Latest / Max Lucado Daily Sermons / Put your special trust in God- Minister Max Lucado
Transcript
- 0:03Speaker 1: Hope in your Bibles. If you will to Genesis chapter
- 0:05Speaker 1: thirty seven. Genesis thirty seven, you might pull the outlines
- 0:10Speaker 1: out that we've included. We're using the life of Joseph
- 0:15Speaker 1: to learn how God guides his children through difficult days.
- 0:19Speaker 1: You might call this a survival guide for tough times.
- 0:23Speaker 1: In fact, we've crafted a pledge of faith that helps
- 0:26Speaker 1: us do just that. If you'd like to say it
- 0:29Speaker 1: out loud with me, the words will appear on the screen.
- 0:32Speaker 1: I'd invite you to fill your lungs with air and
- 0:34Speaker 1: your hearts with hope as we make this statement together.
- 0:38Speaker 1: By God's power, I'll get through this. It won't be painless,
- 0:43Speaker 1: it won't be quick, but God will use this mess
- 0:46Speaker 1: for good. I won't be foolish or naive, but nor
- 0:51Speaker 1: will I despair. With God's help, I ain't know. I
- 0:55Speaker 1: will get through this. Two quick reminders before we begin.
- 1:00Speaker 1: I hope you'll go to the church website okillschurch dot com,
- 1:04Speaker 1: and there look at the testimonies that have been posted
- 1:09Speaker 1: about times in which God has led people through things.
- 1:13Speaker 1: You might consider posting your own. I know you'll find
- 1:16Speaker 1: that to be an encouragement. Visit encouraging visit. Also, if
- 1:19Speaker 1: you're watching online Welcome, you can click on the U
- 1:23Speaker 1: Virgin icon for outline and scriptures.
- 1:28Speaker 2: Let's pray together.
- 1:32Speaker 1: I do not take lightly this privilege, dear father, that
- 1:36Speaker 1: you would grant me moments in which to feed your flock.
- 1:41Speaker 1: But Father, if anything good is said, it must be
- 1:44Speaker 1: spoken by you, for I am a sinner in need
- 1:47Speaker 1: of your grace. We pray that we could see Jesus
- 1:53Speaker 1: through the life of Joseph, and just Jesus through Christ.
- 1:58Speaker 2: We pray to all God's people, said.
- 2:03Speaker 1: Beginning in verse six of Genesis chapter thirty seven, Joseph
- 2:08Speaker 1: said to them, listen to this dream I had. We
- 2:11Speaker 1: were binding sheaves of grain out in the field, when
- 2:15Speaker 1: suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves
- 2:21Speaker 1: gathered around mine and bowed down to it. His brother
- 2:25Speaker 1: said to him, do you intend to rain over us?
- 2:29Speaker 1: Will you actually rule us? And they hated him all
- 2:32Speaker 1: the more because of the dream and what he had said.
- 2:36Speaker 2: Then he had another dream, and he told it to
- 2:39Speaker 2: his brothers.
- 2:40Speaker 1: Listen, he said, I had another dream, and this time
- 2:44Speaker 1: the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down
- 2:47Speaker 1: to me. And when he told his father as well
- 2:50Speaker 1: as his brothers. His father rebuked him, what is this
- 2:54Speaker 1: dream you had? Will your mother and I and your
- 2:56Speaker 1: brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?
- 3:00Speaker 1: And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father
- 3:04Speaker 1: kept the matter in mind. Joseph probably should have just
- 3:08Speaker 1: kept these dreams to himself. Here he walks into breakfast
- 3:14Speaker 1: one morning, bubbling and babbling about these images he had
- 3:17Speaker 1: as he slept. First he dreamed that his brothers were
- 3:21Speaker 1: bowing down to him and he was in charge of them.
- 3:23Speaker 1: And then he dreamed that his mom and dad were
- 3:25Speaker 1: included in this and they were bowing.
- 3:27Speaker 2: Down to him.
- 3:28Speaker 1: Everybody would bow down to him, and his dreams only
- 3:30Speaker 1: seventeen years old. I don't know. Do you think he
- 3:34Speaker 1: expected his brothers to get excited about this? Oh yeah,
- 3:39Speaker 1: baby brother, we cannot wait until the day that we
- 3:44Speaker 1: bow down before you. If so, that did not happen,
- 3:48Speaker 1: In fact, just the opposite. One day, when the brothers
- 3:51Speaker 1: were away from the family tending sheep, they seized the
- 3:55Speaker 1: opportunity to seize their younger brother, Joseph, and they threw
- 3:59Speaker 1: him over the edge of a pit into a dry cistern.
- 4:04Speaker 1: They stripped him of the fancy coat, and they left
- 4:07Speaker 1: him there. From deep in the pit, Joseph could hear
- 4:10Speaker 1: them discussing what they would do with him. Come and
- 4:14Speaker 1: let us sell him to the Ishmael lights, and let
- 4:17Speaker 1: not our hand be upon him, for is our brother
- 4:19Speaker 1: and our flesh. I think this is curious. Their collective
- 4:22Speaker 1: consciences resisted sibling murder but permitted sibling slave trade. And
- 4:28Speaker 1: Joseph detected the sounds of a coming wagon and a donkey,
- 4:33Speaker 1: and then some foreign accents and some new voices, and
- 4:36Speaker 1: he realized there was a conversation taking place between his
- 4:39Speaker 1: brothers and a group of people. He overheard phrases like,
- 4:44Speaker 1: we'll sell him to you a couple of camels. Perhaps
- 4:49Speaker 1: what do we do with him? Next thing he knew,
- 4:52Speaker 1: one of his brothers was lowered down into the pit
- 4:54Speaker 1: on a rope, and then the brother grabbed Joseph and
- 4:57Speaker 1: the both of them were pulled out, and the these traders,
- 5:00Speaker 1: these Ishmael traders, began to poke and probe Joseph like
- 5:05Speaker 1: he was a cow on the auction block. They stuck
- 5:07Speaker 1: fingers in his mouth, They counted his teeth, They pinched
- 5:10Speaker 1: his arms to see if he had any muscle, and
- 5:13Speaker 1: Joseph realized what was happening, and he cried out, you
- 5:16Speaker 1: cannot sell me, I'm your brother. But the brothers just
- 5:20Speaker 1: shoved him to the side, and the negotiations began. And
- 5:24Speaker 1: we'll give you ten shekels of silver. No, no, no,
- 5:26Speaker 1: we won't take less than thirty. How about fifteen? Oh?
- 5:29Speaker 1: Twenty five? All right, twenty And finally they settled on
- 5:32Speaker 1: a price, and Joseph was sold for the price of
- 5:36Speaker 1: a handicapped slave. He must have cried out again, but
- 5:43Speaker 1: the brothers didn't listen. They just grabbed the fancy coat
- 5:45Speaker 1: and took the money, and they walked away. And the
- 5:48Speaker 1: merchants tied one end of the rope around Joseph's neck
- 5:51Speaker 1: and the other end around the wagon, and Joseph, dirty
- 5:54Speaker 1: and tears stained, far from home, had no choice but
- 5:58Speaker 1: to follow. He fell in behind the wagon, in between
- 6:01Speaker 1: the camels, and he looked over his shoulder, and there
- 6:05Speaker 1: he saw the backs of his brothers as they disappeared
- 6:07Speaker 1: over the horizon.
- 6:09Speaker 2: He didn't know if you'd ever see him again.
- 6:14Speaker 1: The summary passage of the chapter is his brothers sold
- 6:18Speaker 1: him for twenty pieces of silver to the Ishmaelites, who
- 6:23Speaker 1: took Joseph with them down to Egypt.
- 6:30Speaker 2: What sadder words could have been written?
- 6:34Speaker 1: In fact, you might want to put one on your outline.
- 6:37Speaker 1: Down to Egypt. Down is the operative word of this
- 6:42Speaker 1: first installment of Joseph's life, and down is the direction
- 6:46Speaker 1: his life took. The story opens with everything looking up.
- 6:52Speaker 1: Joseph has a positioned place, position, a place of preference
- 6:56Speaker 1: in the family. He has the nicest wardrobe in the family.
- 7:00Speaker 1: He's got a place of security in the family. Things
- 7:04Speaker 1: are looking up, in fact, so much so he dreams
- 7:06Speaker 1: that everybody's going to someday look up to him. Life
- 7:09Speaker 1: is looking up. But what goes up must come, And
- 7:13Speaker 1: it came down with a crash. The brothers put him down.
- 7:21Speaker 1: Then they threw him down, and then they sold him
- 7:26Speaker 1: down the river. And now he was led down the
- 7:29Speaker 1: road to Egypt. With a turn of the page, we'll
- 7:34Speaker 1: read now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt, and Potiphar,
- 7:37Speaker 1: an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard and Egyptian,
- 7:41Speaker 1: bought him from the Ishme alliance, who had taken him
- 7:44Speaker 1: down there, Down, down.
- 7:48Speaker 2: Down, down to Egypt. How quick this descent.
- 7:54Speaker 1: Stripped of his name stripped of his position, everything he had,
- 8:00Speaker 1: everything he thought he would ever have gone proof just
- 8:05Speaker 1: like that, Just like you am I talking to anyone
- 8:12Speaker 1: who's being taken down.
- 8:16Speaker 2: To Egypt.
- 8:18Speaker 1: Life has a way of taking us down, down to
- 8:23Speaker 1: the unemployment office, down to the divorce court, down to
- 8:26Speaker 1: the custody hearing, down to the bottom of the pecking order,
- 8:33Speaker 1: down to the soup line.
- 8:34Speaker 2: Down on your luck, down in the mouth, down down
- 8:40Speaker 2: down to Egypt.
- 8:44Speaker 1: If life is taking you down, you can find a
- 8:46Speaker 1: kindred soul in the story of Joseph. By the time
- 8:51Speaker 1: he arrived in Egypt, he had nothing. He had not
- 8:55Speaker 1: a penny to his name, or a name that was
- 8:57Speaker 1: worth a penny, not in Egypt matter. If he was
- 9:00Speaker 1: the great grandson of Abraham, he couldn't tell people his
- 9:05Speaker 1: name would someday being the Bible. They didn't care his position,
- 9:10Speaker 1: his rank, his authority. They didn't even like his vocation. Egyptians,
- 9:15Speaker 1: those clean shaven people of the pyramid, didn't like these
- 9:18Speaker 1: wooly bearded people of the pasture. He had no money,
- 9:22Speaker 1: no credentials to stand on, no vocation to call on
- 9:26Speaker 1: those family to lean on. He lost everything with one exception,
- 9:36Speaker 1: Joseph still had God's dream. The story of Joseph begins
- 9:42Speaker 1: with this dream. What a curious dream he has. And
- 9:47Speaker 1: all we know is that this dream is all Joseph
- 9:50Speaker 1: had when he went into Egypt. The Bible that you
- 9:55Speaker 1: note says nothing about Joseph's training, his education, his superior skills,
- 10:01Speaker 1: his talents. I'm sure he had some, but none of
- 10:04Speaker 1: these are mentioned. What is mentioned, however, are these dreams.
- 10:10Speaker 1: The narrator the scripture wants us to draw a conclusion,
- 10:14Speaker 1: and that is Joseph went down to Egypt with nothing
- 10:18Speaker 1: but God's call on his heart. Heaven had tabbed him
- 10:24Speaker 1: on the shoulder and said, you will have a place
- 10:27Speaker 1: of prominence in the plan of God. And by the
- 10:34Speaker 1: time Joseph arrived in Egypt, that's all he had left,
- 10:36Speaker 1: this dream, this call of God on his heart. And
- 10:41Speaker 1: don't you know, he clutched it like a life jacket
- 10:44Speaker 1: in a tsunami. As he was trudging through the desert,
- 10:49Speaker 1: he was thinking, all right, it's not going to end
- 10:53Speaker 1: this way. God told me he had a call for me,
- 11:00Speaker 1: the chains of the slave owners. He remembered, the wee
- 11:03Speaker 1: in this way, I've been called to more than this
- 11:08Speaker 1: Beneath the heat of the desert sun. He told himself.
- 11:11Speaker 1: He had to tell himself, God has greater plans for me.
- 11:16Speaker 1: He had lost his home country, he had lost his dignity,
- 11:19Speaker 1: he had lost his family.
- 11:20Speaker 2: But he never he never lost his belief.
- 11:26Speaker 1: In God's call on his life. Do you believe in
- 11:34Speaker 1: God's call on yours? Were we somehow able to dig
- 11:44Speaker 1: through all the clutter and busyness of life down into
- 11:47Speaker 1: the very basement of your soul, would we find a
- 11:52Speaker 1: deep conviction that says that God has placed a call
- 11:56Speaker 1: on me. You see, our God comes a calling. He
- 12:06Speaker 1: called Joseph through a dream, He called Abraham through a voice,
- 12:10Speaker 1: He called Moses through a bush, He called Gideon through
- 12:13Speaker 1: an angel, He called David through a prophet, called Daniel
- 12:17Speaker 1: through a vision. He called Joseph and Mary through an angel,
- 12:20Speaker 1: and Paul through Damascus road experience. His memes vary, but
- 12:25Speaker 1: his plan is consistent to every person. He issues this call,
- 12:32Speaker 1: this dream.
- 12:37Speaker 2: Maybe you've forgotten yours.
- 12:41Speaker 1: The road down to Egypt can be tough on our calls.
- 12:49Speaker 1: The path of the road is littered with forgotten dreams.
- 12:56Speaker 2: And abandoned hopes.
- 13:02Speaker 1: Or maybe you never knew you had a call if so,
- 13:09Speaker 1: oh with a privilege is mind to invite you to
- 13:13Speaker 1: believe what God believes about you.
- 13:20Speaker 2: Here it is you are God's child.
- 13:24Speaker 1: You are God's child before folks, before you are anything else.
- 13:29Speaker 1: You are a child of God, before you're a banker,
- 13:33Speaker 1: before you're a lawyer, before you're a cabinet maker, before
- 13:36Speaker 1: you're a nurse, before you're a teacher, before you're old,
- 13:39Speaker 1: before you're young, before you're black, before you're white, before
- 13:42Speaker 1: you're Hispanic, before you are anything else, before you are
- 13:46Speaker 1: male or female, strong or weak, handsome or not handsome,
- 13:49Speaker 1: before you are anything else. Listen, you are God's child.
- 13:55Speaker 1: You are you are his creation, yes, his idea, absolutely,
- 14:09Speaker 1: but even more you're his child. Do you understand that
- 14:17Speaker 1: he who is all invites you to call him father.
- 14:24Speaker 1: You are his child, and he has declared he wants
- 14:28Speaker 1: you and his family. He has declared your worth. He
- 14:32Speaker 1: has walked onto the auction block of society, and he
- 14:36Speaker 1: has ramped his arm around you, and he has said,
- 14:38Speaker 1: this is my child. And he has bought you with
- 14:42Speaker 1: the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb, without
- 14:45Speaker 1: blemish and without spot.
- 14:50Speaker 2: You are his child and your life is more than
- 14:55Speaker 2: this life.
- 14:56Speaker 1: Do not believe the tombstone it lies to you. It
- 15:02Speaker 1: says that every human being has a date of birth
- 15:05Speaker 1: and a date of death, and a dash in between.
- 15:11Speaker 2: You are more than this life.
- 15:14Speaker 1: Your life did not begin with your birth, but you,
- 15:20Speaker 1: even before you begin to breathe, long before he laid
- 15:25Speaker 1: down the earth's foundations, he had us in mind and
- 15:30Speaker 1: had settled on us as the focus of his love.
- 15:36Speaker 1: You are so much more than this speeding train of
- 15:40Speaker 1: days and decades. Before you were born to your parents,
- 15:47Speaker 1: you were born in the mind of God. And did
- 15:52Speaker 1: you know that you're going.
- 15:53Speaker 2: To outlive your death. You're going to outlive your death.
- 16:01Speaker 1: You're going to come out on the other side of
- 16:02Speaker 1: your own funeral. When this tent we live in our
- 16:07Speaker 1: body here on earth is torn down, God will have
- 16:10Speaker 1: a house in heaven for us to live in, a
- 16:12Speaker 1: home he himself has made which will last how long forever?
- 16:21Speaker 1: Every voice in our society sucks us into this short
- 16:24Speaker 1: term thinking, you better do it all while you have
- 16:28Speaker 1: a chance. We talk about dying, we talk about being buried.
- 16:33Speaker 1: We have all of this language which would suggest to
- 16:36Speaker 1: us that it's going to all come to an end, which,
- 16:38Speaker 1: according to Scripture is an absolute lie. He says, this
- 16:41Speaker 1: life is but a vapor, It's just a wink. It's
- 16:45Speaker 1: just the first word of the great story that God
- 16:49Speaker 1: is writing with your life. This is the kind of
- 16:53Speaker 1: call that God has on you. You're going to have struggles,
- 16:58Speaker 1: but they're not going to last for us ever. You
- 17:03Speaker 1: got a boss who degrades you. You got a family
- 17:08Speaker 1: member who beraides you. Listen. Just don't listen to them
- 17:13Speaker 1: who died and made them king, who says they have
- 17:18Speaker 1: a call on you. God owns you, and he and
- 17:23Speaker 1: he alone, declares who you are. We live for the
- 17:30Speaker 1: approval of others. We dance for the approval of others.
- 17:33Speaker 1: We bend over backwards just to get somebody to hear,
- 17:36Speaker 1: somebody say I like you, I approve you, I want you.
- 17:41Speaker 1: We sell ourselves down the road to Egypt because we
- 17:46Speaker 1: failed to realize that God's portion is enough, that his
- 17:49Speaker 1: approval is really all we need. This is the call
- 17:53Speaker 1: He has on you. Maybe you feel like you've missed
- 17:56Speaker 1: your chance and missed your prime. No, God specializes in
- 18:02Speaker 1: lives like yours and friends.
- 18:05Speaker 2: Every page of Scripture.
- 18:09Speaker 1: Not just invites you, but dares you to believe in
- 18:14Speaker 1: the God who believes in you.
- 18:19Speaker 2: You're going to get through This.
- 18:22Speaker 1: Won't be quick, won't be painless. But God can take
- 18:29Speaker 1: every mess and use it for something good. Why Because
- 18:33Speaker 1: He has a call on you, and you are God's
- 18:36Speaker 1: child and your life is more than this life. Now
- 18:44Speaker 1: we tend to forget this, it gets lost on the road.
- 18:48Speaker 2: Down to Egypt.
- 18:51Speaker 1: Turbulent times call us to either question our destiny or
- 18:56Speaker 1: certainly forget our identity. We redefine ourselves to our scars.
- 19:02Speaker 1: I'm the cancer patient, I'm the divorce see, I'm the
- 19:05Speaker 1: bankrupt businessman.
- 19:09Speaker 2: You're a child of God. This is the call God
- 19:13Speaker 2: has on you.
- 19:15Speaker 1: And when we forget this, folks, we begin settling for
- 19:18Speaker 1: a small call. We try to pack that tiny dash
- 19:23Speaker 1: between the dates with as much life as we can,
- 19:26Speaker 1: because we don't think we're going to outlive this life,
- 19:29Speaker 1: and we think our call is just to make money,
- 19:31Speaker 1: to make friends, to make a name for ourselves, to
- 19:34Speaker 1: make love with anybody who let us. We settle for
- 19:38Speaker 1: a small call in life. When God has called you
- 19:43Speaker 1: into an eternal existence with him, to reign with him
- 19:47Speaker 1: forever in a new kingdom. This is the dream he
- 19:53Speaker 1: has planted in your heart, and that resonating voice within
- 19:57Speaker 1: you right now is the spirit of God, witness of
- 20:00Speaker 1: God's Spirit saying yes, you and I both know you
- 20:08Speaker 1: were made for more than a small call. And our job,
- 20:14Speaker 1: when times get tough on the road down to Egypt,
- 20:17Speaker 1: our job is to attune our ear to the high
- 20:21Speaker 1: call of God and to turn a deaf ear to
- 20:24Speaker 1: the small calls of life.
- 20:29Speaker 2: Have you ever known anyone who did this?
- 20:33Speaker 1: I have forgive me for using my father yet again
- 20:39Speaker 1: as an illustration of faith. But the truth is, I
- 20:42Speaker 1: just have never known anybody who lived the way he lived,
- 20:47Speaker 1: and most of all, who died the way he died.
- 20:50Speaker 1: He was sixty nine years old when he was diagnosed
- 20:53Speaker 1: with als or lou Garrigg's disease, crippling cruel condition, especially
- 21:01Speaker 1: for a robust mechanic who one day realized he couldn't
- 21:04Speaker 1: turn a screwdriver.
- 21:07Speaker 2: He had just retired.
- 21:10Speaker 1: He had just retired, and he and mom had just
- 21:13Speaker 1: bought this tribal trailer, and they had this idea of
- 21:17Speaker 1: pulling this travel trailer all over the country and visiting
- 21:22Speaker 1: every state in the Union. Have you ever seen those
- 21:25Speaker 1: little maps you can buy and put on the back
- 21:27Speaker 1: of a trailer or a truck and then place an
- 21:29Speaker 1: emblem of every state when she visited it. His goal
- 21:33Speaker 1: was to.
- 21:33Speaker 2: Fill that thing up.
- 21:36Speaker 1: He'd worked for three decades as a mechanic and saved
- 21:40Speaker 1: up enough money to retire, and now they were going.
- 21:43Speaker 2: To travel the country.
- 21:45Speaker 1: His road down to Egypt was not because his brothers
- 21:49Speaker 1: betrayed him, but really because his body betrayed him. His
- 21:53Speaker 1: health betrayed him, and just like that, just in a
- 21:58Speaker 1: matter of moments, it seemed, he went from healthy and
- 22:01Speaker 1: robust to unable to comb his hair and brush his teeth.
- 22:07Speaker 1: Somebody had to carry.
- 22:08Speaker 2: Him into bed and bathing. He lost so much.
- 22:15Speaker 1: My wife, Diana and I were newly weds. We were
- 22:18Speaker 1: living in Florida at the time, and we were preparing
- 22:20Speaker 1: to move to Brazil, where we were going to do
- 22:23Speaker 1: mission work in Rio dejan Airo. But I wrote my
- 22:26Speaker 1: dad a letter. I said, Dad, I can't go now,
- 22:30Speaker 1: not with this. My dad never wrote letters. He wrote
- 22:35Speaker 1: me a forged, four page reply that I kept in
- 22:39Speaker 1: my bible for many years until it got so creased
- 22:42Speaker 1: and faded that I was afraid I was going to
- 22:45Speaker 1: tear it up. And now I keep it in a
- 22:46Speaker 1: safe place. Just a phrase from what he said. He
- 22:50Speaker 1: said in regards to my disease, and you're going to
- 22:53Speaker 1: real that is really an easy answer for me, and
- 22:58Speaker 1: that is go capital G, capital exclamation point. I must
- 23:06Speaker 1: say that I have no fear of death or eternity.
- 23:15Speaker 2: So don't be concerned about me. Just go capital G,
- 23:19Speaker 2: capital O and please him.
- 23:26Speaker 1: Who can write words like that, staring death in the face,
- 23:31Speaker 1: having lost what you thought was going to be your
- 23:35Speaker 1: golden chapter. Who can write words of faith and selfishness
- 23:41Speaker 1: like that?
- 23:42Speaker 2: I tell you who can.
- 23:43Speaker 1: Someone who believes what God believes about them. Someone who
- 23:48Speaker 1: believes that they are really God's child and that can
- 23:51Speaker 1: never be taken. Someone who believes that they will truly
- 23:54Speaker 1: outlive this life and that cannot be changed. Could I
- 23:59Speaker 1: encourage you.
- 24:00Speaker 2: To believe what God believes about you, so.
- 24:03Speaker 1: You know the Bible says that God's gifts and God's
- 24:06Speaker 1: call are under full warranty, never canceled, never rescinded. I'm
- 24:16Speaker 1: speaking to somebody who is being reminded today of a
- 24:20Speaker 1: time in your life that you accepted God's call but
- 24:23Speaker 1: has gotten lost in the busyness of life. For the
- 24:25Speaker 1: pain of life, or that downward descent into Egypt. Could
- 24:31Speaker 1: I invite you to reach back toward the hand of God,
- 24:34Speaker 1: and you know what, you will find the hand of
- 24:36Speaker 1: God reaching.
- 24:37Speaker 2: For you as you take that call again.
- 24:42Speaker 1: I'm speaking to someone who never knew this call, and
- 24:46Speaker 1: this is God's hand reaching to you, saying, don't you
- 24:50Speaker 1: listen to the television shows, don't listen to the magazines,
- 24:53Speaker 1: don't listen to what society says. You are not the
- 24:57Speaker 1: sum of what you had, not the salm of who
- 24:59Speaker 1: you are, not the sum of how you look.
- 25:03Speaker 2: You are a child of God and you were made
- 25:08Speaker 2: for holy purposes.
- 25:11Speaker 1: And you'll get through this because you are his and
- 25:19Speaker 1: it's His dream that never dies. Will you receive God's
- 25:23Speaker 1: call again on your heart? Can we affirm it one
- 25:28Speaker 1: more time? We're going to post that declaration of faith
- 25:32Speaker 1: on the screen, and I'd like to invite you, now,
- 25:35Speaker 1: having been reminded of the call God placed on Joseph's heart,
- 25:39Speaker 1: to affirm the call.
- 25:40Speaker 2: That God has placed on yours.
- 25:43Speaker 1: By God's power, I'll.
- 25:45Speaker 2: Get through this.
- 25:46Speaker 1: It won't be painless, it won't be quick, but God
- 25:50Speaker 1: will use this mess for good.
- 25:53Speaker 2: I won't be.
- 25:54Speaker 1: Foolish or naive, But nor will I despair. With God's help,
- 25:59Speaker 1: I know I will get through this. Here is o Lord.
- 26:03Speaker 1: As we make this declaration, it's our cry out to
- 26:06Speaker 1: you to ask your Father to grant us strength. Father.
- 26:10Speaker 1: For those whose lives are healthy and robust and happy,
- 26:13Speaker 1: we give you thanks. But we know that even in
- 26:16Speaker 1: those seasons, our life can turn down in a moment's notice.
- 26:22Speaker 1: And for those who are today finding themselves on the
- 26:25Speaker 1: road down to Egypt, but you remind them what you
- 26:28Speaker 1: did for Joseph and tell them Father that you can
- 26:31Speaker 1: do it.
- 26:31Speaker 2: Still. Thank you for the hope that we have in you.
- 26:36Speaker 2: Through Christ.
- 26:37Speaker 1: We pray and all God's people said warm.
- 29:48Speaker 3: You don't have the steak sauce. As long as you're
- 30:01Speaker 3: somewhere out there, that's enough for me. I don't need
- 30:11Speaker 3: to hold you near me, don't need promises to keep.
- 30:17Speaker 4: Just the thought that you are breathing somewhere in this world.
- 30:21Speaker 4: I see, even if I'm not beside you, even if
- 30:27Speaker 4: you never know, there's a quiet kind of comfort.
- 30:33Speaker 5: Just in knowing you still glow. I don't need forever,
- 30:44Speaker 5: I just need you to exist.
- 30:49Speaker 6: You don't have to stay with me.
- 30:52Speaker 5: You don't have to feel the same.
- 30:55Speaker 6: Just as long as you're still out there collins softfully
- 31:00Speaker 6: through my days. You don't have to look my way.
- 31:05Speaker 1: You don't have to be my home.
- 31:09Speaker 5: It's enough to know where you're living in the world.
- 31:13Speaker 1: I'm not alone.
- 31:19Speaker 7: I won't chase it through the distance, won't disturb your
- 31:23Speaker 7: chosen life.
- 31:26Speaker 2: I'll just keep you.
- 31:26Speaker 6: In my silence, like a star that shines at night.
- 31:33Speaker 7: Through the darkened, through the blue, I still think of you.
- 31:44Speaker 2: You don't have.
- 31:45Speaker 6: To stay with me.
- 31:47Speaker 1: You don't have to feel the same.
- 31:51Speaker 6: Just as long as you're still out there, calling softly
- 31:56Speaker 6: through my days.
- 31:58Speaker 8: You don't have to look away.
- 32:01Speaker 6: You don't have to be in my home. It's enough
- 32:05Speaker 6: to know where you're living in a world. I'm not alone.
- 32:26Speaker 5: I don't need to be your late. I don't need
- 32:30Speaker 5: to cross your mind. All I need is.
- 32:33Speaker 7: Just the truth that you're somewhere, still alive.
- 32:42Speaker 8: You don't have to stay with me, You don't have
- 32:46Speaker 8: to feel the same. Just as long as you're still after,
- 32:52Speaker 8: calling softly through my days.
- 32:55Speaker 1: You don't have to look my way.
- 32:59Speaker 2: You don't have to be my home.
- 33:03Speaker 1: Enough to know you're living in the world.
- 33:09Speaker 5: I'm not alone.