[SPEAKER_00]: Well, well, first three, I'm beyond excited to dive into today's talk, because there's a truth for each and every single one of us that there are moments in which our stories are changed forever.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm sure you've experienced some of these in your own life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it was a job promotion in which your story got different.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it was a really big move.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like this, there's a huge moment being able to go across the country, or maybe for some of you is the moment you got
[SPEAKER_00]: and what a beautiful, amazing moment that must have been.
[SPEAKER_00]: For some of us, these are just dates on a color.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right there, random days.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're random Tuesdays sometimes, and they don't always look like much until they do.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I can remember that for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like one of those key moments, there's a few in my life, but one of them was the day we first met our daughter Alexis.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I can remember it incredibly clear.
[SPEAKER_00]: I remember holding her for the first time.
[SPEAKER_00]: I remember hearing her breathing and even hearing her cryin, nothing beats her falling asleep in my arms.
[SPEAKER_00]: And let me tell you, for Kelsey and I, our lives were never the same after that moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was one of those things, and now having her with us for so many, she just turned four, I cannot imagine life without her.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the reality for each of us is we all have moments in our life that change our story forever.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the reality for us is that sometimes not every one of those moments feels like a blessing at first.
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, that's a bit of Joseph's story.
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, the moment that changed everything for him wasn't even gentle or sweet at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't like the birth of a child.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was actually the betrayal of his brothers.
[SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't love.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was being sold into slavery.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the last time we met Joseph, he was sold by his brothers to the Ishmaelites.
[SPEAKER_00]: And for us, I can only imagine that this moment broke it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It had to have incredibly massively humbled this young man who was so proud and so bolsterious as he was dreaming these dreams from God, these dreams that his brothers and his sisters and his father and mother would one day bow to him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I can't imagine the pain, the deep wounds of being sold like property by the very people who shared his blood.
[SPEAKER_00]: He had to have a deep portrayal, a deep wound.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet God was with him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Somehow this very moment that broke him also built something in him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because between that pit and where he's going, that Egyptian palaces, there's something sacred that happened.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because between those two chapters we're going to meet a brand new Joseph.
[SPEAKER_00]: One who who is humbled after his encounter with God, this is as if God grabbed him and shook the arrogance right out of him in this encounter.
[SPEAKER_00]: You see Joseph was gonna be destined for greatness, but his character wasn't keeping up.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so now in this kind of a moment in which God humbles him and strips him of everything and a position where he has no control, he has no rights and he has no say in what's happening.
[SPEAKER_00]: or everything.
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, it reminds me of this, this verse in Hebrews, and Hebrews chapter 12 verses 10 and 11, it says it like this, it says, and for those of you who've never heard me teach, if you see a few words on the screen that are bolded and underlined, we're gonna invite you to read them out loud with me if you would with some conviction.
[SPEAKER_00]: But in verse 10, it reads it like this.
[SPEAKER_00]: For our earthly fathers, discipline does us for a few years, doing the best they knew how.
[SPEAKER_00]: But God's discipline is always good for us so that we might share in his what?
[SPEAKER_00]: His holiness.
[SPEAKER_00]: No discipline is enjoyable while it's happening.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's what?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's painful, but afterwards there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, think about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: The author of Hebrews, it's kind of telling us that God is always working for our good.
[SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes that looks like blessing, but other times it looks like discipline.
[SPEAKER_00]: And while discipline can be painful, it's still for our good.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's forming something in us that comfort just never quite does.
[SPEAKER_00]: See, God's going and discipline isn't punishment.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like this invitation for our participation into growing in a holiness without.
[SPEAKER_00]: You see, holiness that word matters so much.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it doesn't mean that we are sinless, pure perfection, but it means that we're set apart.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're different.
[SPEAKER_00]: that we live in a way that's reserved for something greater.
[SPEAKER_00]: You see, God, it was setting Joseph apart, like great, grandma's fine China.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyone have China still?
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyone?
[SPEAKER_00]: No one?
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's chosen for a sacred purpose.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I say it like that because when we choose live without character, it's like setting out the kids' nidgeturtle plates at a wedding, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Instead of that fine China, it's never gonna hold the weights of the feast that it was made for.
[SPEAKER_00]: It won't live up to its purpose that it was created to serve.
[SPEAKER_00]: You see, Joseph didn't know it yet, but God was setting him apart for something greater than his comfort could ever recognize and build him to.
[SPEAKER_00]: So God was gonna trust him with a lot of influence, but it's had to have the character to hold it there.
[SPEAKER_00]: So before Joseph would ever stand in temptation's path, God was strengthening his spine.
[SPEAKER_00]: And long before the test came training began, and I believe that every quiet act of obedience was shaping him into the kind of man who would stand when everything else was falling apart.
[SPEAKER_00]: So there's one thing I want us to start with, even before we dive further into our text today, as we go between those two chapters, we would understand this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Is that character, is built before it's tested?
[SPEAKER_00]: Character is built long before it's ever tested.
[SPEAKER_00]: And church, one of my prayers for our student ministry is that they would be people of character.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I would hope that's true for each and every one of us.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think most of us value character.
[SPEAKER_00]: We wanted in others.
[SPEAKER_00]: We wanted in our places of employment.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have to preach it to our kids, but I wanna ask a hard question today, church.
[SPEAKER_00]: It might be the same one many of us wrestle with when it gets really tough.
[SPEAKER_00]: But would you choose character even if it costs you everything?
[SPEAKER_00]: Would you choose character even if it costs you everything because that's the question Joseph is about to face.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's the same challenge that he unknowingly has been preparing for his whole life at to this point.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you would, if you want to open your Bibles or your Bible App to Genesis, chapter 39, verses 1 through 6, it says this.
[SPEAKER_00]: So when Joseph was taken to Egypt by the Ishmael-Ige traders, he was purchased by Potifer, an Egyptian officer.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Potifer was a captain of the guard for Pharaoh, the king of Egypt.
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 2, it says this, that the Lord was what?
[SPEAKER_00]: He was with Joseph.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he succeeded in everything he did as he served the home of the Egyptian master.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Potter for notice this and realized that the Lord was with Joseph, giving him success and everything he did.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this pleased Potter for, so he soon made Joseph his personal attendant.
[SPEAKER_00]: He made him a charge of his entire household and everything he owned.
[SPEAKER_00]: And from that day, Joseph was put in charge of his master's household and property, and the Lord began to bless potifers household for Joseph's sake.
[SPEAKER_00]: You see, all of his household affairs ran smoothly, and all of his crops in livestock's flourish, so potifermane, Joseph won.
[SPEAKER_00]: Complete and administrative responsibility over everything he owned.
[SPEAKER_00]: With Joseph there, he didn't have to worry about a thing, except what kind of food to eat.
[SPEAKER_00]: See, first three, I hope we hear this today, that God is actually the source of Joseph's success.
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, the Hebrew word translated for success is also something that we can say is advancement.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's moving toward something or a progress through resistance.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord didn't just give Joseph things or titles.
[SPEAKER_00]: He actually took him somewhere.
[SPEAKER_00]: Success wasn't about what Joseph had.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was actually about who he was with.
[SPEAKER_00]: And see, that's the heartbeat of this whole chapter in many ways.
[SPEAKER_00]: That the chapter kind of just reminds us, and we'll do it the beginning and the end, it says that the Lord was with Joseph.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't think he wants us to miss that.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's as if Joseph's story isn't about luck in talent and personality, but actually about God's presence and character, that everywhere Joseph went God went with him,
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't you ever imagine that moment, Joseph, a teenager in a strange land, his wrists probably scarred from the very ropes and bound him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And here he is, he's standing in the courtyard of Potifers' state, how skilled with idols to false gods, he doesn't believe in.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's surrounded by people who don't speak his language, giving orders, he doesn't understand.
[SPEAKER_00]: He has no family, no freedom, no reason.
[SPEAKER_00]: for hope and yet somehow, some way, the presence of God is still with Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is, and because God was with Him, Joseph's work began to bless everyone around him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And see, Potterford could see it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And though he couldn't really explain it, he could feel it.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was just something different about this young Hebrew.
[SPEAKER_00]: Every corner of his household ran smoother, his field produced more.
[SPEAKER_00]: He ended up tasking Joseph with more and more and everything he did, he just continued to knock it out of the park.
[SPEAKER_00]: This was the favor of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you see, Potterford didn't have the language for it, but the scriptures say that he realized the Lord was with Joseph.
[SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't a conversion moment for Potterford, but it wasn't an acknowledgement.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was something about this man,
[SPEAKER_00]: You see, and I think that's a lot of what character in our faith does.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's almost as if one of the first things that people often will notice for us as a witness is actually our character.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because sometimes before people can ever hear the words about the gospel for me and I, they see it live down in our lives.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is if the presence of God would be, that is within us, would produce this kind of excellence and integrity and character and peace and an anxious world that we cannot ignore even if they don't understand it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You see, Joseph Spatez, one of his gave him an incredible reputation.
[SPEAKER_00]: A man who walked with God, who worked hard and got things done.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so he rose from a nameless slave to an overseer,
[SPEAKER_00]: Talk about a long way from the same sister that we left him in in the last chapter.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet it's here, it's in our victories and our comforts that temptation often will set the stage, not necessarily in our sufferings.
[SPEAKER_00]: His character earned him trust, but that same character was about to be tested in the most personal way possible.
[SPEAKER_00]: They see it because before character is built and it's tested, Joseph was about to come straight or sorry, was about to have a battle that was coming straight for the very integrity God had been forming within him.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think for each of us today, we need to hear this truth as we read God's scripture, which is this is that for you and I as people of character, character has strategy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Character has a strategy.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Genesis 29, verse the second half of six through 12, it revered this.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says that Joseph was a very handsome and well-built young man.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Potter for his wife soon began to look at him lustfully, come and sleep with me, she demanded.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Joseph refused, look, he told her, my what?
[SPEAKER_00]: My master, he trust me with everything it is entire household.
[SPEAKER_00]: No one here has more authority than I do.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is hell back, nothing from me except you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because you are his wife, how could I do such a wicked thing?
[SPEAKER_00]: It would be a great sin against whom God.
[SPEAKER_00]: It said that she kept putting pressure on Joseph day after day, but he refused to sleep with her, and he kept out of her way as much as possible.
[SPEAKER_00]: And one day, however, no one else was around when he went into his work and she came and grabbed him by the cloak demanding come on, sleep with me.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so Joseph tore himself away.
[SPEAKER_00]: He left his cloak in her hand as he would.
[SPEAKER_00]: if you ran from the house.
[SPEAKER_00]: See, this is where the story takes a turn because Joseph's faithfulness and his character and the light will be tested very much in the shadows.
[SPEAKER_00]: He Joseph's this young, successful, trusted and handsome enough man just enough for it to become a problem.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so here we have Potter for his wife, this powerful, persuasive, important woman who's probably used to getting whatever she wants has now set her eyes on Joseph.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it starts with maybe a look that a word, and then a demand.
[SPEAKER_00]: And right there here, we're reminded that temptation doesn't always come when we're weak.
[SPEAKER_00]: If anything, I found that more often than not, it can happen when we're winning and we're successful and things are maybe going well when life becomes comfortable.
[SPEAKER_00]: When we found our rhythms, it's not when we always expect it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even when maybe we think we've already passed the test.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's funny because the text will tell us the scripture say that Joseph kept out of her way.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it wasn't like a one time thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in fact, in the Hebrew it was written in the imperfect tense.
[SPEAKER_00]: That means this was an ongoing continuous action.
[SPEAKER_00]: That meant Joseph was in continual refusal day after day.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again and again, he was finding a new way in which to avoid this person.
[SPEAKER_00]: He shared a home with.
[SPEAKER_00]: See, he's living in the tension of temptation that won't let go.
[SPEAKER_00]: Y'all Joseph had a strategy to avoid her daily.
[SPEAKER_00]: He created distance before desire could ever take root in his art.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's because holiness was never about managing temptation for him.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was about fleeing it entirely, church.
[SPEAKER_00]: See Joseph didn't wait until the moment of decision to figure out what he was going to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: He because of his character had already made up the choice long before temptation had ever shown up.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what strategy looks like for you and I.
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, one of the pastors that I've read over the years says it like this, Pastor Craig Rachelle says, hey, a temptation I can eliminate today is a battle I don't have to fight tomorrow.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why would you battle a temptation in the future if you have the power to eliminate it today?
[SPEAKER_00]: Church, how often are we fighting temptation?
[SPEAKER_00]: Just as an excuse to actually keep it by.
[SPEAKER_00]: We use it as a guy's that it's something that we can entertain.
[SPEAKER_00]: We call it harmless, though it's whispering to our hearts to healing.
[SPEAKER_00]: How often do we entertain that temptation with the guy is a fighting it?
[SPEAKER_00]: And in the truth is, I believe we often have such a tendency to downplay the danger of temptations in our life until the tiger is in our living room.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is no longer a baby tiger, but a full grown thing ready to grow up and devour you in me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Church, the truth is, as we are 100% vulnerable to temptation and sin, every one of us.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to say it again, so none of us miss it, that you and I, we are all 100% vulnerable to temptation and sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the good news is we're also not powerless to temptation.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I can only imagine the Holy Spirit and it's an amazing inspiration with the Apostle Paul that brought to his mind this as he wrote to the Church of Corinth in 1 Corinthians 6, 18.
[SPEAKER_00]: He tells us this.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, it's run from sexual sin for no other sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: So clearly affects the body as this one does.
[SPEAKER_00]: For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's amazing, and did you catch with Paul wrote?
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, run, don't reason, don't negotiate, don't fight, don't linger, run.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, you don't have to stop temptation from knocking.
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, I think we all know, like a bad salesman who won't go away, we probably can't prevent temptation ever from knocking, but we don't have to answer the door.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't even need to look through the people.
[SPEAKER_00]: You see, Joseph didn't fight temptation, he fled it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not cowardice, it's character.
[SPEAKER_00]: He wasn't afraid of losing.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was actually more afraid of dishonoring God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Notice that he didn't just see it as a sin against his master.
[SPEAKER_00]: He said, this would be a great sin against God himself.
[SPEAKER_00]: See, Joseph wasn't afraid, what if I got caught?
[SPEAKER_00]: He was afraid about how much this would hurt.
[SPEAKER_00]: God.
[SPEAKER_00]: See, that's the heart of holiness.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not about fear, it's about love for the one who is worthy of all of our faithfulness.
[SPEAKER_00]: So not only does Joseph flee from sin, he does something incredibly powerful for each of us to get today as he doesn't allow unfairness as an excuse for unfaithfulness.
[SPEAKER_00]: And let me be honest, if anyone had an excuse to justify sin and do whatever he wants to do and act however he wanted, it was Joseph.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's been betrayed by his family, the people who taught him and he values he had.
[SPEAKER_00]: He'd been enslaved in a foreign land.
[SPEAKER_00]: He'd been forgotten, used, abused.
[SPEAKER_00]: He could have said, God's abandon me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why should I care what he thinks?
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet Joseph refuses that lie.
[SPEAKER_00]: He refuses to let the unfairness and injustice in his life give birth to unfaithfulness and a lack of character.
[SPEAKER_00]: None of it will excuse disobedience for Joseph, even though we live in a world in which we love to justify our behavior with the word because.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, we say this all the time.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because my boss mistreats me or talks bad to me, I can just give less than a hundred percent of my job.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can just do the bare minimum to get by, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because my child's rude and disrespectful, I don't have to honor and respond and love with them, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Just because my spouse talked to me, harshly, I don't have to love and care and give grace for them as well, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because the people in my small group, maybe smoked, voted,
[SPEAKER_00]: for a different politician, I don't have to treat them like a brother and sister in Christ, but like an enemy that I can push to the sides because they did, I can now do this.
[SPEAKER_00]: And here's the hard truth for each of us is that the kingdom of God has no because beggin us for us to justify our sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't give us any leeway to go run to those things.
[SPEAKER_00]: Joseph never allowed his circumstances to dictate his obedience to God.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if I can speak honestly tonight, we do.
[SPEAKER_00]: If we can pull back the mask a little today and show a little bit of the ugly that is underneath church, we all have excuses we go to.
[SPEAKER_00]: We all have some things we justify in order to choose the behaviors we want to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: We all do.
[SPEAKER_00]: The question isn't, do we?
[SPEAKER_00]: The question is, is, are we brave enough to name it?
[SPEAKER_00]: We name it up brave enough to say it out loud.
[SPEAKER_00]: What are my personal heroes as a man by the name of Mr. Rogers?
[SPEAKER_00]: That guy, yeah, exactly.
[SPEAKER_00]: The card again, really sauce mugging, puppet with a Daniel Tiger, like that guy, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I grew up watching a show, I grew up with a lot of those things.
[SPEAKER_00]: And one of these phrases he would say was so profound and stuck with me throughout my life and is so profoundly biblical.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he would say something like this.
[SPEAKER_00]: He would say anything that's mentioned of a manageable, is manageable.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anything that's mentioned of a was manageable.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's as if he understood this profound truth for you and I that we can so forget that when we name something that we struggle with, we disarm its power.
[SPEAKER_00]: that when we name it, it does something.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what the old term of what confession is.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not just admitting sin, ladies and gentlemen, it's actually dragging our hearts and our struggles and our behaviors into the light before Jesus and saying, I give this in surrender it to you where it has no power, authority and dominion over Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the challenge for you before you go home today, I want to challenge you and your notes around your phone or a text message with your conversation.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to challenge you to be able to say, my excuse is blank, name it, and surrender it to God.
[SPEAKER_00]: One of the other truths I want to make sure we touch on today is that character has a cost.
[SPEAKER_00]: character has a cost, and in fact, because of Joseph's actions and he running out it, we're going to see that Potterford's wife is left with a tough moment and chooses to lie about the situation and Joseph is arrested for it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Genesis 39, verses 19 through 20, it says this, that Potterford was furious when he heard his wife's story about how Joseph had treated her.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he took Joseph and he threw him into where
[SPEAKER_00]: into prison where the King's prisoners were held and there he remained.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's a Joseph Rand from sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: He maintained his integrity and character.
[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't justify anything going on to dishonor God, but it cost him everything.
[SPEAKER_00]: He lost his position, he lost his reputation, he lost his comfort, he did the right thing and yet somehow ended up in what we would say as the wrong place.
[SPEAKER_00]: In a place in which the world tells us, do the right thing, and it's all gonna work out.
[SPEAKER_00]: The scripture's never promises that.
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, sometimes faithfulness doesn't lead to applause.
[SPEAKER_00]: It leads to accusations.
[SPEAKER_00]: It leads to betrayal.
[SPEAKER_00]: It leads to deep wounds and hurt.
[SPEAKER_00]: We see with pottaffer's wife that she's humiliated and desperate to protect her image, she screams false accusations about Joseph, and so people talk and gossip spreads.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what's wild is this is the really painful part.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a pretty good chance, maybe that pottaffer knew she wasn't telling the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: If he fully believed her, Joseph actually would have been executed publicly.
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, in its time and culture adultery between a slave like that or a rape of that situation of a high official's wife was a capital crime, treason is punishable by painful public execution, but instead Joseph is sent to a political prison, not a penal colony.
[SPEAKER_00]: yet he also couldn't afford to look weak in his house.
[SPEAKER_00]: He had a reputation to protect.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the tragic difference we see between potifers household and Joseph.
[SPEAKER_00]: See potifers live for how Pharaoh and those above him would see him as reputation, but Joseph lived for how God actually saw them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Joseph had been living in view of a throne room ladies and gentlemen, long before he ever entered Pharaoh's palace in Egypt.
[SPEAKER_00]: You see, doing the right thing, having character, it will cost you an eye.
[SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes in my cost is comfort.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes in my cost, our reputation, opportunities, relationships, or influence.
[SPEAKER_00]: But hear me today, church, that character may cost us everything.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it will never cost you God's presence.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because as we get to the end of this story, we get to read those lines come back from the beginning, says this, the Lord was with Joseph.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is the last thing I want us to get as we get close to the end of this message today, is that Joseph's character was nothing compared to the character of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Joseph's character was nothing compared to the character
[SPEAKER_00]: And Genesis 29, verses 21, through 23, we read this.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the Lord was what?
[SPEAKER_00]: He was with Joseph in the prison, and he showed him his faithful love.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the Lord made Joseph a favorite to the prison warden, and before long the warden put Joseph in charge of all the other prisoners and everything that happened in the prison.
[SPEAKER_00]: Warden had no more worries because Joseph took care of everything.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord was with him and caused him everything he did to succeed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sounds familiar?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's amazing that this is kind of how the story ends.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's always hard to believe that Joseph is sitting in a prison cell, betrayed, accused for God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet, that same line that opens the story rings true here that the Lord was with Joseph.
[SPEAKER_00]: And nothing about this situation says success, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: By the world's definition, absolutely not.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's no applause, there's no comfort, there's no title, there's no money, there's nothing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet, we see something different.
[SPEAKER_00]: that God's presence, the same one who had been with him in the palace was still sitting with him right here in his cell.
[SPEAKER_00]: The text says that he got showed him his faithful love.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Hebrew word here is Hased, which is a covenantal love.
[SPEAKER_00]: This deep covenant, it describes the steadfast mercy and love of God throughout the Scriptures, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the love that pursued Abraham when he was doubting.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's what wrestled with Jacob and Piniel, and it's now what sits quietly beside Joseph in prison.
[SPEAKER_00]: The word has said is so heavy.
[SPEAKER_00]: It means a love that won't quit and doesn't give up and never leaves us or forsakes us.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says, if God throughout the entire chapter, the heartbeat is insane, even here, I am with you still.
[SPEAKER_00]: Four times it repeats this phrase.
[SPEAKER_00]: It twice at the beginning and twice at the end.
[SPEAKER_00]: It bookens Joseph's story here.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he would be telling a story telling, that's what we call a chastic bracket.
[SPEAKER_00]: It means it's intentional.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's really purposeful.
[SPEAKER_00]: It means that every blessing and hardship between those lines is formed by one deeply unshakable truth and that is God is with us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's the heartbeat of this chapter.
[SPEAKER_00]: not Joseph's success, not Potter for his favor, not even Joseph's character.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the character and faithfulness of God that defines Joseph.
[SPEAKER_00]: Whether in a palace or a prison, the constant was never Joseph's strength.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was always God's presence.
[SPEAKER_00]: So for you and I, maybe we need to remember the phrase from God saying, I am with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am right here.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what's amazing, because Joseph had incredible faithfulness and character in the missing hardship, and yet it's nothing when we compare it to the faithful character of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because if we look forward, we see yet another son, the only son beloved by his father, who was betrayed for silver, falsely accused and condemned though he was so innocent.
[SPEAKER_00]: that there was another son who was thrown into darkness so that you and I may find redemption.
[SPEAKER_00]: His name is Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus knew portrayal.
[SPEAKER_00]: He knew what it was like to be lied about, to be abandoned by his friends, to be punished by those in power.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he stood before pilot as false accusations flew.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was beaten, mocked, and stripped, and crucified, completely innocent, and yet perfectly full of character and faithfulness.
[SPEAKER_00]: that even in that darkness, Jesus was there for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: See Jesus, new pain and sufferings, the nails are driven through his wrists and the crown of Thorns pressed onto his head and the weight of the world's sins on his shoulder as he died on the cross for you and me.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in that moment, it's occurred and the temple was torn, the distance between God and man collapsing, the presence, the same one that raised Jesus from a grave is still with Joseph and you and me and everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: So wherever we are today, may we understand all of this points, this great truth that God's character and faithfulness will never fail, even though ours do, does.
[SPEAKER_00]: May we understand this today, that you may not be able to choose your situation, but you can always choose the kind of person you're becoming in the middle of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wanna say it again, you and I may not always be able to choose our situation, but you and I get to choose the kind of person we become in the middle of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cause I believe this, that Joseph's story, it's not just ancient history.
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe that it's a profound mirror for you and I today.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is literally speaking into our lives right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cause for some of you, you get this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like you feel like you're in a prison.
[SPEAKER_00]: You've been cut off from everyone around you and you feel like God's not maybe even there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like you've heard maybe about him, but he feels so far away.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you've built your life, trying to be your own savior, trying to be perfect, and trying to make everything right on your own, controlling what you can't control.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you don't need to earn his life.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't need to go looking for him because he is already here with you waiting for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so today, maybe the right thing for you to do is to surrender.
[SPEAKER_00]: To put your faith and trust in Jesus and say, I can't carry this more Jesus, I need you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can be with me now, or maybe you've been around church for a minute.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you placed your faith in Jesus and at some point somewhere along the way, your faith got safe and comfortable.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like we stopped listening to conviction, and you've allowed your excuses to justify some sin in your life, you settled from looking faithful than rather being faithful and full of character.
[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe today, God is using Joseph's story to shake us away.
[SPEAKER_00]: To remind us that holiness isn't about looking perfect, but it's looking to pursue him to be set apart for his works.
[SPEAKER_00]: that we would pursue God again like never before because He never left us and we're never too far gone.
[SPEAKER_00]: So for us, maybe this act for today is that it's never too late to go back to start again right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: And some of you maybe you've been running the race for a while.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe the right thing for you to do is that you, because you've found yourself running and being hard in the midst of this, and you've been trying and doing so much and you're serving in so many ways, but you're exhausted, you're tired and you're weary.
[SPEAKER_00]: You've been faithful in unseen ways, and you kept showing up when no one said, thank you, you've carried obedience like a way to no one seems to notice.
[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe you're asking, does it even?
[SPEAKER_00]: Hear me, your matters, every act of obedience, every unseen act of faithfulness.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's building a harvest, you and I, some of us may never see, but someone else will get to feed from.
[SPEAKER_00]: See, are quite faithfulness today, might be the actual reason that someone finds faith tomorrow.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your obedience in the dark might be the light that leads out for another person for theirs.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are steadfastness and trial might give you the courage for those around you to see you and fight the good fight.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe your act today is to stay the course and to run the race harder than you ever ran before.
[SPEAKER_00]: But for all of us today, right here, right now,
[SPEAKER_00]: that we will do the next right thing in the midst of it because of his character and his heart and who he is in our life and his presence he invites us to take new grip with tired hands and strengthen our weak needs to confess what we've been hiding to forgive what we've been holding and rebuild what's broken and love where there may be hasn't been some.
[SPEAKER_00]: that this morning, the same presence.
[SPEAKER_00]: But one that Phil Joseph, or his cell, is the same one who raised Jesus from the grave, is waiting for you and I to respond.
[SPEAKER_00]: So wherever we are, would we know this today that it's never too late to do the right thing?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because that same God who was with Joseph is the same God who was with you today.
[SPEAKER_00]: Would you pray with me today?
[SPEAKER_00]: Father, thank you that you were with Joseph and prison and in the palace and in the sister and everywhere in between just like you're here with us now.
[SPEAKER_00]: You were the God who built character long before we are ever called to the test.
[SPEAKER_00]: God would you teach us to be people of faithfulness and character even when no one sees it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even when no one gives us that care and love that we might be
[SPEAKER_00]: Even if it costs us, give us the courage to flee, not even fight, not to engage, not to entertain, help us to choose this character even when life feels unfair, remind us that unfairness is not an excuse to be unfaithful to you, form in us the kind of holiness
[SPEAKER_00]: May our character, Father, be shaped by who you are and your presence because your character is far greater than anything we will ever know.
[SPEAKER_00]: May we can have a taste of it more today.
[SPEAKER_00]: We pray that in the name of your Son Jesus, amen.