for everything that You've shown us in Your Word. We thank You for Your grace and Your kindness, Your sovereignty, God. Lord, and we pray that You would give us peace and joy to walk our path because we know our role. Father, I pray for those of us in this room who are wrestling to trust You, that we would see Your power and help us to do it. Father, for my friends who don't really know where they are with Jesus, God, we pray You would show them clearly what He's like. We ask in Jesus' name, amen. You know, I'm thankful for his words, the fact that we are a part of a bigger story. And I hope that as we've gone through the book of Genesis over the past 20 weeks that you've realized that. From the very beginning, you can see a good God who's putting everything in order. It begins by welcoming imperfect people, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel. You fast forward to Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. And today we see the 12 tribes and we see

everything is pointing towards the coming Christ. We see that everything is a part of a bigger story. I love the New Testament because in Hebrews chapter 11, it points back to some of those names. It speaks about how they were credited righteousness. It says it in Romans as well. They were credited righteousness, not because of their great deeds, and they did many incredible things on behalf of the Lord. It says that they were credited righteousness because of their faith. And I just want to say to somebody this morning, a relationship with God is not what you can do for him. There will be some of that to come as he uses you for his kingdom. There's no amount of church attendance. There's no amount of Bible reading or serving or benevolence that will allow you to be in right standing with God. The only thing is repentance from your sin and placing your faith in Jesus. and simply saying like Tripp just preached, God, I trust your bigger story. I trust that you have sent Jesus for me. And so we would love to have that conversation with you. We've got some amazing folks over here in our next step room, who'd love to have a conversation with you about placing your faith in Jesus, about what it looks like to potentially be baptized into him. And so we'd love to have that conversation with you. Feel free to head over there, but for the rest of us, I pray that as we worship, that we would be swept up into this greater story, looking to Jesus and worshiping him with everything that we have.

Amen. Why don't you stand to your feet and let's worship our great God. God, I trust your bigger story. I trust that you have sent Jesus for me. I trust that you have sent Jesus for me. I trust that you have sent Jesus for me. I trust that you have sent Jesus for me. Amen. ♪ Oh praise the name of the Lord our God ♪ ♪ Oh praise his name forevermore ♪ ♪ For endless days we will sing your praise ♪ ♪ Oh Lord oh Lord our God ♪ ♪ Oh Lord oh Lord our God ♪ ♪ Then on the third I break of dawn ♪ ♪ The Son of Heaven rose again ♪ ♪ Oh trampled death where is your sting ♪ ♪ The angels roar for Christ the King ♪ ♪ Oh sing oh praise the name of the Lord our God ♪ ♪ Oh praise his name forevermore ♪ ♪ For endless days we will sing your praise ♪ ♪ Oh Lord oh Lord our God ♪ ♪ You shall return in robes of white ♪ ♪ The blazing sun shall pierce the night ♪ ♪ And I will rise among the saints ♪ ♪ My gain strength will be on Jesus' name ♪ ♪ Oh praise the name of the Lord our God ♪ ♪ Oh praise his name forevermore ♪ ♪ For endless days we will sing your praise ♪ ♪ Oh Lord oh Lord our God ♪

♪ Oh praise the name of the Lord our God ♪ ♪ Oh Lord oh Lord our God ♪ ♪ Oh praise his name forevermore ♪ ♪ For endless days we will sing your praise ♪ ♪ Be your praise, oh Lord, oh Lord our God ♪ ♪ Oh Lord, oh Lord our God ♪ ♪ Praise to you, praise to you, praise to you, praise to you ♪ ♪ Praise to you, praise to you, praise to you, praise to you ♪ ♪ Behold the Lamb upon the cross ♪ ♪ Who takes away the sins of all ♪ ♪ For greenness flows from hands and feet ♪ ♪ As violence meets the prince of peace ♪ ♪ Behold the King, the light of the world ♪ ♪ The Lamb that was slain, the Lion who rose ♪ ♪ So mighty to save, the fullness of God's love ♪ ♪ Won't be cut in a break, in darkness your hour is over ♪ ♪ Behold the Lamb, His dying plea ♪ ♪ Behold the grace of Calvary, that rugged cross ♪ ♪ Sworn to be the emblem of a risen King ♪ ♪ Behold the King, the light of the world ♪ ♪ The Lamb that was slain, the Lion who rose ♪ ♪ So mighty to save, the fullness of God's love ♪ ♪ Won't be cut in a break, in darkness your hour is over ♪ ♪ The light of the world, the Lamb that was slain ♪ ♪ The Lion who rose, so mighty to save ♪ ♪ The fullness of God, won't be cut in a break ♪ ♪ In darkness your hour is over ♪ ♪ Oh it's the good news today, that nothing can stand against you God ♪ ♪ Against you God ♪ ♪ No enemy can hold you down ♪

♪ Cause there's nobody in the grave now ♪ ♪ One hand gets to wear that crown ♪ ♪ Cause there's nobody in the grave now ♪ ♪ No enemy can hold you down ♪ ♪ Cause there's nobody in the grave now ♪ ♪ No enemy can hold you down ♪ ♪ Cause there's nobody in the grave now ♪ ♪ No enemy can hold you down ♪ ♪ Cause there's nobody in the grave now ♪ ♪ One hand gets to wear that crown ♪ ♪ Cause there's nobody in the grave now ♪ ♪ And no enemy can hold you down ♪ ♪ Cause there's nobody in the grave now ♪ ♪ One hand gets to wear that crown ♪ ♪ Cause there's nobody in the grave now ♪ ♪ The light of the world ♪ ♪ The lamb that was slain ♪ ♪ The lion who rose ♪ ♪ So mighty to save ♪ ♪ The fullness of God ♪ ♪ Won't be kept in a grave ♪ ♪ So darkness will never be solved ♪ ♪ The light of the world ♪ ♪ The lamb that was slain ♪ ♪ The lion who rose ♪ ♪ So mighty to save ♪ ♪ The fullness of God won't be kept in a grave ♪ ♪ It's in the grave ♪ ♪ So don't miss your hour, it's all over ♪ ♪ No enemy can hold you down ♪

♪ Cause there's nobody in the grave now ♪ ♪ No one there gets to wear that crown ♪ ♪ Cause there's nobody in the grave now ♪ ♪ No enemy can hold you down ♪ ♪ Cause there's nobody in the grave now ♪ ♪ No one there gets to wear that crown ♪ ♪ Cause there's nobody in the grave now oh-oh-oh-oh-oh ♪ ♪ Cause there's nobody in the grave now oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh ♪ ♪ Oh there's nobody in the grave now ♪ Hallelujah, amen! Well, Pando family, what a incredibly impactful service that that was. Again, my name is Derek. I'm our online campus pastor here at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky. And I don't know about you, but when I hear a message like that, there were several different times where I was just confronted and hit in the face with some truths about how I think about life that may not be correct, right? Or I think about things in a way that is probably not the way that God wants us to think. And I know that for many of you, as we've gotten to know, several of you just through the letters that you have written us, I can guess as we went through that message together with Trip. It's okay. It's okay.

Yeah, I'll do it again. Ready? Five, four, three. Well, Pando family, what an impactful and an incredibly convicting message that was from Trip Lee today. And that's one of the things I love whenever he comes to Southeast and preaches God's word to us. It is so clear and it is so convicting. And I think God uses all of scripture, but especially Trip's preaching to speak into our life in a way that makes a big difference. And so I know as I was listening to the sermon today, there were several things that just kind of hit me in the face about, man, there are a few things that I believe about myself. I can feel like I'm that main character sometimes, right? And when I feel that way, what ends up happening is I end up thinking that I have more power in my good actions and my bad actions than what I realize. And here's what I mean. I think there are times when I see myself as the main character in my life or the main character in my world, that man, when good things happen to me, I kind of think that it's because of something I've done, right, that it's actually gonna have a greater impact than it may have. But there's also this other side to it

that when I think that I've done something wrong, because I see myself as that main character a lot of the times, it can actually feel like the wrong mistake, the wrong decision that I made is greater and far more impactful. And I feel like I have just messed up everything in my life and everything in someone else's life. But what I'm reminded of in scripture, and one of the things that Chip reminded us of is in Romans 8, Romans 8, verse 28. He says, and we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose, right? That just like Joseph, who had the opportunity to lay down the hammer on his brothers, who clearly did something evil to him, who clearly cast him into a pit and sent him into slavery and messed up the trajectory of his life. Even in that, God worked all things together for the good of those who love him. And so my encouragement for all of us today is to be reminded that we're not the main character, right? We're not the main character that even the good things we do may not be as great as we think that they are, and that's okay. But even the bad things we do, right? Even as detrimental that they may be to other people, we can trust that God will work all things together for the good of those who love him. Y'all, and so I hope that that encourages you today,

but I also hope that you're encouraged by our Panda exclusive podcast that drops every single Thursday. Our team loves getting to do that because we know that getting to talk about the sermon in the middle of our week makes a difference, because maybe you're like me, and you listen to something on Sunday, and then by Tuesday, Wednesday, you forget what was even said. And so it's a great opportunity for you to be a part of that conversation. And we'd also encourage you, as you write us letters throughout the week, if there are questions that you have. about life, about faith, about Jesus, we would love to answer those on that podcast. So please, make sure when you're writing us letters that you let us know you have a question, send us the question, we'd love to answer that during a podcast and drop that on the Pando app in the coming weeks and months, y'all. But also, we have the Eden II Eternity Bible Study that is on the Pando app already, drops on Wednesdays, great opportunity as you continue to learn more about the Bible, about who you are, about who God is and what God's plan is for each of us. I would recommend that you check that out too on Wednesdays. Y'all, before we get out of here,

I would love to just offer up a prayer to you. And it's one of those prayers that we specifically wrote for you, for our Pando family, so that you could take out a piece of paper, a pencil, a pen, and write this down so you can pray it throughout the week. But for now, guys, let me pray this over you. Jesus, thank you for being a great Redeemer. Even when life doesn't look like the way that I planned it, you are good. I trust your promises, I trust your provision, I trust your word, I love your word. Please protect me from temptation. Please restore what I've lost. Please fill me with your Holy Spirit. Lord, I am not in control. I am waiting on you. In chaos, I need your peace. In loss, I need your comfort. In confusion, I need your truth. Lord, I trust you with everything and I love you. And in your name, Jesus alone we pray, amen. Y'all remember, God will work all things together for the good of those he loves. Y'all have a great week and we'll see you next time.