Salt + Light Fort Worth

Ben Connelly: All right.

Uh, well, if you weren't here at
the beginning, um, we don't usually

meet in the space, uh, and all
sorts of other things, happy to

chat with you about it afterwards.

Hopefully we'll be back in our normal.

Quite a little bit less sardine
like meeting space next week.

Uh, but interestingly, if you have
that Google Doc pulled up, um,

the title of today's teaching is
God's Presence in Unexpected Turns.

So, uh, this is far less like vital or
devastating, an unexpected turn than

a lot of the unexpected turns in life.

But it was as we were praying.

Uh, like, oh, just a little reminder
of like, oh, we're talking about

this today, so why wouldn't there
be something unexpected today

as we, uh, shift to this space?

Um, I'll say this, uh, Matt mentioned
at the beginning, there's not a

screen with, uh, verses and you're
always welcome to have your own

copy of the scriptures pulled up.

Um, but on that Google Doc that has
all the liturgy and lyrics and that

kind of stuff, we put all the, um,
verses for today's teaching as well

in case you wanna follow along there
and not kind of jump back and forth

to other apps or that kind of stuff.

So anyway, it is what it is, right?

Mm-hmm.

God's present in our unexpected terms.

Do you believe that?

Yes.

God's un present in our unexpected,
like minor turns like this.

Do you believe God's present in
your big unexpected turns, though?

Ooh, little less, little less
of a resounding yes on that one.

Uh, let's start with this.

Uh, raise your hand if
you've ever had a bad day.

All right.

The rest of your liars, if you didn't
raise your hand, that's ev Everyone has.

Um, and bad day can, that
can mean a lot of things.

Like, it feels like there's a
spectrum of what a bad day is.

Um, get in a wreck, lose a parent, lose
a child, lose a spouse, lose a friend.

Uh, get fired, get divorced, get falsely
accused of something misunderstood.

Get chewed out by a boss or a teacher.

Start a new school year.

Have a bad grade during that school year,
some medical diagnosis, on and on and on.

It can go right.

We all have bad days and
whether it's a minor annoyance.

Or we've all had days like this, like a
series of minor annoyance where like the,

the annoyances themselves aren't that
big of a deal, but like the aggregate

of them, just, you know what I mean?

Um, or something totally
devastating, like life has hardships.

Finances are hard.

Relationships are hard.

Work is hard.

Politics are hard.

Neighbors are hard.

Family members are hard.

Life is hard.

Yes, everyone has a bad day.

Uh, and then these two, two
questions as we think about bad days.

Uh, first is, is kind
of a vertical question.

Where is God on your bad days?

Anyone ever asked that question?

A few.

You're gonna be more hesitant
to raise your hand on this.

I'll go first.

I've asked that question.

So where is God on, on those bad days?

Like for those of us who follow
Jesus, and I know not everyone in

the room claims to follow Jesus.

And again, honor, always honored that
you're here to consider what Christians

believe, but for those of us who do
follow Jesus, if, if we trust God.

And if we confess that he's good and
powerful, then then how does bad day

reality fit in his goodness and power?

It's a common question.

It's even one of the more common
questions that makes folks doubt God,

and that's the vertical question.

Where's God on our bad day?

The horizontal questions, how do
we relate to each other on bad?

Um, I, I, I think humans in general, and,
and perhaps maybe even uniquely followers

of Jesus are not known for our ability to
enter into each other's hardships Well.

Is that fair?

Like if you had a bad day and, and
someone either tries to help or you want

them to help and they don't know how to
help it feel, it feels like a hard thing

to navigate is how to enter into other
people's bad days and, and yet grief

and lament and just being with folks in
their hard times, like these are things

you see throughout the scriptures.

Sadness makes us uncomfortable though.

So we give kind of an awkward
pat on the back or throw some

Bible verses at each other.

God's got this one day.

All the suffering will end.

God's working even in this for your good.

Which for the record,
those are true statements.

We believe that those things are true.

And also they're great
theological logical truths.

And if God makes us heart, soul, mind,
and strength and gives us emotions and

relationships and things other than just
our logic, then we've gotta learn to, to

engage people's bad days and serve people
with right theology, but serve people

with more than right theology as well.

Enter their moment with them.

It's been said that job's friends,
Gabe mentioned job last month when

he was talking through the Psalms.

Job's.

Friends were at their best when they
said nothing, and then when they

started to open their mouths, all
their good advice went downhill.

The world is broken.

Yes.

Yes.

Life is hard.

Yes.

Y'all, it's okay to say that.

Even if God is good, it doesn't
diminish God's goodness to admit

that we live in a broken world.

There are things that should not be,
and we've gotta be okay saying that.

So again, how do we relate to God?

How do we relate to
others on our bad days?

And there's examples of folks doing
this not well throughout the Bible,

and there's examples of folks doing
this well throughout the Bible.

Um, one of the best examples in the Bible
of engaging bad days with faith and trust

is this man at the end of Genesis named
Joseph, if you're new with us, haven't

been with us for most of this year.

We, we've been walking through the book of
Genesis for a lot of 2025, and what we're

seeing in Genesis is, is kind of echoes of
how God designed the world in life today.

Uh, we see brokenness in
that design in life today.

Uh, we see echoes of wrestling
with sin in life today.

We see a lot in the stories of
Genesis that even though it's

thousands of years old and the the
situations were different, there's

a lot that that actually we resonate
deeply with in the book of Genesis.

And so this month in August, we're gonna
do the last few chapters of Genesis, um,

and we're gonna see, uh, echoes of even
engaging with God in the worst of times.

Um, and so if there was a screen up here,
you'd see this beautifully designed slide

from Michelle that says, life in the pit.

Life in the pit.

Because let's be honest, sometimes
we feel like we're in a pit.

If you don't feel like that
today, you might have yesterday.

If you don't feel like that
yesterday, you might tomorrow.

Like we, we, we come in
and out of pits, right?

Metaphorical, hopefully pits, but we've
come in and out of pits throughout

our, our lives and we're gonna see
today, Joseph was in a literal pit

at least twice in these chapters.

At least twice.

And so whatever metaphorical pit
you're in or have been in or will be

in, Joseph offers us an example of
faith and trust in our pits as well.

So here's, here's what I wanna promise
the next few weeks, like, we're not

gonna try to throw platitudes at you.

Uh, we're not gonna make empty
promises, uh, but we are gonna look

at this, this helpful example of a
guy who took hit after hit after hit

and found God and found redemption.

Uh, in the midst of bad day after bad day.

Cool.

So again, like I said, the theme
for today is God's presence,

even in life's unexpected turns.

And if that's true of Joseph's life.

Uh, maybe his example can help us
believe that that's true in our life,

in our unexpected terms as well.

Cool.

So Father, will you, uh, meet us and
will the example of Joseph be not just a

story that even some of us know or heard
in a kid's bible or that kind of stuff?

What do you use your word to, uh,
shape and form your people in 2025,

just as you did in Genesis 37 on.

It's in your son's name.

Amen.

There's a lot of stories in Genesis
that go over multiple chapters.

Joseph's story, 13 chapters
long in the book of Genesis.

So today we're gonna do the first
three or four chapters and just

kind of hit some highlights.

Um, here's, here's the backstory.

If you're unfamiliar, Joseph was the
second youngest of 12 sons born to Jacob.

Jacob's name is also Israel.

So you've heard of the 12 Tribes
of Israel, the 12 Sons of Israel.

Joseph's the second youngest of those.

Uh, if you remember before we took a
little bit of a summer break from Genesis.

Um, this is this massively broken family.

There's infighting, there's
shared wives, there's strife.

It's, it's a mess.

And also this family, Israel's family
is, Jacob's family is the recipient

of a unique covenant with God.

And so even before Joseph, there's
this tension in Genesis, there's

this tension in this family.

God is good.

He's a covenant maker.

He is a promise maker, and life
is hard and people are messy.

Both things are true.

There's this tension we already see God's
faithfulness to Jacob and Leah and Rachel

and others, both as the brokenness around
them impacts them, and we see God's

faithful promises, even in and through
their own sin and their own brokenness.

So this tension already exists.

And so the story in Genesis picks up
just after Joseph's mother Rachel dies.

So if you're following along,
this is the first, uh, verses

I'm gonna read 'em for us though.

Genesis 37, 2 through four.

These are the generations of Jacob.

Joseph being 17 years old, was
pasturing the flock with his brothers.

He was a boy with the
sons of Bil Ha and Zpa.

So his, his father's, two of his
wives, and he had concubines.

Again, it's a messy thing.

Um.

Joseph brought a bad report
of them to their father.

Now, Israel loved Joseph more than
any of his other sons because he

was the son of his old age, and he
made for him a robe of many colors.

But when his brothers saw that their
FA father loved him more than all,

all the other brothers, they hated him
and could not speak peacefully to him.

You don't have to raise your hand, but
maybe you've had such a relationship

that it's hard just to even speak
kind words to that kind of person.

Um, so Joseph's Jacob's favorite.

Looks like he's a snitch.

His brothers don't like him.

They're jealous.

He gets this beautiful gift.

They don't like him more.

They're even more jealous.

And then to make matters worse, Joseph
has these two dreams, which spoiler

alert, we'll see in a couple weeks.

Both these dreams come true, but both
dreams break the family norms at the

time and make his brothers even more mad.

Makes his dad even mad.

Uh, verse five of Genesis 37, Joseph had a
dream and when he told it to his brothers,

they, what's it say, hated him even more.

So they, they were already not
able to speak to him, and now

they hate him more than that.

It's a lot of hate.

He said to them, here, this
dream I've dreamed behold we're

binding sheaths in the field.

And behold, my sheath arose and stood
upright and behold your sheaves gathered

around it and bowed down to the sheath.

Now again, put yourself in
the brother's shoes like, oh,

that's not gonna be helpful.

Little self-awareness
thing going on maybe.

And Joseph let's you hate me.

Let me, let me tell you how
you're gonna bow down before me.

That'll, that'll make this all better.

His brother, Sid, are you
indeed to reign over us?

Are you indeed to rule over us?

Again, spoiler alert, the answer's
gonna be yes, but they don't know that.

He doesn't know that at the point.

So they hated even more for
his dreams and his words.

Then he dreamed another dream and told his
brothers, 'cause that's a great idea, and

said, behold, I've dreamed another dream.

Behold the sun Moon in 11 stars
were bowing down to me and we told

it to his father and his brothers.

Even his father rebuked him and said to
him, what is this dream you have dreamed?

Shall I and your mother and
your brothers indeed come to bow

ourselves to the ground before you?

And his brothers were jealous
of him, but his father kept

the sane in his mind, right?

So this is likely a, a, a glimpse of a
pattern, a dynamic that's just going on.

It's probably not
isolated to these things.

This is, this is, this is
the family a dynamic here?

Life is hard, relationships
are hard, family is hard.

The brothers despise Joseph,
and eventually this opportunity

arises to solve their problem.

Genesis 37 verse 19,
they said to one another.

Here comes the dreamer.

Come now.

Let us kill him and throw
him into one of the pits.

Then we will say a fierce animal
has devoured him, and we will

see what becomes of his dreams.

That's ominous.

And the only reason they don't do that
is one of his brothers named Ruben.

Who, when he heard it, verse 21,
he rescued him out of their hands

saying, let us not take his life.

And Ruben said to them, shed no blood.

Throw him into this pit here in this
wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him

so that he might rescue him out of their
hands and restore him to his father.

So that looks like good news, and
maybe this is like a pure hearted,

just brotherly intentional.

Desire to, to, to, to, to protect Joseph.

Maybe though it's a way for Reuben to
try to earn his way back into his dad's

good graces, because we didn't focus a
lot on this, but a couple chapters back.

Um, and another example of family sin
and brokenness, uh, Reuben lay down

with one of his father's concubines.

There's a lot wrong with
that sentence, just for the

record, um, on a lot of levels.

And so he could be just trying to
do something to, to redeem that

relationship by his own power.

Again, whatever the reason, here's
why I wanted to pause there for a sec.

The author of Genesis weaves in
little glimpses of redemption

stories in Joseph's brothers.

Throughout this chapter and the ones
we'll look at in the next couple weeks.

So for whatever reason, Ruben's trying
to do something right here after

doing something very wrong previously.

Uh, Simeon will see in the next week, uh,
tries to, uh, to, to, to, to substitute

himself for his brother's release.

So this, this guy who's planning
to throw Joseph into a pit is gonna

have a little bit of a redemption
story that we'll see next week.

All of chapter 38 is a story
of Judah, who mistreats then

Impregnates his own daughter-in-law.

Again, there's a lot wrong with
this family, but then eventually

repents and we see Judah as
one who's in the line of Jesus.

He's the lion of Judah.

And so there's this mess and upswing
and mess and redemption and, and

the author of Genesis weaves these
little, little versions of that story

into this bigger story of Joseph.

There's redemption here.

And again, the theme in all of this
seems to be twofold, and I put this point

kind of in your outline, which again
feels really nerdy to say it like that.

Usually it just pops up
on a screen, but mm-hmm.

But this seems to be the point
of the story as the author

of Genesis is telling it.

Um, there's a tension that is true
in Joseph's story and there's a

tension that is true in our stories.

And the tension is this.

On one hand, brokenness and
suffering and even sin are very real.

And it is wrong and dishonest.

To ignore those things, to
downplay them, to just kind of

shove 'em under the rug and just
kind of go, ah, it's not that bad.

Like that's, that's disregarding the fact
that the world is not as it should be.

And Genesis one way back in January,
we saw how the world's supposed

to be, and none of those things
were supposed to be part of it.

Sin, brokenness, suffering.

And so they're real and
they're worth acknowledging.

They're worth naming.

They're worth even dwelling on.

And at the same time, God is
faithful to his promises, sin,

suffering, brokenness are real.

But at the same time, God
is faithful to his promises.

God is present.

God is at work all the time, even
in the midst and sometimes through.

That brokenness and sin and suffering,
is that a hard tension to hold?

It's really hard.

It's hard for me.

We also increasingly live in a world
that's either all this or all that.

So either the world is bad or God
is good and, and what Genesis has

invited us into before and in Joseph's
story overtly invites us into is

saying yes to both of those things.

It's worth acknowledging sin.

It's, I would say ungodly to deny
sin and suffering and brokenness,

and it's ungodly to deny that God is
good and working and doing something.

Even in the midst of it,
you feel the tension.

So back to Genesis.

Instead of killing Joseph because
of Ruben's advice, his brothers

beat him, take his coat and
throw him into his first pit.

It's really a dry, well, a dry cistern.

And then without knowing it,
without Reuben knowing it.

In verse 26, Judah says to his
brothers, again, this is the one who

will become the lineage of Jesus.

So this is not his most redeeming moment.

Judah says to his brothers,
what prophet is it to us?

If we kill our brother and conceal
his blood, come let us sell him to the

Ishmaelite and not let our hand be upon
him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.

Let's not kill him.

Let's just sell 'em guys.

He's one of our own.

Let's treat him.

Well, they're jerks.

Say they're jerks, right?

And his brothers listened to him.

So Midianite traders passed by and
they drew Joseph up and lifted him

out of the pit and sold him to the
Ishmael Lights for 20 shekels of

silver when they took Joseph to Egypt.

And with Joseph gone, the brothers fake
his death and lie to Jacob, who at the

end of Genesis 37 says, tore his garments
and put on sackcloth on his loin.

Put sackcloth over his loins and
mourned for many days for his.

God, all his sons and daughters rose
up to comfort him and he refused to be

comforted saying, no, I shall go down to
she, which is Hebrew place of the dead.

I'll go to the place of the dead
to my son, mourning when I die.

I will die in mourning.

And his father wept for him.

His father wept for him.

Um.

In Jacob, we get a, we get a real
glimpse of how to respond to sin and

brokenness and suffering and pain.

It's right to grieve.

We don't do a lot of sackcloth anymore,
but we, we could lament, which we

also don't do well, we said before,
lament is, is bringing to the king of a

kingdom, something that's wrong with the
kingdom and saying, we can't fix this.

King, you, you need to fix this.

Complaining is just catharsis.

Getting it out there.

Venting, but, but grief is sitting
and going, this should not be.

And Lament is saying, I
can't do anything about this.

God, would you help me?

It's one of the prayers we
talked about from the Psalms.

He wept for him.

We live in a world that
says weeping is not okay.

It's weakness.

But in Jacob, we see a right response
to, to the very real suffering and

brokenness and sin in the world.

Are you willing to sit in your sadness?

You don't have to answer that.

Or do you feel like you gotta
get as quick as you can?

Back to happy face, put on the facade.

Look good for those around you.

Maybe even just convince
yourself you're okay.

Are you willing to sit in your sadness?

Are you willing to.

Maybe even imperfectly, comfort
others in their sadness,

or does it make you uncomfortable?

So you just give 'em the awkward
pat on the back and throw some verse

at 'em and tell 'em it's gonna be
okay so that you can kind of be

like, ah, I did my Christian duty.

I'm out.

So on one hand, Jacob gives us an example
of what to do in brokenness and sadness.

And pain and suffering.

And on the other hand, because this
tension is always real, while Jacob

is grieving and feeling hopeless,
God is at work because y'all, that's

the point all the time in every
circumstance, in the best of days and

the worst of days, it's a both and.

Life is hard and God is at work.

We see this overtly in verse 36, and the,
the, the author Genesis brings this out.

He says, Jacob is grieving, and
meanwhile, like at the same time as

his father is saying, I'm gonna go
to the place of the dead mourning.

Meanwhile, the mid Midianites had sold
him to Egypt and Potiphar, an officer

of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard.

And God is not just gonna sustain Joseph.

He's gonna bless Joseph and
Joseph is going to thrive

in this new unexpected life.

Uh, verse 39 starts like this.

The Lord was with Joseph.

That's the.

The Lord was with Joseph.

God is present even in
our unexpected turns.

Life's unexpected turns.

The Lord was with Joseph and he
became a successful man and he was

in the house of his Egyptian masters.

Master saw that the Lord was
with him, God's presence even

in our unexpected turns, and
the Lord caused all that he did.

To succeed in his hands.

And so Joseph found favor in the
sight of Potiphar and attended him.

And Potiphar made him overseer
of his house and put him in

charge of all that he had.

And from the time that he made him
overseer of his house and overall

that he had the Lord blessed the
Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake.

And the blessing of the Lord is on
all that he had in house and field.

And so Potiphar left all that
he had in Joseph's charge.

And because of him, he had no
concern about anything but what

he wanted for dinner basically.

But with the food he ate and also Joseph
was handsome in form an appearance.

So there we go.

Jacob's grieving.

God is at work.

Joseph's in a land that's not his
own and God is causing him to thrive.

Imagine this roller.

We can't, we can't imagine
this rollercoaster.

I was gonna say, imagine
the rollercoaster.

We can't, none of us have been
in that exact situation, but

we've been in hard situations.

That have felt like the lowest
of lows, and then all of a sudden

we find ourselves at some what
feels like the highest of highs.

Like that feels like whiplash.

That's a rollercoaster.

Joseph literally went from the,
from, from a hard day to a high day,

from, from a, from a pit, literal
pit to a place of immense power,

and it seems like all is good.

Again.

Joseph seems to overcome his bad days.

He's on top, but like all of us.

There's this other pit just
waiting beyond the horizon.

Long story short, pot of her's
wife tries to seduce Joseph.

Joseph refuses Potiphar's wife frames
him, and then she gets real jealous that

he didn't want to do anything with her.

And so verse uh, 19, as soon as the master
heard the words that his wife spoke,

this is the way your servant treated me.

His anger was kindled
and his master took him.

And put him into the prison.

The place where the pr uh, where
the king's prisoners were confined

and he was there in prison.

Prisons in the ancient near East were
not citadels with large barbed wire

fences, you know, where they were.

Caves.

Caves.

So Joseph's finding himself
in a second literal pet.

Bless you.

Thank you.

So this is the worst.

Bad day.

Maybe, maybe not worse in a literal
sense of you just got sold by your

brothers for 20 shekels of silver.

But, but like Joseph did
all the right things.

He, he stood with integrity.

He did not engage sin,
he resisted temptation.

And yet still here he is

in a second pit.

And yet.

Because this tension is real all the time.

Even in the pit of prison, Genesis's
author overtly spotlights again,

the point we're making today, the
beginning of verse 21 says, what?

But the Lord was with Joseph.

The Lord is with Joseph, because
God is present even in the worst of

unexpected turns, and God is at work.

I don't know if you'll believe me on this.

There are some days where it feels
hard for anyone to believe this,

but God is with you in whatever
form of grief you're experiencing.

God is with you in whatever form of
suffering it may be, and he doesn't

need to be comparative, minor
annoyance to somebody else's thing.

I think we do that game too of like,
well, this hurts, but somebody else,

somewhere else like there, it's suffering.

Suffering.

Anyone who's engaged some sort
of grief or death will tell you

like hard things or hard things.

So whatever version of that it is,
wherever you see it on the spectrum,

God is with you in your suffering.

And God is with you in your sin.

God is with you in your brokenness.

God is with you in your pain.

God is with you in your anxiety.

God is with you in your tears.

God is with you in the
mountains and the valleys.

God is with you in the pits
and the places of power.

God is with you in the best of times and
the worst of times, and I'm not gonna

ask if you believe that, 'cause there's
probably moments where we would say

yes and moments where we would say no.

And frankly, you know what?

It doesn't matter if you believe it or
not, because even in our inconsistencies,

God's presence is more constant, and
that's really good news, isn't it?

Even when we don't see it, when we don't
believe it, when we won't accept it, that

doesn't change the truth that God is with
you and he is not just present as if he's

just like sitting in the corner watching.

Swirling his wine.

Let's see what happens here.

Like that's not, that's not his presence.

He's at work.

Verse 21.

The Lord is with Joseph and showed
him steadfast love and gave him

favor in the sight of the keeper
of the prison and the keeper of the

prison put Joseph in charge of all
the prisoners who was in the prison.

Whatever was done there,
he was the one who did it.

The keeper of the prison paid
no attention to anything that

was in Joseph's charge because.

Again, the Lord was with him and whatever
he did, the Lord made it succeed.

This is Joseph's example to
us In every high positions of

power favored sun, pretty coat

chief over Potiphar's house chief over
all the prisoners and in every low.

Being jealous, being beat, being thrown
in a pit, having that pretty coat

stolen, being thrown in another pit.

Joseph remained constant in his
faithfulness to God, and God remained

constant in his faithfulness to Joseph.

And blessed.

So chapter 40 re repeats this
cycle again, for the sake of

time, we're gonna gonna skip that.

But Joseph interprets this dream.

Seems like a way out of his pit,
but then he gets forgotten again.

So again, the rollercoaster continues.

That's where we'll leave off
the story till next week.

But again, the point is like all of us,
Joseph, had good times and bad times,

hard days, and good days, best of times
and the worst of times, just like we do.

But maybe unlike.

All of us.

Joseph seems to trust God in all the highs
and all the lows, and God seems to meet

Joseph in all the highs and all the lows.

That's Joseph.

What about us?

Is this just a sweet story?

Is this just another empty platitude?

Um, we did, uh, camp was with me in
this, we did a, a bible study with some

neighborhood guys, uh, this past year.

And the guy who organized it by, by way
of having each of us introduce ourselves,

um, gave us 5, 5, 5 topics to talk about.

They all started with hs.

Um, what's your heritage?

A couple other things, but, but
what's your high time and hard time?

And for me, as I processed through that,
I was like, for me, those high times and

hard times were almost always intertwined.

There were almost always A leads to B.

Some of the, some of the
best times in my journey.

And again, I'm not attributing this
to you, I'm just telling you my story.

Um, some of the best times have
come out of some of the worst.

Um.

For 25 years of doing ministry, I've
always had some sort of second job as

one example, uh, in 2021, like a lot of
organizations were during COVID, myself

and some colleagues were downsized.

Um, and I was let go from that second job.

Um, and man, that rocked me.

Like I thought this was a great fit.

I, I, I felt shame around it.

If any been let go from a job or
broken up with or whatever, like

you, you get some sense of shame.

Somebody doesn't want me, that
doesn't feel great, you know?

Um, and yet that started a
journey to start the organization

that we now get to lead.

Uh, and man, I, I love it.

Like I, I, I couldn't imagine doing
anything else, and yet we wouldn't

have even thought about it without
some sort of massive disruption.

God had to shake me loose for something,
for something better to come along.

Now again, is that the hardest thing
that anyone in the room has experienced?

Absolutely not.

But, but for me, that's a real example.

Um, not just me, I know, I
know multiple sets of parents.

I wanna be very delicate here,
but I wanna be very honest here.

Um, who have at some point embraced
or accepted that God gave them a

miscarriage when they meet a future
baby who they wouldn't have had, had

this first baby been born and healthy.

And is that a hard, ridiculously
sensitive thing to talk about?

Yeah.

But at the same time.

Again, more than one family
I've had this conversation with.

And they've come to this place of
accepting God's timing and accepting

God's plan for their family.

And even though they carry this overt
devastation, 'cause again, it's never

only this or only this, they're able
to accept that God had something

different than even the lowest of lows.

I have another friend who grew up
in, in the US but was never legal.

Um, and several years ago when
the government started looking

for people that fit his category,
uh, he left for Latin America.

Um, it was his choice to leave, kind of
looking at what was very likely coming for

his family, but it was impossibly hard.

Um, he now lives in his home country,
but a country he had never even visited.

Growing up, uh, his wife
and kids had never even.

Been there

and yet God used him to start a
church and then a network of churches.

And there are dozens of people who
have been saved and redeemed because

he's living not by his specific
preference in a country that he

doesn't feel like he belongs in.

And, and I wanna be very clear,
those are three specific stories.

I don't think the exact same
principle applies to everyone who's

walked through a similar situation.

That's, I'm not trying to like make
this a principle that if this is

you, you have to follow this or
accept it or this kind of stuff.

I'm not, not saying that this is three
specific stories, but there are also three

real life examples of people whose stories
echo some version of Joseph's story.

In the 20 teens and 2020s North
Texas and Latin American contexts.

And in each of those stories, and,
and if you were honest, you could tell

your own version of that story, maybe
some of you dozens of times over.

And each, in each of these
stories, in each of these

examples, there's these two sides.

There's something that is
legitimately really hard.

And we've gotta learn how
to talk about those things.

If, if we don't know how to talk
about hard things, y'all, we

negate the need for God's comfort.

We're pretending like
we're self-sufficient.

We're pretending like we don't need God.

One of the titles of the
Holy Spirit is comforter.

And if we never need comfort,
we're saying We don't need you.

God, one of the roles of the church is to
bury each other's burdens if we're never

willing to admit that things are hard.

We're not letting the
church be the church.

We're not letting community
come alongside us.

We've gotta be able to talk about hard
things and at the same time, in all of

your stories, all of your own examples
and situations like this, God is present.

He is keeping his promises.

He is working for his good and your good.

Both despite your hard times and
even through your hard times.

And to take it one step further
before we wrap up, if there are times

where God reveals some of his work
quickly, that's really kind of him.

Uh, there are times when God reveals some
of why he's doing what he's doing, why

he's letting you walk through what you're
walking through, but not till years later.

Spoiler alert, that's what's
gonna happen in Joseph's story.

He's gonna end, end Genesis by saying
what God, what man intended for evil.

God intended for good.

God's gonna show him some spotlight,
but at times we don't get any

record of why God does what he does.

The story of Job seems to end
without God ever circling up to Job

and going like, Hey, here's what
was going on under the surface.

So we'll come back to
to Joseph's story, but.

But we gotta say this today 'cause
I, we can't make any empty promises,

promises, promises in this.

Like you may never know why
God's doing what he's doing,

but even when Joseph famously declares
at the end of Genesis, what man intended

for evil, God intended for good,
like Joseph seems to get it there.

But y'all, at this point in his story,
he has no idea what God's up to.

He's trapped in a foreign country.

He's been sold as a slave, been
falsely accused, and we're leaving him

forgotten in prison until next Sunday.

Joseph had a lot of bad days, and
Joseph shows us what it looks like

to live faithfully in the unknowns
as if God's presence is true.

It is kinda that last
point on your outline.

Joseph shows us what it looks like
to live faithfully in the unknowns

as if God's presence is true.

God's promises are true.

God is who he says he is.

Even if Joseph can't see it, he's choosing
to live into that and maybe that's

the invitation for a lot of us today.

Like until, or unless God shows us
why he's doing some of what he's doing

or takes us a different direction
or reveals some of his work, then

whatever hardships, whatever suffering,
whatever bad days, whatever unknowns

we face, maybe the invitation is, can
you live as if God's presence is real

and his promises are true and he's
at work, even if you don't get it.

In your unknowns, in your
bad days, in your unexpected

turns, can you live faithfully?

And it seems like there's an obvious right
answer to that question, but also one

that feels impossible and guilt provoking.

So I wanna give, I wanna
let you off the hook.

If we were to honestly answer
that question, can we live

faithfully to God by our own power?

The answer is no.

Not every day.

At least I can't do it.

I can't conjure up that kind
of faith, neither can you.

And so I don't wanna make you again,
pretend like everything's great.

Not all the time, not by our power.

But thankfully, God
did not leave us alone.

God does not ask us to do
things He does not empower us.

For, as mentioned, one of the titles
of the Holy Spirit is comforter.

Another title of the
Holy Spirit is helper.

The Bible promises over and over
and over again that God is literally

present with you all the time.

Even as the famous Psalm says,
in the valley of the shadow of

death, God's not asking you.

Get back to the mountain.

Then I'll be waiting for you up there.

Clamor your way back to the top.

Make, make yourself better,
and then we can keep walking.

That's not it.

In the valley of the shadow of death,
your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

In the lowest of pits, in the
worst of days, you are not alone.

And whether you believe that or
not, whether you trust that or not,

whether you turn to God or not,
it is a promise and it is true.

I wanna look each other you in the eye.

God is with you.

God is with you.

And part of the spirit's role in
those high days and those hard

days is to point you to Jesus.

Um, Jesus who promises in
the book of Hebrews, never

to leave you or forsake you.

That's who the spirit points us to
Jesus, who in First Corinthians Paul

tells us, faced every temptation
known to humanity, including the

temptation to deny God, to ignore
God, to walk through hard times alone.

That's who the spirit
points us to Jesus through.

Again, back to Hebrews, knows every
weakness that you will face and is

interceding and praying for you as a
good priest before God, the Father,

that's who this Holy Spirit points us to,

and Jesus who like you, suffered
and was despised and was rejected

and was mocked, and was beaten.

And it was sinned against
and on and on and on.

That's who the spirit points us to.

There's a lot more parallels
between Jesus and Joseph.

Jesus was stripped of his own clothes
as well, but rather than being

dipped in the blood of a goat, it
was his own blood that was shed.

Joseph's dad thought that Joseph was
dead, and yet Jesus truly was dead.

But he didn't stay dead.

Jesus' life like Joseph
was full of bad days.

The night before he died, Jesus
even felt forsaken by his father.

He was abandoned by his friends.

And yet even more than Joseph, 'cause
Joseph's imperfect, even more than Joseph.

Jesus remained perfectly faithful,
trusted God The father acknowledged

God's presence, even his ability to pray.

Maybe this is for you.

Even your ability to pray is an
acknowledgement that God is with you.