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The Purpose of Your Pit- Minister Max Lucado · Max Lucado Daily Sermons

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  Speaker 1: Hello, friends. I'm Max Lakedo. Welcome to Fresh Hope. I'm
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  Speaker 1: so glad you joined me. As we wrap up this
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  Speaker 1: series based on my book, you'll get through this. My
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  Speaker 1: prayer is that your hope has risen up and that
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  Speaker 1: your faith has grown. You know, through the life of Joseph,
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  Speaker 1: we see clearly that God can restore even the most
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  Speaker 1: painful circumstances. Find comfort, friend, in the knowledge that you
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  Speaker 1: are God's child and you will get through this. Life
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  Speaker 1: turns all of us upside down, doesn't it? Not one
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  Speaker 1: of us makes it through unscathed. Not the woman who
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  Speaker 1: discovers her husband is having an affair. Not the businessman
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  Speaker 1: whose investments are embezzled by a crooked colleague. Not the
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  Speaker 1: teenager who discovers that a night of romance has resulted
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  Speaker 1: in a surprise pregnancy. Not the pastor who feels his
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  Speaker 1: faith shaken by questions of suffering and fear. We'd be
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  Speaker 1: foolish to think we're not vulnerable, but we'd be just
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  Speaker 1: as foolish to think that evil wins the day. The
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  Speaker 1: Bible reverberates with this steady drumbeat of faith. God recycles
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  Speaker 1: evil into righteousness. Perhaps you've joined us for this series
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  Speaker 1: in search of a quick fix for your problems. Sorry
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  Speaker 1: to disappoint you. I don't have an easy solution or
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  Speaker 1: a magic wand, but I have found something, someone far better.
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  Speaker 1: God Himself. When God gets in the middle of life,
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  Speaker 1: evil becomes good. Haven't we discovered this in the story
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  Speaker 1: of Joseph? He experienced every setback imaginable. Family rejection, deportation, slavery, imprisonment.
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  Speaker 1: Yet he emerged triumphant, a hero of his generation. In
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  Speaker 1: his final test, coming face to face with the brothers
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  Speaker 1: who tried to kill him, God's power to turn evil
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  Speaker 1: to good, is on full display. After famine hit the land,
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  Speaker 1: Joseph's brothers traveled to Egypt, the place they knew had
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  Speaker 1: storehouses of grain. What they did not know was that
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  Speaker 1: the brother they assumed long dead was the one responsible
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  Speaker 1: for those storehouses. Joseph recognized his brothers immediately, but Genesis 42,
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  Speaker 1: 8 says they did not recognize him. Joseph saw an
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  Speaker 1: opportunity to He gave his brothers a taste of their
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  Speaker 1: own medicine. When he saw them in the bread line,
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  Speaker 1: he snapped at them. He accused them of treachery and
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  Speaker 1: threw them in jail. Isn't it good to know Joseph
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  Speaker 1: was human? I mean, the guy was so good it hurt.
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  Speaker 1: He endured slavery, succeeded in a foreign land, mastered a
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  Speaker 1: new language, resisted sexual seductions. He was the model prisoner
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  Speaker 1: and the perfect counselor to the king. We expect him
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  Speaker 1: to see his brothers and declare what Jesus did in
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  Speaker 1: the book of Luke. Father, forgive them for they know
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  Speaker 1: not what they do. That's in chapter 23 and verse 34.
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  Speaker 1: But he didn't. He didn't because, well, forgiving jerks is
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  Speaker 1: the hardest trick in the bag. We will feed the poor.
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  Speaker 1: We will counsel the king. But do what Ephesians 4.32 instructs.
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  Speaker 1: Forgive each other just as in Christ God forgave you. No,
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  Speaker 1: no thank you. That's where we draw the line. Don't
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  Speaker 1: you know Satan was cheering Joseph on? You see, Satan
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  Speaker 1: loves vengeance. He loves a bitter heart. For a moment
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  Speaker 1: in the story, we think maybe Satan will get his way.
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  Speaker 1: What was intended for evil will remain evil. But Joseph's
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  Speaker 1: heart did not stay bitter. Fast forward to Genesis 45.
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  Speaker 1: Joseph had hidden his identity from his brothers for as
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  Speaker 1: long as he could stand. He had played all the
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  Speaker 1: tricks he could play. Finally, he said, I am Joseph,
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  Speaker 1: your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. That's in verse 4.
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  Speaker 1: In verses 7 through 8, he explains what he now
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  Speaker 1: knows was the purpose of his pit. God sent me
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  Speaker 1: before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth
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  Speaker 1: and keep alive for you many survivors. So it was
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  Speaker 1: not you who sent me here, but God. Hostility and
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  Speaker 1: anger melted onto the marble floor. Joseph didn't talk at
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  Speaker 1: his brothers or over his brothers. Instead, scripture says in
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  Speaker 1: verse 15, he kissed all his brothers. Satan wept too.
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  Speaker 1: His evil plan once again used by God for good.
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  Speaker 1: Among Joseph's final recorded words are these comments to his
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  Speaker 1: brothers in Genesis 50 and verse 20, This is the
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  Speaker 1: repeated pattern in Scripture, evil, God, good. This pattern in
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  Speaker 1: Joseph's life was a foreshadowing of our Savior's. How many
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  Speaker 1: times in Jesus' earthly life did bad become good? The
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  Speaker 1: Bethlehem innkeeper told Jesus' parents to try their luck in
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  Speaker 1: the barn. That was bad. God entered the world in
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  Speaker 1: the umblest place on earth. That was good. The wedding
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  Speaker 1: had no wine.
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  Speaker 2: Bad.
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  Speaker 1: The wedding guests witnessed the first miracle of Jesus. Good.
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  Speaker 1: The storm scared the faith out of the apostles. Bad.
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  Speaker 1: The sign of waterwalking Jesus turned them into worshipers. Good.
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  Speaker 1: Five thousand men needed food for their families. Bad day
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  Speaker 1: to be a disciple. But Jesus turned a basket into
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  Speaker 1: a bakery. Good day to be a disciple. With Jesus,
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  Speaker 1: bed became good just as night becomes day, regularly, reliably, refreshingly,
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  Speaker 1: and redemptively. See the cross on the hill? Can you
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  Speaker 1: hear the soldiers pound the nails? Jesus' enemies smirk. Satan's
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  Speaker 1: demons lurk. All that is evil rubs its hands in glee.
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  Speaker 1: This time, Satan whispers, This time I will win. And
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  Speaker 1: for a sad Friday and a silent Saturday, it appeared
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  Speaker 1: he had the final breath, the battered body. Mary wept.
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  Speaker 1: Blood seeped down the cross into the dirt. Followers lowered
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  Speaker 1: God's Son before the sun set. Soldiers sealed the tomb,
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  Speaker 1: and night fell over the earth. Yet what Satan intended
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  Speaker 1: as the ultimate evil God used for the ultimate good.
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  Speaker 1: God rolled the rock away and Jesus walked out on
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  Speaker 1: Sunday morning, a smile on his face and a bounce
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  Speaker 1: in his steps. And if you look closely, you can
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  Speaker 1: see Satan running from the cemetery with his tail between
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  Speaker 1: his legs. Will I ever win? He grumbles. No, he won't.
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  Speaker 1: The stories of Jesus, Joseph, and a thousand others assure
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  Speaker 1: us that what Satan intends for evil, God uses for good.
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  Speaker 1: My friend Christine Kane is walking proof of this promise.
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  Speaker 1: She is an Australian spark plug. Five feet three inches
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  Speaker 1: of energy, passion, and love. To sit down with Christine
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  Speaker 1: is to share a meal with a modern-day Joseph. She
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  Speaker 1: is at war with one of the greatest calamities of
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  Speaker 1: our generation, sex slavery. She travels 300 days a year.
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  Speaker 1: She meets with cabinets, presidents, and parliaments. She stares down
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  Speaker 1: pimps and defies organized crime. With God as her helper,
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  Speaker 1: she will see sex slavery brought to its knees. Pretty
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  Speaker 1: impressive for a girl who was also once abused. Time
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  Speaker 1: and time again, Christine's family members took advantage of her,
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  Speaker 1: and they turned her childhood into a horror story of
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  Speaker 1: one encounter after another, 12 years of unbridled and ugly evil.
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  Speaker 1: Yet what they intended for evil, God used for good.
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  Speaker 1: Christine chose to heed not the hurts of her past,
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  Speaker 1: but the promise of her Heavenly Father. And she made
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  Speaker 1: a Joseph-like decision to believe in the God who believed
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  Speaker 1: in her. And years later, when she heard of the
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  Speaker 1: plight of girls caught in the sex trade, she knew
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  Speaker 1: how to respond. Satan's plan to destroy her actually emboldened
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  Speaker 1: her resolve to help others. Her A21 mission has offices
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  Speaker 1: around the world. They combat human trafficking, establish prevention programs
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  Speaker 1: in schools and orphanages. They represent victims as legal advocates,
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  Speaker 1: and they give them refuge in safe houses, then restoration
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  Speaker 1: in transition homes. Once again, what Satan intended for evil, God, well,
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  Speaker 1: you know the rest. Or do you? Do you believe
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  Speaker 1: that no evil is beyond God's reach? That he can
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  Speaker 1: redeem every pit, including this one, in which you find yourself?
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  Speaker 1: What if Joseph had given up on God? Lord knows
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  Speaker 1: he could have turned his back on heaven. At any
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  Speaker 1: point along his broken road, he could have turned sour
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  Speaker 1: and walked away. You could give up on God as well.
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  Speaker 1: The cemetery of hope is overpopulated with sour souls who
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  Speaker 1: have settled for a small God. Don't be among them.
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  Speaker 1: God is doing in our generation what he did in
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  Speaker 1: ancient Egypt, redeeming a remnant of people. In his final book,
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  Speaker 1: God reiterates his vision, a great multitude which no one
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  Speaker 1: could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing
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  Speaker 1: before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white
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  Speaker 1: robes and palm branches in their hands, and crying out
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  Speaker 1: with a loud voice, saying, Salvation belongs to our God
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  Speaker 1: who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. That's
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  Speaker 1: Revelation 7, 9 and 10. This dream drives the heart
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  Speaker 1: of God. His purpose from all eternity is to prepare
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  Speaker 1: a family to indwell the kingdom of God. For I
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  Speaker 1: know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord,
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  Speaker 1: plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to
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  Speaker 1: give you a hope and a future. Jeremiah 29 and
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  Speaker 1: verse 11. Oh, the beauty of the thrice repeated word plans.
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  Speaker 1: God is plotting for our good and all the setbacks,
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  Speaker 1: all the slip ups. He is ordaining the best for
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  Speaker 1: our future. And every event of our day is designed
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  Speaker 1: to draw us toward our God and our destiny. And
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  Speaker 1: to the degree that we believe and accept His vision
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  Speaker 1: for our lives, we will get through life. When people
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  Speaker 1: junk us in the pit, we will stand up. God
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  Speaker 1: can use this for good. When family members sell us out,
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  Speaker 1: we will climb to our feet. God will recycle this pain.
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  Speaker 1: falsely accused, wrongly imprisoned, utterly abandoned. We may stumble, but
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  Speaker 1: we will not fall.
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  Speaker 3: Why?
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  Speaker 1: God works out everything in conformity with the purpose of
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  Speaker 1: His will. Ephesians 1 and verse 11. Everything means everything.
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  Speaker 1: No exceptions. Everything in your life is leading to a
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  Speaker 1: climactic moment. in which Jesus will reconcile to himself all things,
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  Speaker 1: whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making
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  Speaker 1: peace through his blood shed on the cross. Colossians 1
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  Speaker 1: and verse 20. God sees a Joseph in you.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, you.
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  Speaker 1: You in the pit. You with your family full of
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  Speaker 1: flops and failures. You, incarcerated in your own version of
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  Speaker 1: an Egyptian jail. God is speaking to you. Your family
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  Speaker 1: needs a Joseph. A courier of grace in a day
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  Speaker 1: of anger and revenge. Your descendants need a Joseph. A
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  Speaker 1: sturdy link in the chain of faith. Your generation needs
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  Speaker 1: a Joseph. There is a famine out there. Will you
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  Speaker 1: harvest hope and distribute it to the people? Will you
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  Speaker 1: be a Joseph? Trust God. I mean, really trust Him.
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  Speaker 1: He'll get you through this. Will it be easy or quick?
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  Speaker 1: I sure hope so. But it seldom is. Yet God
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  Speaker 1: will make good out of this mess. That's His job.
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  Speaker 1: Just like Joseph, you will get through this.
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  Speaker 2: Everything I used to live for Faded slowly out of
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  Speaker 2: sight Now my days just circle around you Like I'm
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  Speaker 2: lost without a light All.
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  Speaker 4: The noise just turns to silence When your memory comes
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  Speaker 4: through And the world I once was chasing now feels small.
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  Speaker 1: And shaped like you.
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  Speaker 3: My whole world is only you Every thought keeps breaking
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  Speaker 3: through You're so close inside my mind But so far
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  Speaker 3: in real.
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  Speaker 2: Life I can feel you everywhere In the things we
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  Speaker 2: never shared All.
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  Speaker 3: This love I'm going through Never reaches you.
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  Speaker 5: Every image feels so real now Like you're standing next
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  Speaker 5: to me But the truth is in the silence You
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  Speaker 5: were never meant to see.
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  Speaker 3: My whole world is only you. Every thought keeps breaking through.
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  Speaker 3: You're so close inside my mind, but so far in
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  Speaker 3: real life. I can feel you everywhere in the things
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  Speaker 3: we never shared. All this love I'm going through. never
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  Speaker 3: reaches you if you felt it for a moment would
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  Speaker 3: it change the way you stay.
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  Speaker 2: Or would i still be the shadow that just fades away.
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  Speaker 3: My world is only you But your world's a different
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  Speaker 3: view I'm just someone passing by In your open sky
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  Speaker 3: Still I hold on to what's true Every heartbeat calls
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  Speaker 3: for you All this love I always knew Will never
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  Speaker 3: reach you Ooh Hmm Hmm