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Genesis 39 - Day Five | Five Good Minutes · Five Good Minutes

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Five Good Minutes.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_01: You're listening to today's inspirational message on the book of Genesis with Jake Williams.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 21 begins with words we've heard before.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Quote, the Lord was with him, end quote.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Joseph is in prison, but God hasn't changed.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Earlier the Lord was with Joseph in Potifar's house.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: Now the Lord is with Joseph in a prison cell.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: And that means God's presence is not measured by our location, our comfort, our freedom, or our status.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: We often think, God was with me when things were going well.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: But Genesis 39 teaches us to say, God is with me here also.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: The text says the Lord, quote, showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden, end quote.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: The Hebrew word behind kindness is connected to God's steadfast covenant love.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: Joseph has lost his position, his reputation, his freedom, his home, but he has not lost the steadfast love of God, his creator and redeemer.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: And that may be the deepest truth in the whole chapter.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: Everything that can be taken from Joseph has been taken, but the one thing he most needs can never be taken.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Soon the prison warden pulls Joseph and puts him in charge of the prisoners.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: The pattern for Potiphar's house repeats itself again.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: Joseph is faithful.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: Responsibility increases.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: Others begin to trust him.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: You could imagine Joseph saying, I already did this once.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: I was faithful in Potiphar's house, and look where that got me.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: Why should I bother now?
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: But he keeps serving.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: And that's remarkable.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: Suffering has not turned him cynical.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: Cynicism often says, I tried faithfulness before and it didn't work.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: But that sentence reveals a transactional view of obedience.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: We obeyed because we expected certain payoffs.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: When the payoff disappeared or disappointed, so did our motivation.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: Joseph's faithfulness is becoming deeper.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: He serves not because faithfulness guarantees immediate results, but because God is worthy of faithfulness.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: The warden eventually pays no attention to anything under Joseph's care, quote, because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did, end quote.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: Notice again, success does not mean escape.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Joseph is successful in prison while remaining in prison.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: And that corrects our definition for blessing.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: We usually define success as getting out of really the hard places in life.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: But God may define success as becoming faithful within those hard places.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: We pray, Lord, change my circumstances.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes God's answers, I will, but first I'm going to change you in those circumstances.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: The prison is not wasted time.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: God is forming Joseph into the man who will one day carry enormous authority without being destroyed by it.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: Joseph is learning, administration, patience, humility, endurance, and dependence.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: And he doesn't know why these lessons matter yet, but God does.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: And this points us to Jesus in even a deeper way.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus entered the ultimate prison of death.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: He is laid in a sealed tomb.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: To everyone watching, his story appears over.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: But God's steadfast love and saving purpose are not defeated by the grave.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus rises.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: And because he does, the Christian claim that God is with us becomes stronger than circumstances.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: And after his resurrection, he tells his disciples, Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: Always includes the prison cell.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: It includes the hospital room.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: It includes the lonely house, the difficult boss at the difficult workplace, the season of disappointment, the years when nothing seems to be moving.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord's presence does not mean that you will always understand what he's doing.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: Joseph certainly didn't.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: It means you never suffer alone, and nothing you endure is outside God's redemptive reach.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: Genesis 39 begins with Joseph enslaved and ends with Joseph imprisoned.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: And from the outside, that hardly looks like progress.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: But the repeated sentence tells us what matters most.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord was with Joseph.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: And that's enough to keep serving.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's enough to keep trusting.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: And that's enough to keep going.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: Your circumstances may change dramatically.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: The God who is with you never changes.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for joining us here today.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of great content to explore on Orchard Hill Plus and on the Orchard Hill main feed from the weekend.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: Have a great day.