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Flourishing Amid Tragedy- Minister Max Lucado · Max Lucado Daily Sermons

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  Speaker 1: Hello friends, I'm Max Locato. Welcome to Fresh Hope. I'm
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  Speaker 1: so glad you've joined me. I've always been inspired by
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  Speaker 1: the story of Joseph as told in the book of Genesis.
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  Speaker 1: You might remember he was betrayed by his brothers. He
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  Speaker 1: was sold into slavery. He was wrongfully imprisoned.
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  Speaker 2: He was forgotten. He was dismissed.
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  Speaker 1: On his darkest days, Joseph must have thought that the
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  Speaker 1: sun would never.
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  Speaker 2: Shine again and his life was over.
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  Speaker 1: But God had other plans, and he used Joseph's hardships
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  Speaker 1: for a greater purpose. I invite you to join me
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  Speaker 1: for a four-part series based on my book, You'll Get
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  Speaker 1: Through This.
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  Speaker 2: Be encouraged, friend.
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  Speaker 1: I look forward to sharing some fresh hope with you.
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  Speaker 1: A few years ago, I ran into a member of
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  Speaker 1: our congregation at the grocery store. I hadn't seen her
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  Speaker 1: in several months. I asked her about her kids, about
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  Speaker 1: her husband. And when I did, her eyes watered and
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  Speaker 1: the story spilled out. He had left her after 20
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  Speaker 1: years of marriage. She did her best to maintain her composure,
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  Speaker 1: but couldn't. And the produce section became a sanctuary of sorts,
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  Speaker 1: and we prayed. After the prayer, I said, you know,
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  Speaker 1: you'll get through this.
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  Speaker 2: It won't be painless. It won't be quick.
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  Speaker 1: But God will use this mess for good. In the meantime,
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  Speaker 1: don't be foolish or naive, but don't despair either. because
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  Speaker 1: with God's help, you'll get through this. Two days later,
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  Speaker 1: a friend called. He had just been fired. The dismissal
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  Speaker 1: was his fault, and now he's a 57-year-old unemployed manager
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  Speaker 1: in a rotten economy, and he needed assurance, and so
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  Speaker 1: I gave it. You'll get through this, I told him.
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  Speaker 1: It won't be painless, won't be quick, but God will
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  Speaker 1: use this mess for good. Now, don't be foolish or
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  Speaker 1: naive But don't despair either. With God's help, you'll get
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  Speaker 1: through this. Audacious of me, right? I mean, where did
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  Speaker 1: I get the nerve to speak such a promise? In
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  Speaker 1: a pit, actually. A deep, dark pit. Our story begins
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  Speaker 1: in Genesis chapter 37 and verses 23 through 25. And
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  Speaker 1: so it came to pass, when Joseph had come to
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  Speaker 1: his brothers, that they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the
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  Speaker 1: tunic of many colors that was on him. Then they
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  Speaker 1: took him and cast him into a pit. And the
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  Speaker 1: pit was empty. There was no water in it. And
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  Speaker 1: they sat down to eat a meal. It's an abandoned cistern.
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  Speaker 1: The 17-year-old boy lies at the bottom. His voice is
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  Speaker 1: hoarse from screaming. It's not that his brothers don't hear him.
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  Speaker 1: Twenty years from now, when a famine has tamed their
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  Speaker 1: swagger and guilt has dampened their pride, they will confess.
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  Speaker 1: We saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded
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  Speaker 1: with us, and we would not hear. Genesis 42, 21.
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  Speaker 1: These are the great-grandsons of Abraham, the sons of Jacob.
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  Speaker 1: The name of Jesus will appear on their family tree.
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  Speaker 1: They are scriptures equivalent to royalty, yet today they are
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  Speaker 1: the Bronze Age version of a dysfunctional family.
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  Speaker 2: They despise the boy.
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  Speaker 1: Genesis 37 says they hated him and could not speak
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  Speaker 1: peaceably to him. They hated him even more. They hated him.
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  Speaker 1: His brothers envied him. That's verses 4 through 5, 8.
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  Speaker 2: And 11. Now, why?
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  Speaker 1: Well, their father pampered Joseph like a prized calf. You know,
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  Speaker 1: Jacob had two wives, Leah and Rachel, but he had
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  Speaker 1: one love, Rachel. And when Rachel died, Jacob kept her
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  Speaker 1: memory alive by fawning over their son. The brothers worked
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  Speaker 1: all day, and Joseph died. played all day. They wore
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  Speaker 1: clothes from a second-hand store, and Jacob gave Joseph a hand-stitched,
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  Speaker 1: multi-colored cloak. Jacob treated the 11th born like a firstborn,
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  Speaker 1: and the brothers spat at the sight of Joseph. They
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  Speaker 1: caught him far from home, 50 miles away from daddy's protection.
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  Speaker 1: Verses 23 through 25. They stripped Joseph of his tunic.
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  Speaker 1: They took him and cast him into a pit. Those
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  Speaker 1: are defiant verbs.
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  Speaker 2: Stripped, took, cast.
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  Speaker 1: They wanted not only to kill Joseph, but to hide
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  Speaker 1: the body. Verse 20 says, We shall say some wild
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  Speaker 1: beast has devoured him. Joseph didn't see this assault coming.
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  Speaker 1: The attack caught him off guard. So did yours. Joseph's
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  Speaker 1: pit was a cistern. Yours was a diagnosis, a foster home,
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  Speaker 1: a traumatic injury. Joseph was thrown into a hole and despised.
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  Speaker 1: You were thrown into an unemployment line and forgotten, into
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  Speaker 1: a divorce and betrayed.
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  Speaker 2: The pit.
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  Speaker 1: Joseph's story got worse before it got better. Abandonment led
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  Speaker 1: to enslavement, entrapment, and imprisonment. yet he never gave up.
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  Speaker 1: Bitterness never staked its claim. He not only survived, he thrived.
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  Speaker 1: An Egyptian official promoted him to chief servant. The prison
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  Speaker 1: warden placed Joseph over the inmates, and Pharaoh, the highest
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  Speaker 1: ruler on the planet, chose Joseph to serve as his
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  Speaker 1: prime minister. By the end of his life, Joseph, the
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  Speaker 1: boy in the pit, was the second most powerful man
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  Speaker 1: of his generation, and it's not exaggeration to say he
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  Speaker 1: saved the world from starvation. Now, how did he flourish
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  Speaker 1: amid such tragedy? Well, some 40 years later, the roles
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  Speaker 1: were reversed. Joseph, the strong one, and his brothers, the
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  Speaker 1: weak ones. And they came to him in dread, and
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  Speaker 1: they feared he would throw them into a pit of
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  Speaker 1: his own making.
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  Speaker 2: But Joseph didn't.
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  Speaker 1: And in his explanation, we find his inspiration, Genesis 50
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  Speaker 1: and verse 20. As for you, you meant evil against me,
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  Speaker 1: but God meant it for good in order to bring
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  Speaker 1: about this present result to preserve many people alive. In
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  Speaker 1: God's hands, intended evil becomes eventual good, Joseph held on
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  Speaker 1: to this promise. Nothing in his story glosses over the
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  Speaker 1: presence of evil, yet time and time again, God redeemed
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  Speaker 1: the pain. The torn robe became a royal one. The
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  Speaker 1: pit became a palace. The broken family grew old together.
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  Speaker 1: The axe intended to destroy God's servant strengthened him. When
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  Speaker 1: Joseph said, you meant evil against me, he used a
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  Speaker 1: Hebrew verb, which traces its meaning to weave or plait.
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  Speaker 1: It's like he was saying, you wove evil, but God
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  Speaker 1: rewove it together for good. God, the master weaver, he
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  Speaker 1: stretches the yarn and intertwines the colors, the pains with
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  Speaker 1: the pleasures. He passes the shuttle back and forth. Satan
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  Speaker 1: weaves and but our good God reweaves and God, the
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  Speaker 1: master builder. This is the meaning behind Joseph's words. God
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  Speaker 1: meant it for good in order to bring about. The
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  Speaker 1: Hebrew word for bring about is a construction term. It
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  Speaker 1: describes a building project like the one I drive through
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  Speaker 1: every morning. The state of Texas is rebuilding a highway
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  Speaker 1: overpass near my house. and three lanes have been reduced
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  Speaker 1: to one. The interstate project, like human history, has been
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  Speaker 1: in development since before time began. Workers hold signs and shovels,
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  Speaker 1: and several million of us grumble.
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  Speaker 2: Well, at least I do.
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  Speaker 1: My next-door neighbors have a different attitude. The husband and
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  Speaker 1: his wife are highway engineers working and consultants to the
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  Speaker 1: Department of Transportation. They endure the same traffic jams as
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  Speaker 1: the rest of us, but they do so with a
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  Speaker 1: better attitude. Why? They know how these projects develop.
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  Speaker 2: They've actually seen the plans.
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  Speaker 1: By giving us stories like Joseph's, God allows us to
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  Speaker 1: study his plans. Brother dumping brother, famines and family feuds
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  Speaker 1: scattered about like nails and cement bags on a vacant lot.
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  Speaker 1: Satan's logic was sinister. Destroy the family of Abraham and
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  Speaker 1: destroy his seed, Jesus Christ. But the master builder cleared
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  Speaker 1: the debris until the Chaos of Genesis 37, 24, they
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  Speaker 1: cast him into a pit, became the triumph of Genesis 50, 20,
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  Speaker 1: life for many people. God is master weaver, master builder.
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  Speaker 1: He redeemed the story of Joseph. Can't he redeem your
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  Speaker 1: story too? Isn't this the promise of Romans 8, 28?
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  Speaker 1: And we know that in all things, God works for
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  Speaker 1: the good of those who love him, who have been
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  Speaker 1: called according to his purpose. God promises to render beauty
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  Speaker 1: out of all things, not each thing. Now, the isolated
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  Speaker 1: events may be evil, but the ultimate culmination is good.
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  Speaker 1: We see small examples of this in our own lives.
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  Speaker 1: You know, when you sip on a cup of coffee
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  Speaker 1: and say, oh, that's good.
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  Speaker 2: What are you saying?
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  Speaker 1: The plastic bag that contains the beans are good? The
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  Speaker 1: beans themselves are good? Hot water is good? A coffee
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  Speaker 1: filter is good?
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  Speaker 2: No, none of these.
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  Speaker 1: Good happens when the ingredients are worked together. The bag opened.
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  Speaker 1: The beans ground into powder. Water heated to the right temperature.
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  Speaker 1: It is the collective cooperation. of the elements that creates good.
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  Speaker 1: Now nothing in the Bible would cause us to call
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  Speaker 1: a famine good, or a heart attack good, or a
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  Speaker 1: terrorist attack good. These are terrible calamities, all born out
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  Speaker 1: of a fallen earth. Yet every message in the Bible,
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  Speaker 1: especially the story of Joseph, compels us to believe that
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  Speaker 1: God will mix them with other ingredients and bring.
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  Speaker 2: Good out of them.
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  Speaker 1: You'll get through this. You fear you won't. We all do.
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  Speaker 2: Will we ever exit this pit?
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  Speaker 3: Yes.
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  Speaker 1: God gets us through stuff, through the Red Sea onto
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  Speaker 1: dry ground, through the wilderness, through is a favorite word
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  Speaker 1: of God's. Isaiah 43, 2 says, when you pass through
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  Speaker 1: the waters, I will be with you. And through the rivers,
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  Speaker 1: they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire,
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  Speaker 1: you shall not be burned. It won't be painless. Does
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  Speaker 1: God guarantee the absence of struggle? Not in this life.
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  Speaker 1: But he does pledge to reweave your pain for a
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  Speaker 1: higher purpose. It won't be quick. You know, Joseph was
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  Speaker 1: 17 years old when his brothers abandoned him. He was
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  Speaker 1: 37 when he saw them again. How long will God
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  Speaker 1: take with you? He may take his time. His history
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  Speaker 1: is redeemed not in minutes, but in lifetimes. But God
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  Speaker 1: will use your mess for good. We see a perfect mess.
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  Speaker 1: God sees a perfect chance to train, test, and teach.
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  Speaker 1: the future prime minister. We call it Egypt, but God
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  Speaker 1: calls it protective custody where the sons of Jacob can
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  Speaker 1: escape Canaan and multiply in peaceful abundance for four centuries.
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  Speaker 1: We see Satan's ploys, but God sees Satan tripped and foiled. Friend,
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  Speaker 1: you are a version of Joseph in your generation. You
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  Speaker 1: represent a challenge that to Satan's plan. And you carry
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  Speaker 1: something of God within you, something the world needs. If
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  Speaker 1: Satan can neutralize you, he can mute your influence. The
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  Speaker 1: story of Joseph is in the Bible for this reason,
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  Speaker 1: to teach us to trust God to trump evil. What
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  Speaker 1: Satan intends for evil, God, the master weaver and master builder,
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  Speaker 1: redeems for good. Life in the pit stinks, yet for
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  Speaker 1: all its rottenness, doesn't the pit do this much?
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  Speaker 2: It forces us to look upward.
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  Speaker 1: Someone from up there must come down here and give
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  Speaker 1: us a hand. God did it for Joseph. He will
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  Speaker 1: do it for you. Until next time, remember, you will
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  Speaker 1: get through this.
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  Speaker 3: You don't have to stay close, as long as you're
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  Speaker 3: somewhere out there, that's enough for me.
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  Speaker 4: I don't need to hold you near me, don't need
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  Speaker 4: promises to keep.
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  Speaker 5: Just the thought that you are breathing Somewhere in this
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  Speaker 5: world I see Even if I'm not beside you Even
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  Speaker 5: if you never know.
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  Speaker 6: There's a quiet kind of comfort Just in knowing you
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  Speaker 6: still glow.
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  Speaker 3: I don't need forever I just need you to exist.
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  Speaker 6: You don't have to stay with me.
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  Speaker 7: You don't have to feel the same.
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  Speaker 2: Just as long as.
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  Speaker 6: You're still out there calling softly through my days. You
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  Speaker 6: don't have to look my way. You don't have to
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  Speaker 6: be my home. It's enough to know you're living in
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  Speaker 6: a world I'm not alone.
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  Speaker 2: I won't chase you through the distance.
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  Speaker 6: Won't disturb your chosen life. I'll just keep you in
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  Speaker 6: my silence like a star that shines at night.
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  Speaker 3: Through the dark and through the blue.
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  Speaker 7: I still think of you. You don't have to be
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  Speaker 7: my home.
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  Speaker 5: It's enough to know you're living. I don't need to
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  Speaker 5: be your light I don't need to cross your mind All.
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  Speaker 6: I need is just the truth That you're somewhere Still alive.
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  Speaker 4: You don't have to stay with me You don't have
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  Speaker 4: to feel the same Just as long as you're still
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  Speaker 4: out there Calling softly through my days You don't have
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  Speaker 4: to look my way You don't have.
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  Speaker 6: To be my home It's enough to.
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  Speaker 4: Know you're living
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  Speaker 1: In a world I'm not alone.