Latest / Max Lucado Daily Sermons / Trust God. No, Really Trust Him- Minister Max Lucado
Transcript
- 0:04Speaker 1: Well, good morning, everybody, and a special greeting to all
- 0:07Speaker 1: of you who are watching online from around the world.
- 0:09Speaker 1: We're so grateful that you tuned in. We've been studying
- 0:13Speaker 1: through the life of Joseph, and actually today is the
- 0:16Speaker 1: last of 17 messages on the life of Joseph. It's
- 0:21Speaker 1: one of those series, however, that I wish we could
- 0:23Speaker 1: go back and start all over again and just cover
- 0:26Speaker 1: the material that we had to skip. His life is
- 0:29Speaker 1: so full, so layered with lessons and hope. But we
- 0:33Speaker 1: have to bring it to a close at some point.
- 0:36Speaker 1: And so today we'll do just that. If you happen
- 0:39Speaker 1: to be upon this series or this worship service the
- 0:43Speaker 1: first time, we're going to do a little summary in
- 0:45Speaker 1: just a moment so that you'll be able to review
- 0:47Speaker 1: the life of Joseph with us. We're going to look
- 0:50Speaker 1: at a passage in Genesis chapter 50, verse 20. No
- 0:54Speaker 1: outline today. We're just focusing on that one singular passage.
- 0:59Speaker 1: We'll be looking at it in just a moment. Two
- 1:01Speaker 1: or three announcements before I begin. You know, preaching is
- 1:05Speaker 1: more of an art than it is a science. And
- 1:08Speaker 1: so we're always looking, how can we improve our sermon series?
- 1:12Speaker 1: I know that's Randy's heart, the messages that come from
- 1:15Speaker 1: our campus ministers, and then my messages as well. We're wondering,
- 1:19Speaker 1: what is the best way to present sermon series? At
- 1:22Speaker 1: the end of this particular sermon series, we thought it'd
- 1:25Speaker 1: be good for you, if you don't mind, to give
- 1:27Speaker 1: us your feedback. And so if you would notice on
- 1:31Speaker 1: your handout, at the bottom of the handout, there is
- 1:34Speaker 1: a link that you, when you get home, you can
- 1:37Speaker 1: get online and you can follow that link. And that
- 1:40Speaker 1: will take you to a place where you can sign
- 1:42Speaker 1: up and receive a special email that will have a survey.
- 1:46Speaker 1: And you'll receive that later in the week. I'd love
- 1:48Speaker 1: your feedback if you don't mind. Just tell us what
- 1:51Speaker 1: you thought of this sermon series. Give us your feedback.
- 1:54Speaker 1: Fill out that survey and you'll be shown how to
- 1:57Speaker 1: return it to the church. Also, or if it's easier
- 2:00Speaker 1: for you, you can just go to the Oak Hills
- 2:02Speaker 1: Church Facebook page, and there you can sign up for
- 2:05Speaker 1: the email list to receive the survey. Next week you'll
- 2:09Speaker 1: receive it, and appreciate your willingness, if you don't mind,
- 2:13Speaker 1: to take a few minutes and fill that out. If
- 2:15Speaker 1: you've been here during the series, you notice that we
- 2:19Speaker 1: took all the junk off the stage. Since January, we've
- 2:23Speaker 1: had this place just full of junk, symbolic of a
- 2:25Speaker 1: lot of the junk we find ourselves in, but it
- 2:28Speaker 1: is appropriate as we wrap this up, to say God
- 2:31Speaker 1: will clean that out.
- 2:32Speaker 2: He does.
- 2:33Speaker 1: That's his job. He comes in and he cleans out
- 2:35Speaker 1: the mess of our lives. So it's good to have
- 2:37Speaker 1: a clean stage. And also, thanks for all the feedback
- 2:41Speaker 1: about last week's country song.
- 2:50Speaker 2: You'll be glad to know we've had 5,000 hits today.
- 2:55Speaker 1: Not songs, but hits of YouTube on that song from
- 2:59Speaker 1: 61 different countries. So we're going to be loading up
- 3:03Speaker 1: this bus and we're taking off here pretty soon. Far
- 3:07Speaker 1: from that. This series has had a statement of faith
- 3:10Speaker 1: with it. We'd like to invite you now to fill
- 3:12Speaker 1: your lungs with air and your hearts with hope. Let's
- 3:15Speaker 1: state it one more time together, shall we? By God's power,
- 3:20Speaker 1: I'll get through this. it's your help we need father
- 3:39Speaker 1: and so we turn to you now and ask your
- 3:41Speaker 1: blessings to please be upon each and every heart that
- 3:44Speaker 1: hears these words may the speaker soon be forgotten but
- 3:50Speaker 1: may your message be remembered forever Forgive the sins of
- 3:53Speaker 1: the one who speaks. Grant that we can see Jesus, please.
- 3:57Speaker 1: Through him we pray. And all God's people said. If
- 4:03Speaker 1: a father of the century award exists, I'd like to
- 4:07Speaker 1: nominate Patrick John Hughes. Patrick John Hughes is the old
- 4:12Speaker 1: man in the Louisville Cardinal Marching Band. You can't miss him.
- 4:21Speaker 1: Everyone else is college age. He's middle-aged. Everyone else wears
- 4:26Speaker 1: a band uniform. He wears a windbreaker and a toboggan.
- 4:31Speaker 1: Everyone else plays an instrument, but Patrick John Hughes pushes
- 4:35Speaker 1: a wheelchair. The wheelchair contains his son, Patrick Henry Hughes,
- 4:46Speaker 1: a blind, handicapped, musical genius. Young Patrick was born on
- 4:54Speaker 1: March the 10th, 1988. The moment he entered the world,
- 4:59Speaker 1: the good news became bad. The doctors quickly realized that
- 5:03Speaker 1: his arms and his legs would not straighten and his eyes, well.
- 5:09Speaker 2: He was born without them.
- 5:13Speaker 1: The older Patrick was shell-shocked. He had these dreams of
- 5:16Speaker 1: raising a son. He had already envisioned turning his backyard
- 5:20Speaker 1: into a baseball diamond. He had it all mapped out
- 5:23Speaker 1: and he could see how he and his son were
- 5:25Speaker 1: going to spend all those summers playing catch, hitting pop flies.
- 5:32Speaker 1: But now, young Patrick later wrote these words. He said,
- 5:38Speaker 1: on the day I was born, you might say I
- 5:40Speaker 1: arrived carrying... a bag of lemons.
- 5:45Speaker 2: I think my.
- 5:46Speaker 1: Family would have preferred oranges but you can't turn lemons
- 5:51Speaker 1: into oranges no matter how hard you try but mom
- 5:55Speaker 1: and dad have taught me you have to hang in
- 5:58Speaker 1: there and once you do you discover that lemons are
- 6:02Speaker 1: pretty cool they hung in there all right the father
- 6:08Speaker 1: noticed that he could calm his infant son by placing
- 6:11Speaker 1: him on top of the piano as he played. There
- 6:14Speaker 1: was something about the music that soothed the soul of
- 6:18Speaker 1: his boy. By nine months, young Patrick was tapping the keys.
- 6:26Speaker 1: By two years of age, he was taking requests. In
- 6:30Speaker 1: elementary school, he played concerts. In high school, he was
- 6:35Speaker 1: Allstate band and chorus. And he graduated with a 3.0.
- 6:42Speaker 1: By the time he arrived at the University of Louisville,
- 6:45Speaker 1: his music and trumpeting skills were well known. The band
- 6:49Speaker 1: director invited him to join the marching band. A wheelchair
- 6:56Speaker 1: and a marching band? How would that work? Well, they
- 7:01Speaker 1: came up with a plan. They outfitted the wheelchair with
- 7:04Speaker 1: extra wide wheels. And they recruited the dad to be
- 7:09Speaker 1: the wheelchair pusher. They gave it a go one summer
- 7:12Speaker 1: at summer camp. They spent long summer days, 12 hours
- 7:16Speaker 1: a day, practicing with the marching band, ducking the tubas
- 7:20Speaker 1: and dashing to the right spot before they would wipe
- 7:23Speaker 1: out the entire wind section. He hasn't dumped me yet,
- 7:29Speaker 1: young Patrick smiled. And it appears he never will. Every
- 7:35Speaker 1: school day, the father pushes the son to class and
- 7:40Speaker 1: sits near him during the lectures. And he whispers anything
- 7:44Speaker 1: that's written on the blackboard. And then while the rest
- 7:48Speaker 1: of the family goes to bed, the father goes to
- 7:51Speaker 1: work the graveyard shift. And then he comes home at
- 7:55Speaker 1: 5 a.m., he sleeps a few hours, and then he
- 7:58Speaker 1: gets up and starts it all over again. But you
- 8:02Speaker 1: won't find this father complaining again.
- 8:05Speaker 2: Why us? He says.
- 8:07Speaker 1: We still say that. Only now we say, why us?
- 8:11Speaker 1: How did we get to be so lucky? Father of
- 8:16Speaker 1: the century. Now, if their story sounds familiar, it should.
- 8:22Speaker 1: Because you see, that's you and me in that wheelchair.
- 8:27Speaker 1: That's you and me. We're struggling with our limitations. That's
- 8:31Speaker 1: you and me in the dark. We're unable to see
- 8:34Speaker 1: into the future. That's you and me born into the world.
- 8:37Speaker 1: With less than our heavenly father intended. Yet that force
- 8:43Speaker 1: we feel behind us. That guiding hand. That directing strength.
- 8:49Speaker 1: That's our heavenly father. Our own personal version of Patrick
- 8:54Speaker 1: Henry Hughes. He shoves us. He pulls us.
- 8:59Speaker 2: He guides us. He pushes us.
- 9:03Speaker 1: He's even been known to turn on a dime and
- 9:05Speaker 1: pop a wheelie or two. Sometimes we feel like we're
- 9:08Speaker 1: going to get dumped out, but he hasn't dumped us
- 9:11Speaker 1: out yet.
- 9:12Speaker 2: He leads with a sure hand.
- 9:15Speaker 1: This is the reoccurring and reassuring message of the story
- 9:20Speaker 1: of Joseph. And that is that we may not know
- 9:24Speaker 1: where we're going. We know someone does and he has
- 9:27Speaker 1: his hand on us. The classic story of Joseph is
- 9:30Speaker 1: the story of a boy who started off his story
- 9:33Speaker 1: in a pit, but he ended up in a palace
- 9:36Speaker 1: because he learned to trust the guiding hand of God.
- 9:41Speaker 1: If you don't know the story, I've got a wonderful
- 9:43Speaker 1: way to summarize it for you. One of our families
- 9:46Speaker 1: here at Oak Hills, Kevin and Sarah Thompson, have four sons.
- 9:51Speaker 1: And during the presentations of the Joseph sermons, they decided
- 9:54Speaker 1: they would create a family version of the Joseph story.
- 9:58Speaker 1: And rather than call it Joseph, in the coat of
- 10:01Speaker 1: many colors they named it Cooper and the Crocs of
- 10:05Speaker 1: many colors a contemporary rendition of the Joseph story and
- 10:12Speaker 1: it reads like this Cooper's dad loved Cooper very much
- 10:17Speaker 1: and One day he gave him a pair of colorful Crocs.
- 10:23Speaker 1: Cooper's brothers did not like Cooper or his Crocs very much.
- 10:31Speaker 1: They took his Crocs and pushed him down a trap
- 10:34Speaker 1: door and sent him to do chores at a neighbor's house.
- 10:40Speaker 2: The brothers showed the Crocs to their father.
- 10:43Speaker 1: They said, we found these, but we can't find Cooper.
- 10:48Speaker 1: Cooper's father was distraught. Cooper worked hard at the neighbor's house.
- 10:56Speaker 1: God was with him. One of Cooper's job was to
- 11:01Speaker 1: organize the pantry. He knew where all the food went.
- 11:06Speaker 1: Cooper's brothers became hungry, but they had no food. Their
- 11:11Speaker 1: father sent them to the neighbors to ask for food.
- 11:14Speaker 1: Cooper recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him.
- 11:20Speaker 1: Cooper asked them if they had another brother. Cooper told
- 11:24Speaker 1: them to go get him. The brothers asked their dad
- 11:27Speaker 1: if their little brother could go to the neighbor's house.
- 11:30Speaker 1: At first he said no, but then he said yes.
- 11:34Speaker 1: The brothers brought their little brother to Cooper. Cooper was
- 11:38Speaker 1: overcome with joy.
- 11:42Speaker 2: He told them who he was. He gave them all
- 11:44Speaker 2: big hugs.
- 11:45Speaker 1: And he said, you intended to harm me, but God
- 11:49Speaker 1: intended it for good. to accomplish what is now being done,
- 11:53Speaker 1: the saving of many lives.
- 11:57Speaker 2: Good job.
- 12:04Speaker 1: That's a creative version of the story, isn't it? I
- 12:09Speaker 1: don't think Joseph had Crocs though, did he? But he
- 12:12Speaker 1: did speak those words. In fact, some of the final
- 12:16Speaker 1: words recorded of Joseph's or those in which he spoke
- 12:20Speaker 1: to his brothers. Genesis 50 and verse 15 says that
- 12:25Speaker 1: when Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said,
- 12:29Speaker 1: what if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays
- 12:32Speaker 1: us back for all the wrongs we did to him?
- 12:34Speaker 1: Now remember, it's been 40 years since they sold him
- 12:37Speaker 1: into slavery.
- 12:39Speaker 2: 40 years.
- 12:41Speaker 1: They've been in Egypt now under Joseph's care for 17 years.
- 12:46Speaker 1: And during this time, they've not missed a single meal.
- 12:49Speaker 1: They've not experienced a single mistreatment. Joseph has quarantined and
- 12:54Speaker 1: protect them in the land of Goshen, where their families
- 12:57Speaker 1: have grown and developed. Finally, at the age of 147,
- 13:00Speaker 1: Jacob the patriarch died. And after the funeral of Jacob,
- 13:09Speaker 1: the brothers begin to panic and they decided we need
- 13:12Speaker 1: to talk to Joseph because what if he's only taking
- 13:15Speaker 1: care of us because of Jacob? And so they come
- 13:18Speaker 1: and they say, Dad told you to forgive us. Remember,
- 13:21Speaker 1: you have to forgive us.
- 13:22Speaker 2: They're panicked. They're paranoid.
- 13:24Speaker 1: I imagine that Joseph just let out a sigh as
- 13:30Speaker 1: if to say, when are you guys going to get it?
- 13:33Speaker 1: And then he said to them these words, You meant
- 13:37Speaker 1: evil against me, but God used it for good. Now,
- 13:45Speaker 1: you probably already have that verse underlined in your Bible,
- 13:48Speaker 1: but can I encourage you to go back and highlight
- 13:50Speaker 1: it again? It's one of those passages, I would put
- 13:53Speaker 1: it on the short list of the most important verses
- 13:55Speaker 1: in the Bible. You meant evil against me, but God
- 14:01Speaker 1: meant it for good. I'm highlighting there the three key words,
- 14:05Speaker 1: evil and God, good. Lining those three words up shows
- 14:13Speaker 1: us not just the story of Joseph, but folks, it's
- 14:15Speaker 1: really the story of the whole Bible. Evil comes, but
- 14:18Speaker 1: God intervenes and good results. Evil enters, but God counters
- 14:25Speaker 1: and good happens. Yes, there is evil, but it can
- 14:31Speaker 1: turn into good when God gets in the middle. And
- 14:35Speaker 1: that's what happened in Joseph's life. But that's what happened
- 14:38Speaker 1: every time you turn the page in the Bible. Evil
- 14:41Speaker 1: came into the Garden of Eden. The snake whispered to Eve.
- 14:47Speaker 1: Adam and Eve listened. They chose to listen to the snake.
- 14:52Speaker 1: And God let them choose. Divine love must let choice happen.
- 14:59Speaker 1: else it is not divine love. So he let them
- 15:02Speaker 1: choose even knowing what their choice would be. So evil came,
- 15:07Speaker 1: but God intervened. And we see the hand of God
- 15:12Speaker 1: in punishing them because justice must punish sin, but in
- 15:17Speaker 1: loving them because love must protect the children. And so
- 15:21Speaker 1: even Adam and Eve's expulsion from the garden becomes a
- 15:26Speaker 1: picture of God's plan of redemption. He punishes the sin,
- 15:30Speaker 1: but he loves the sinner. And he protected them and
- 15:33Speaker 1: they survived. Evil came, God intervened, and good resulted. The
- 15:40Speaker 1: oldest story in the Bible, the story of Job. Evil came,
- 15:45Speaker 1: evil tempted, evil tested Job. But Job struggled at first.
- 15:51Speaker 1: Yet when God talked to him through sovereignty... Job trusted
- 15:56Speaker 1: God and the result is the oldest book in the
- 16:00Speaker 1: Bible is a book on suffering turned good. Moses, since
- 16:06Speaker 1: the presence of evil, he murdered an Egyptian guard and
- 16:11Speaker 1: he resolved to liberate the Hebrew people.
- 16:15Speaker 2: Out of anger.
- 16:17Speaker 1: But that wasn't the way God intended, so God intervened.
- 16:20Speaker 1: And you might say God placed Moses in a 40-year
- 16:23Speaker 1: cool-down period.
- 16:25Speaker 2: He took him out into the wilderness.
- 16:27Speaker 1: And then Moses came back a different man, and he
- 16:30Speaker 1: liberated the children of Israel with the heart of a
- 16:34Speaker 1: shepherd rather than the anger of a soldier. This happens
- 16:38Speaker 1: over and over in Scripture, doesn't it? Evil came to David.
- 16:42Speaker 1: He committed adultery. Evil came to Daniel. He was dragged
- 16:47Speaker 1: into Babylonian captivity. Evil came to Nehemiah. He discovered that
- 16:52Speaker 1: the walls of the city of Jerusalem had collapsed.
- 16:55Speaker 2: Evil came.
- 16:56Speaker 1: But God intervened in every case. And because God intervened,
- 17:01Speaker 1: David wrote songs of grace. Daniel became a leader in
- 17:06Speaker 1: a foreign land. And Jeremiah rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem
- 17:12Speaker 1: with Babylonian money. What Satan intended for evil, God used
- 17:19Speaker 1: for good.
- 17:20Speaker 2: And in the.
- 17:21Speaker 1: Classic case of evil coming into the world, we can
- 17:24Speaker 1: hear the stakes as they're being nailed into the hands
- 17:28Speaker 1: of Jesus Christ as he stretched out on the cross.
- 17:32Speaker 1: Evil has come into the world. And it seems like
- 17:36Speaker 1: evil is going to win this time. We hear the
- 17:39Speaker 1: jeering of the crowd. We see the tears of Mary.
- 17:42Speaker 1: We see the blood beginning to seep down the timber.
- 17:46Speaker 1: And we see Jesus Christ, the Son of God, take
- 17:49Speaker 1: a final breath on the cross. And Jesus, the Son
- 17:54Speaker 1: of God, is lowered to the ground as the sun sets.
- 17:57Speaker 1: And he is placed into a tomb and the rock
- 18:01Speaker 1: is sealed. This time, Satan is saying, this time I'm
- 18:06Speaker 1: going to win this. For just a moment, it appears
- 18:11Speaker 1: he will. But then the rock is rolled away and
- 18:14Speaker 1: Jesus walks out on that bright Easter morning into the sunrise.
- 18:20Speaker 1: And if you look over the shoulder of Christ, you
- 18:23Speaker 1: can see Satan and his little tail tucked between his
- 18:27Speaker 1: legs as he runs and scampers out of the cemetery
- 18:31Speaker 1: asking himself, am I.
- 18:32Speaker 2: Ever going to win? And the answer is no.
- 18:36Speaker 1: No.
- 18:39Speaker 3: No.
- 18:40Speaker 2: Evil will come. But evil will not win.
- 18:44Speaker 1: God is forever the better chess player. And every act
- 18:50Speaker 1: of evil plays into the ultimate good of God. The
- 18:54Speaker 1: ultimate act of evil, Christ on the cross, has become
- 18:57Speaker 1: the ultimate act of good for humanity. What Satan intended
- 19:02Speaker 1: for evil, God.
- 19:04Speaker 2: Used for good. But we have to trust. There's evil
- 19:10Speaker 2: in your world.
- 19:12Speaker 1: No passage in the Bible denies the presence of evil
- 19:15Speaker 1: in our society. Evil has come into your life. Maybe
- 19:20Speaker 1: through somebody who is supposed to love you. Maybe through
- 19:22Speaker 1: somebody who promised to take care of you. Maybe even
- 19:26Speaker 1: through a disease or a calamity or a difficulty. Evil
- 19:29Speaker 1: has come. But evil does not have to win. God
- 19:35Speaker 1: will take that evil and he will reweave it. He
- 19:39Speaker 1: will recycle it and he will use it for the
- 19:41Speaker 1: advancement of his cause and the development of your character.
- 19:45Speaker 1: Your job and mine is to trust. you see if
- 19:50Speaker 1: Patrick John Hughes is our father pushing the chair we
- 19:55Speaker 1: are Patrick Henry Hughes doing our best to play music
- 20:00Speaker 1: in the dark it's not easy We feel pushed this way,
- 20:06Speaker 1: yanked this way, shoved this way, pulled back. We're not
- 20:09Speaker 1: sure what's coming up next. And every so often, we yell,
- 20:12Speaker 1: slow down, slow down. Or tell me where we're going.
- 20:18Speaker 1: And our Heavenly Father is kind enough to hear our prayers.
- 20:21Speaker 1: And sometimes He slows it down. Sometimes He reveals where
- 20:24Speaker 1: we're going.
- 20:25Speaker 2: But don't you think most of the time He just says, well,
- 20:27Speaker 2: just trust me. I'll get you through this. That's what
- 20:33Speaker 2: Sam Brown did.
- 20:36Speaker 1: Sam was on his first tour of duty in Afghanistan
- 20:39Speaker 1: two years out of West Point when an improvised explosive
- 20:43Speaker 1: device turned his Humvee into a torch and left him
- 20:47Speaker 1: ablaze in the sands of the desert. He does not
- 20:51Speaker 1: remember how he got out of the truck, but he
- 20:53Speaker 1: does remember taking handfuls of dust and dirt and throwing
- 20:57Speaker 1: it into his face, trying to put the flames out.
- 21:01Speaker 2: He remembers finally dropping to.
- 21:02Speaker 1: His knees and lifting flaming arms into the air and
- 21:06Speaker 1: crying out, Jesus, save me. That was more than just
- 21:10Speaker 1: an empty prayer.
- 21:11Speaker 2: He believed and believes.
- 21:13Speaker 1: In Jesus and was asking Jesus.
- 21:15Speaker 2: To save him.
- 21:18Speaker 1: Sam really believed he would die that day, but death
- 21:22Speaker 1: did not come. His gunner came, helped Sam reach cover
- 21:28Speaker 1: with bullets flying around them, Crouching behind a wall, Sam
- 21:32Speaker 1: realized that bits of his glove were being fused into
- 21:36Speaker 1: his skin because of the burning. He ordered the private
- 21:40Speaker 1: to rip his gloves off the burning flesh. The soldier
- 21:44Speaker 1: hesitated but then pulled and with the glove came off
- 21:48Speaker 1: pieces of his hand. And that moment was just the
- 21:53Speaker 1: first of what would be thousands of moments of pain
- 21:57Speaker 1: that Sam would have to endure today.
- 22:00Speaker 2: Over the next few years. He was rescued.
- 22:04Speaker 1: Another platoon reached them and they loaded the wounded soldier
- 22:08Speaker 1: into the truck. And Sam remembers looking into the side
- 22:12Speaker 1: mirror out of the truck at his face. And just
- 22:16Speaker 1: before he passed out, he saw what the fire had done.
- 22:19Speaker 1: He said he did not even recognize himself. Face covered
- 22:23Speaker 1: with soot. Nostrils blackened. That was September 2008. By the
- 22:31Speaker 1: time we at Oak Hills met him three years later,
- 22:35Speaker 1: he had undergone dozens of agonizing surgeries over and over
- 22:40Speaker 1: in which the dead skin had been excised and healthy
- 22:43Speaker 1: skin had been harvested and grafted. Sam says that the
- 22:47Speaker 1: pain chart didn't have a number high enough to register
- 22:52Speaker 1: the agony that he felt.
- 22:55Speaker 2: Why would God allow something like.
- 22:58Speaker 1: Well, part of the answer walked into the hospital room
- 23:02Speaker 1: in the form of a dietician, a young lady named
- 23:07Speaker 1: Amy Larson. Sam's mouth had been reduced to the size
- 23:12Speaker 1: of a nickel, so Amy, a dietician, was assigned to
- 23:15Speaker 1: his case to monitor his nutrition intake. He still remembers
- 23:20Speaker 1: the first time he saw her. Dark hair, brown eyes,
- 23:24Speaker 1: nervously cute. More importantly, she did not wince at the
- 23:30Speaker 1: sight of him. After a few months, he gathered enough
- 23:34Speaker 1: courage to ask her out. They went to the San
- 23:37Speaker 1: Antonio Rodeo. The following weekend, they went to his friend's
- 23:42Speaker 1: wedding in Houston. And during the three-hour drive, Amy told
- 23:46Speaker 1: Sam how she had noticed him months earlier in ICU,
- 23:50Speaker 1: covered with bandages, sedated with morphine, and hooked to a
- 23:54Speaker 1: breathing machine. When he regained consciousness she slipped into the
- 24:00Speaker 1: room to introduce herself but there was family and friends
- 24:03Speaker 1: and so she decided not to. The two continued to
- 24:08Speaker 1: see each other. Soon into their relationship Sam asked her
- 24:17Speaker 1: if she knew his best friend Jesus Christ. She did not.
- 24:24Speaker 1: So he began to tell her And she found the
- 24:28Speaker 1: story of Jesus as inspiring as the story of Sam Brown.
- 24:34Speaker 1: And so she gave her heart to Christ. And Sam
- 24:38Speaker 1: gave his heart to her. Soon thereafter, the two were married. Today,
- 24:47Speaker 1: they are parents of a seven-month-old baby boy named Romans.
- 24:51Speaker 1: And Sam directs a program to aid wounded soldiers. Many
- 24:55Speaker 1: of you know them from their time at Journey Fellowship
- 24:58Speaker 1: or at the North Central Campus. Now no words can
- 25:03Speaker 1: capture the horror of a man afire in the Afghani desert.
- 25:10Speaker 1: And who can imagine the torture of repeated surgery and rehab?
- 25:16Speaker 1: And yet Sam and Amy have come to discover the
- 25:21Speaker 1: curious math of God. The math of common sense says
- 25:28Speaker 1: war plus near death plus agonizing rehab equals tragedy. But
- 25:34Speaker 1: the mathematics of God says war plus near death plus
- 25:39Speaker 1: agonizing rehab equals a saved soul, a wonderful family, and
- 25:45Speaker 1: a bright future. That God took that which was intended
- 25:50Speaker 1: for evil. But he turned it into something of eternal good.
- 25:58Speaker 1: But what if Sam had given up on God? What
- 26:03Speaker 1: if he had turned his back on God? What if
- 26:05Speaker 1: he had let his heart grow hard? What if Joseph
- 26:11Speaker 1: had given up on God? Oh, Lord knows how many
- 26:15Speaker 1: opportunities he could have along the way, thrown into the
- 26:18Speaker 1: pit by his brothers, left in Potiphar's house as a slave,
- 26:23Speaker 1: lied about by Potiphar's wife, left to languish in the prison,
- 26:28Speaker 1: left in charge of a worldwide famine relief effort, having
- 26:32Speaker 1: to forgive his brothers and reconcile with his family. At
- 26:36Speaker 1: any point in the story, Joseph could have said, no more,
- 26:39Speaker 1: no more, I'm out. And some of you right now
- 26:44Speaker 1: are trying to make that decision. You're somewhere between the
- 26:49Speaker 1: pit and the palace, aren't you? And let me tell
- 26:54Speaker 1: you something. Everything in the story of Joseph says this.
- 26:58Speaker 1: God sees a Joseph in you. God sees a Joseph
- 27:05Speaker 1: in you. And as you trust God, he will take
- 27:11Speaker 1: what was intended as evil and he will turn it
- 27:14Speaker 1: into something that will exceed your fondest imaginations. And there
- 27:18Speaker 1: will come a time both on this earth and in
- 27:20Speaker 1: the life to come in which you look.
- 27:22Speaker 2: Back and say, oh, now I see what he was doing.
- 27:26Speaker 1: Wasn't easy. Wasn't quick. But God used that mess for
- 27:32Speaker 1: something good. Let me tell you something, friend. Your family
- 27:37Speaker 1: needs a Joseph. Your family needs a Joseph. Because Joseph
- 27:44Speaker 1: was faithful. His entire family. 70 members were saved. Your
- 27:52Speaker 1: generation needs a Joseph. It's a famine we're in. A
- 27:58Speaker 1: famine of hope. A famine of morality. A famine of future.
- 28:01Speaker 1: A famine of spirituality. Your generation needs a Joseph. Your
- 28:07Speaker 1: descendants need a Joseph.
- 28:08Speaker 2: Joseph.
- 28:11Speaker 1: Because Joseph was faithful, his grandchildren and great-grandchildren, all the
- 28:16Speaker 1: way through until the return of Christ. That lineage is
- 28:18Speaker 1: going to look back and say, Joseph was the hinge
- 28:21Speaker 1: that kept the door of faith from falling off. Your
- 28:25Speaker 1: descendants needed Joseph.
- 28:31Speaker 2: Will you be one? Will you be one?
- 28:35Speaker 3: May you be.
- 28:36Speaker 1: The Joseph in your family, in your generation. In your ancestry.
- 28:43Speaker 1: May you do what young Patrick Henry Hughes does. May
- 28:46Speaker 1: you just trust your father. He wrote these words. I've
- 28:51Speaker 1: known from an early age. That I was dealt a
- 28:53Speaker 1: hand in life. Different from the cards others got. But
- 28:56Speaker 1: that's okay. Because I also learned. God would help me
- 29:00Speaker 1: play that hand. If I was willing to accept what
- 29:02Speaker 1: I was missing. And just be thankful for what I
- 29:05Speaker 1: can do.
- 29:08Speaker 2: Trusting. Trust God. He'll get you through this. Easy, quick,
- 29:13Speaker 2: I hope so. But usually it's not.
- 29:17Speaker 1: But he always takes the mess and he turns it
- 29:19Speaker 1: into something good.
- 29:20Speaker 2: So don't be foolish. Don't be naive. But don't despair either.
- 29:25Speaker 1: God has done this a zillion times and he'll do
- 29:28Speaker 1: it again with you. Your job is just to sit still, trust.
- 29:33Speaker 2: Him, and play the music.
- 29:36Speaker 1: Amen? Heavenly Father, we thank you for your words and.
- 29:40Speaker 2: How empowering they are in our lives. May we just
- 29:44Speaker 2: trust what you have taught us. Through Jesus we pray
- 29:48Speaker 2: and all God's people said.
- 32:50Speaker 1: Thanks for watching!
- 36:01Speaker 3: I'll be all right.
- 36:04Speaker 4: You don't have to stay. If you've already chosen, I
- 36:12Speaker 4: won't stand in your way.
- 36:17Speaker 3: I can feel it in your distance, in the way
- 36:21Speaker 3: you barely speak.
- 36:24Speaker 4: Like your heart is somewhere else now, somewhere I can't reach.
- 36:31Speaker 4: I was trying just to hold us While you slowly
- 36:36Speaker 4: slipped away.
- 36:39Speaker 3: Now I'm left with all the silence You didn't want
- 36:44Speaker 3: to say Maybe I just held on To something already gone.
- 37:01Speaker 2: I'll be fine.
- 37:02Speaker 3: You can leave. You don't owe me anything. If your
- 37:08Speaker 3: heart is found away out of what we used to be,
- 37:15Speaker 3: I'll be fine. Don't look back. I'll survive this empty space.
- 37:23Speaker 3: Not tonight, maybe not soon, but I'll learn. to be
- 37:30Speaker 3: okay we don't need to fake the feeling i can
- 37:38Speaker 3: see it in your eyes there's no reason left for
- 37:43Speaker 3: staying when.
- 37:45Speaker 1: The love already died.
- 37:50Speaker 3: Through the quiet in your I can hear your choice.
- 38:03Speaker 2: I'll be fine.
- 38:05Speaker 3: You can leave. You don't owe me anything. If your
- 38:12Speaker 3: heart has found a way. Out of what we used
- 38:16Speaker 3: to be.
- 38:18Speaker 4: I'll be fine.
- 38:20Speaker 3: Don't look back. I'll survive this empty space.
- 38:26Speaker 2: Not tonight.
- 38:27Speaker 3: Maybe not soon.
- 38:29Speaker 4: But I'll learn to be okay.
- 38:34Speaker 3: I don't need a reason why.
- 38:36Speaker 4: I can see it in goodbyes.
- 38:42Speaker 3: And it breaks me, it does. But I won't ask
- 38:45Speaker 3: you to stay. I'll be fine.
- 38:53Speaker 2: You can't leave.
- 38:55Speaker 3: You don't owe me anything. If your heart is found away,
- 39:02Speaker 3: how do I?
- 39:04Speaker 4: I'll be all right.
- 39:20Speaker 3: I'll be all right.