Latest / Max Lucado Daily Sermons / How To Survive A Crisis- Minister Max Lucado
Transcript
- 0:16Speaker 1: And that is the promise of the life of the
- 0:18Speaker 1: story of Joseph. You will get through this with God's help.
- 0:23Speaker 1: If you're tuning in online and you're new to Oak
- 0:27Speaker 1: Hills on one of our campuses, we welcome you. There's
- 0:30Speaker 1: a YouVersion button that you can click if you're watching
- 0:33Speaker 1: online and access all of the verses in the outline.
- 0:36Speaker 1: And if you're on one of the campuses and you'd
- 0:38Speaker 1: like to follow along on the outline, that outline will
- 0:42Speaker 1: come in handy later today. As a part of this
- 0:45Speaker 1: sermon series, we've developed a statement of faith, a declaration,
- 0:49Speaker 1: if you will, of our belief that God gets us
- 0:52Speaker 1: through things. So if you'd like to state it out
- 0:54Speaker 1: loud with me, just fill your lungs with air and
- 0:56Speaker 1: your hearts with hope. And we're going to say it together.
- 0:59Speaker 1: Are you ready? By God's power, I'll get through this.
- 1:04Speaker 1: It won't be painless. It won't be quick. But God
- 1:07Speaker 1: will use this mess for good. I won't be foolish
- 1:11Speaker 1: or naïve. but nor will I despair. With God's help,
- 1:16Speaker 1: I know I will get through this. And it's your
- 1:19Speaker 1: help that we request, Father. We've tried our own help.
- 1:23Speaker 1: We've tried self-help. We've tried the help of other people,
- 1:26Speaker 1: but we need divine intervention. Please, dear Father, talk to
- 1:30Speaker 1: our hurting hearts today. Grant us strength and faith. Forgive
- 1:34Speaker 1: the sins of the one who speaks, for they are many.
- 1:37Speaker 1: And help us to see Jesus. And all God's people said,
- 1:43Speaker 1: If you've ever read the story of Joseph, you know
- 1:45Speaker 1: that he just faced one crisis after another. In fact,
- 1:49Speaker 1: it occurred to me as I was rereading the whole
- 1:52Speaker 1: story here a few days ago that the story of Joseph,
- 1:55Speaker 1: it just sounds like a sad country song. So we thought,
- 2:01Speaker 1: why not? Why not?
- 2:18Speaker 2: First thing I remember knowing Was Egyptian wind blowing And
- 2:28Speaker 2: all my dreams are going up in smoke.
- 2:33Speaker 1: In a slave line leaving.
- 2:35Speaker 2: Town Not knowing where I was bound Felt deserted and
- 2:40Speaker 2: alone But Lord I tried Here we go Was my
- 2:45Speaker 2: daddy's favorite child.
- 2:48Speaker 1: Mrs.
- 2:48Speaker 2: Potiphar was wild. I had no way of knowing what
- 2:53Speaker 2: she'd do. Despite all my God's learning, to me she
- 2:59Speaker 2: kept on turning. Still I ended up in jail because
- 3:04Speaker 2: she lied.
- 3:06Speaker 1: All right, here we go. I turned 28 in prison,
- 3:10Speaker 1: doing life without parole.
- 3:13Speaker 2: My brothers let me down, but still I tried.
- 3:17Speaker 1: Yes, I tried. Now I'm Pharaoh's chief of staff.
- 3:21Speaker 3: Famine's on my epitaph.
- 3:24Speaker 2: And I'm wondering if we'll make it out alive.
- 3:27Speaker 1: All right, Johnson.
- 3:40Speaker 3: Well, through this the preacher urged, I believed him, I encouraged,
- 3:46Speaker 3: even used my tail to show me that I would.
- 3:51Speaker 2: Won't be easy, won't be.
- 3:54Speaker 1: Quick, staying strong's no easy trick.
- 3:58Speaker 2: But God can use this mess for something good. Come on, everybody,
- 4:03Speaker 2: sing along. I turned 28 in prison, doing life without parole.
- 4:08Speaker 2: My brothers let me down, but still I tried.
- 4:13Speaker 1: Yes, I tried. Now I'm Pharaoh's chief of staff. Famine's
- 4:18Speaker 1: on my epitaph.
- 4:19Speaker 2: And I'm wondering if we'll make it out alive. With
- 4:25Speaker 2: God's help, I know we'll make it out alive.
- 4:30Speaker 1: Yee-haw! I told somebody we're going to go on the road.
- 5:01Speaker 1: They said, well, we hope you don't come back. You
- 5:09Speaker 1: didn't see that coming, did you? It does read like
- 5:15Speaker 1: a sad country song, though, doesn't it? One crisis after another,
- 5:19Speaker 1: Joseph had to face one challenge after another, maybe like you,
- 5:24Speaker 1: maybe like your life. You know, the story of Joseph
- 5:29Speaker 1: has a couple of layers to it. As you look
- 5:31Speaker 1: at all of the challenges that he had in reconciling
- 5:35Speaker 1: with his brothers, at the same time he was facing
- 5:38Speaker 1: those challenges, he was managing a worldwide famine. Look at
- 5:42Speaker 1: this one sentence summary of the problem he faced. It's
- 5:46Speaker 1: in Genesis 47, 13. Now there was no bread in
- 5:50Speaker 1: all the land for the famine was very severe. So
- 5:54Speaker 1: that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan
- 5:57Speaker 1: languished because of the famine. It's been two years since
- 6:01Speaker 1: the last drop of rain. Sky was endlessly blue. The
- 6:04Speaker 1: sun was relentlessly hot. Animal carcasses everywhere. No farms that
- 6:10Speaker 1: could produce a crop. No food. And so the people
- 6:15Speaker 1: all came to Pharaoh. And guess where the Pharaoh sent
- 6:18Speaker 1: the people? They said, go to Joseph. And whatever he
- 6:22Speaker 1: says to you, do it. So at the same time
- 6:26Speaker 1: Joseph was trying to reconcile with his brothers, he was
- 6:29Speaker 1: actually heading up a worldwide relief initiative. Maybe you know
- 6:34Speaker 1: what it's like to have a crisis at work and
- 6:36Speaker 1: then tension at home. You just can't seem to get
- 6:40Speaker 1: away from it. And that's exactly what Joseph was facing.
- 6:44Speaker 1: Yet contrast the description of the problem in verse 13
- 6:50Speaker 1: with the description of the solution in verse 25. the
- 6:54Speaker 1: people came a year later and they said, Joseph, you
- 6:58Speaker 1: have saved our lives. Let us find favor in the
- 7:02Speaker 1: sight of my Lord and we will be Pharaoh's servants. Now,
- 7:06Speaker 1: wouldn't you like your crisis to turn out like that?
- 7:08Speaker 1: Wouldn't you like someday the people you're trying to help
- 7:12Speaker 1: come to you and say, you know what? You got
- 7:14Speaker 1: us through this. And we thank you. What happened between
- 7:19Speaker 1: verse 13 and verse 25 that can teach us how
- 7:22Speaker 1: to manage our own crisis? Because The Lord knows they
- 7:25Speaker 1: still come. Hurricanes still hit. Houses still burn down. Bull
- 7:30Speaker 1: markets turn bare. We all face crisis, but have you
- 7:33Speaker 1: noticed that we don't face them equally? The same challenge
- 7:38Speaker 1: that embitters one person emboldens the other. The same challenge
- 7:44Speaker 1: that drives one person to despair will drive another person
- 7:48Speaker 1: to prayer. The same crisis that leads one person to
- 7:52Speaker 1: the bottle takes another person to the Bible. Why the difference?
- 7:58Speaker 1: I think Joseph can give us a couple of practical
- 8:01Speaker 1: reminders about how to face a crisis. First of all,
- 8:06Speaker 1: if you'd like to fill in the blank, look at
- 8:08Speaker 1: the perspective of Joseph. Look at this perspective that he
- 8:11Speaker 1: took into this crisis. And that is God is in this.
- 8:16Speaker 1: We know this. So many times he makes reference to
- 8:19Speaker 1: this in his words. But most particularly, when he describes
- 8:23Speaker 1: the crisis to his brothers. He says to his brothers,
- 8:27Speaker 1: God sent me before you to preserve life. For these
- 8:30Speaker 1: two years, the famine has been in the land. And
- 8:33Speaker 1: there are still five years in which there will be
- 8:35Speaker 1: neither plowing nor harvesting. And God sent me before you.
- 8:39Speaker 1: Now look at this. He describes the problem. He has
- 8:42Speaker 1: an accurate assessment of the crisis, this famine. But he
- 8:45Speaker 1: precedes the assessment by saying God sent me here. And
- 8:49Speaker 1: then he concludes the assessment by saying God sent me here.
- 8:53Speaker 1: How does that contrast? How does that compare with your
- 8:57Speaker 1: description of your crisis? If you're like me, I tend
- 9:02Speaker 1: to describe the crisis. But I don't say God used it.
- 9:05Speaker 1: God used it. We draw the conclusion that the presence
- 9:09Speaker 1: of a crisis suggests the absence of Christ. But Joseph
- 9:13Speaker 1: didn't make that. That assumption. He was aware that everything
- 9:19Speaker 1: in life, whether pleasure or pain, was free game for
- 9:23Speaker 1: God to use. I had breakfast not too long ago
- 9:27Speaker 1: with a high school classmate. Spent most of our time
- 9:31Speaker 1: talking about the health of his son. His son is
- 9:34Speaker 1: now 14 years of age, but I remember some years
- 9:36Speaker 1: ago when the boy was 7 years of age, that
- 9:39Speaker 1: the boy was diagnosed with a tumor behind his spleen. Now,
- 9:44Speaker 1: they were able to go in and remove the tumor.
- 9:46Speaker 1: The boy is leading a wonderful, healthy life. He's getting
- 9:49Speaker 1: ready to try out for the high school football team.
- 9:52Speaker 1: He's all excited, healthy boy. But I asked my friend,
- 9:56Speaker 1: now tell me again the story about how this spleen,
- 9:59Speaker 1: this tumor was discovered because I remember it was such
- 10:02Speaker 1: a fascinating story. He said, yeah, the cousins were horsing
- 10:06Speaker 1: around and one of the cousins kicked my son in
- 10:10Speaker 1: the stomach. He was seven years of age and he
- 10:13Speaker 1: just accidentally kicked him in the stomach. Well, of course
- 10:16Speaker 1: that hurt because But this created a pain that was
- 10:19Speaker 1: more than just the expected pain. And so I took
- 10:22Speaker 1: my son to the emergency room. And what the doctors
- 10:25Speaker 1: saw caused him to run some tests. And the tests
- 10:29Speaker 1: caused him to call in a surgeon. And what the
- 10:32Speaker 1: surgeon saw caused him to schedule immediate surgery. And they
- 10:35Speaker 1: went in and they removed a tumor that had been
- 10:38Speaker 1: growing on the boy's spleens. And the father asked the surgeon,
- 10:44Speaker 1: now when do you think that tumor appeared? And the
- 10:47Speaker 1: surgeon said, well, there's no way of knowing for sure,
- 10:49Speaker 1: but judging from the shape and the size, maybe two
- 10:53Speaker 1: or three days. And so I said to the friend,
- 10:57Speaker 1: I said, so the Lord used a kick in the
- 10:59Speaker 1: gut to get your attention, to save the life of
- 11:05Speaker 1: your son. Do you think God would use a kick
- 11:08Speaker 1: in the gut for his good? And then there's the
- 11:13Speaker 1: story of Isabel Schnake. Isabel was three and a half
- 11:17Speaker 1: years of age when she found herself as an orphan
- 11:21Speaker 1: in a Nicaraguan orphanage. No mother, no father, no hope
- 11:26Speaker 1: of either. And as with all adoptions, the odds of
- 11:32Speaker 1: her being adopted decreased the older she got. So every
- 11:35Speaker 1: passing week and month decreased the odds that she would
- 11:39Speaker 1: ever be placed in a family. So It just seemed
- 11:41Speaker 1: like the world was stacked against her. And then to
- 11:45Speaker 1: make matters worse, God slammed a door on her finger. Well,
- 11:49Speaker 1: a door slammed on her finger. She was only three
- 11:53Speaker 1: and a half years of age. Remember following some children
- 11:55Speaker 1: out into the playground and someone opened the screen door
- 11:58Speaker 1: and she got her finger in the wrong place and
- 12:00Speaker 1: the door slammed and caught her finger in there. And
- 12:02Speaker 1: she just let out a scream. Pain went up her arm.
- 12:06Speaker 1: And we could be standing there watching that event saying,
- 12:08Speaker 1: come on, God, not another pain, not another problem this
- 12:12Speaker 1: little girl has had to face so much. Why would
- 12:15Speaker 1: a benevolent, omnipotent God permit this mishap? Might it be
- 12:22Speaker 1: to get the attention of Ryan Schnake, the American would-be
- 12:26Speaker 1: father who's sitting in the playroom nearby? He and his wife, Christina,
- 12:31Speaker 1: who are Oak Hill's members. Christina's on our staff. had
- 12:35Speaker 1: been trying to adopt a child now by this point
- 12:39Speaker 1: for several months, just running into one dead end after another.
- 12:44Speaker 1: He was at the orphanage and he heard this girl scream,
- 12:48Speaker 1: this little child, and no one was around. So he
- 12:50Speaker 1: walked over and picked her up and held her, put
- 12:54Speaker 1: her back down. Several months later, Ryan and Christina were
- 12:57Speaker 1: close to giving up on adoption. And Ryan remembered that
- 13:01Speaker 1: little girl. He remembered how his heart went out to
- 13:05Speaker 1: her and he said, Christine, I want to try one
- 13:08Speaker 1: more time. I'm going to try to adopt that little
- 13:10Speaker 1: girl whose finger got caught in the door. And that
- 13:14Speaker 1: time the adoption succeeded. And little Isabel's growing up in
- 13:19Speaker 1: a happy, healthy home right here. A kick in the gut.
- 13:27Speaker 1: A finger in the door. Wonder what kind of pain
- 13:31Speaker 1: God has permitted to come into your life I do
- 13:38Speaker 1: not hold to the philosophy that God is out promoting
- 13:42Speaker 1: and creating pain. I don't think that fits his character.
- 13:46Speaker 1: But I do believe that we live in a fallen
- 13:48Speaker 1: world where pain as a consequence is felt by all
- 13:52Speaker 1: of us. And I do believe that God can use
- 13:55Speaker 1: that pain for something good. And our first response to
- 14:00Speaker 1: a crisis must not be God's not in this, but
- 14:03Speaker 1: it must be God is in this. The Bible says
- 14:07Speaker 1: that God is the blessed controller of all things. His
- 14:12Speaker 1: judgments are unsearchable. His paths beyond tracing out. We cannot
- 14:17Speaker 1: always see what God is doing. But can we not assume?
- 14:22Speaker 1: Can we not just assume that he's up to something good?
- 14:27Speaker 1: Joseph did. He assumed that God was in the crisis.
- 14:30Speaker 1: And then as a result he had the courage to
- 14:32Speaker 1: face the crisis with a plan. Look at the plan
- 14:36Speaker 1: of Joseph. Joseph said, I can do this. I can
- 14:39Speaker 1: do this. And he came up with a plan. Joseph
- 14:41Speaker 1: collected all the money in Egypt and Canaan in exchange
- 14:44Speaker 1: for the grain. And he brought the money to Pharaoh's
- 14:47Speaker 1: treasure house. When the people of Egypt and Canaan ran
- 14:51Speaker 1: out of money, they gave their livestock to Joseph in
- 14:53Speaker 1: exchange for food. Soon all the horses and flocks and
- 14:57Speaker 1: herds and donkeys of Egypt were in Pharaoh's possession. But
- 15:02Speaker 1: at least they were able to purchase food for that year.
- 15:04Speaker 1: The next year they came again and they said, our
- 15:06Speaker 1: money's gone. Our livestock are yours. We have nothing left
- 15:09Speaker 1: but bodies and land. So Joseph bought all the land
- 15:12Speaker 1: of Egypt for Pharaoh. All the Egyptians sold him their
- 15:16Speaker 1: fields because the famine was so severe and their land
- 15:20Speaker 1: then belonged to Pharaoh. Now this was an extreme reaction
- 15:24Speaker 1: to a nation in crisis. You read this, you may
- 15:27Speaker 1: have the same response that I did. What is Joseph doing?
- 15:30Speaker 1: It's like he's centralizing all of the possessions under the
- 15:34Speaker 1: of Pharaoh. But this is a famine. This nation is
- 15:39Speaker 1: in crisis. And so Joseph goes to extreme measure to
- 15:43Speaker 1: collect everything in one central organization so that it can
- 15:46Speaker 1: be properly administered. And then he begins releasing the people
- 15:50Speaker 1: little by little to farm their land again. The consequence,
- 15:53Speaker 1: the outcome was the people were thankful for what Joseph
- 15:57Speaker 1: had done. Joseph came with a plan. Just a simple plan,
- 16:02Speaker 1: a plan that could fit on an index card. We're
- 16:05Speaker 1: going to save up for seven years. We'll be ready
- 16:07Speaker 1: for seven years of famine. And during the tough times,
- 16:09Speaker 1: we will administer the food that we have so that
- 16:12Speaker 1: the people will not die. This was the plan he
- 16:15Speaker 1: told Pharaoh. He told Pharaoh to appoint officers over the
- 16:19Speaker 1: land to collect one-fifth of the produce of the land
- 16:22Speaker 1: of Egypt in the seven plentiful years that food shall
- 16:25Speaker 1: be as a reserve for the land in the seven
- 16:27Speaker 1: years of famine. So for seven years, Joseph followed this plan.
- 16:32Speaker 1: Day after day, month after month, year after year. Joseph
- 16:38Speaker 1: indwelt the world of ledgers and flow charts and end
- 16:42Speaker 1: of the year reports and tabulations and calculations. He just
- 16:46Speaker 1: came up with a plan. And because he did, the
- 16:50Speaker 1: nation survived. Now you may prefer the Bible character Joseph.
- 16:58Speaker 1: who has more miraculous and immediate solutions to crises. Like Moses,
- 17:04Speaker 1: who would raise the staff and the Red Sea would open.
- 17:06Speaker 1: Like Joshua, who would send his army marching around Jericho
- 17:10Speaker 1: seven times and the walls would come down. Like David,
- 17:14Speaker 1: who went in to fight Goliath with the five stones
- 17:17Speaker 1: and the swish, swish, swish of the sling. Maybe you
- 17:20Speaker 1: prefer stories like that. And maybe you're waiting on God
- 17:24Speaker 1: to solve your crisis with some wonderful, miraculous intervention. And
- 17:29Speaker 1: He may. But I've observed, and I think you would agree,
- 17:32Speaker 1: that more often than not, God solves our crises with
- 17:38Speaker 1: a steady plan. A Joseph. You see, Joseph is remembered
- 17:43Speaker 1: not because he raised the dead and not because he
- 17:46Speaker 1: healed the sick, but because he came up with a
- 17:49Speaker 1: plan that prevented people from dying and helped the sickness
- 17:54Speaker 1: to be contained. In all the stories of the Bible,
- 17:59Speaker 1: Joseph stands out as the patron saint for administrators. For managers.
- 18:08Speaker 1: For project coordinators. For people who spend their days just
- 18:14Speaker 1: making sure that everything is moving along at a regular pace.
- 18:19Speaker 1: And I would imagine that many of you, maybe most
- 18:21Speaker 1: of you, find that encouraging. Not many people are a Moses.
- 18:26Speaker 1: Not many people are a writer like Paul. Not many
- 18:29Speaker 1: people inspire with the sermons like Peter did. But many
- 18:33Speaker 1: of us are called to manage things. To manage a household.
- 18:38Speaker 1: To manage a business. To manage a team. And God
- 18:43Speaker 1: has a place for the Josephs of the world. Have
- 18:46Speaker 1: you ever noticed we don't read any of the prayers
- 18:48Speaker 1: that Joseph prayed? They're not recorded. We don't have a
- 18:51Speaker 1: single sermon from Joseph's life. But what we have is
- 18:55Speaker 1: a picture of a man who made a plan and
- 19:01Speaker 1: stuck with it. Day by day. Month by month. year
- 19:06Speaker 1: by year. Are you in a crisis? Well, you can
- 19:11Speaker 1: do this. You can come up with a plan. You
- 19:16Speaker 1: can come up with a plan. You can come up
- 19:19Speaker 1: with a plan that can fit on an index card
- 19:22Speaker 1: and you can stick with it. There's so many things
- 19:25Speaker 1: in life that you and I cannot control. We cannot
- 19:27Speaker 1: control the weather. We cannot control the economy. We can't
- 19:31Speaker 1: control the length of the preacher's sermons. We We cannot
- 19:34Speaker 1: undo a car wreck. We cannot call back the tsunami,
- 19:38Speaker 1: but we can always develop a plan. If you and
- 19:43Speaker 1: I were sitting down over a cup of coffee and
- 19:45Speaker 1: talking about this crisis that had come into your life,
- 19:49Speaker 1: I would have done my best. to listen carefully as
- 19:51Speaker 1: you described the crisis and then I would have tried
- 19:54Speaker 1: to say now listen God can use this the first
- 19:58Speaker 1: mistake is to think that God is absent don't make
- 20:01Speaker 1: that mistake and then my second question would be what's
- 20:05Speaker 1: your plan what's the one thing you can do today
- 20:08Speaker 1: to Don't be paralyzed by fear. Don't be sucked into inactivity.
- 20:15Speaker 1: Come up with one or two or three things you
- 20:18Speaker 1: can do and imitate Joseph. Stake out a plan and
- 20:26Speaker 1: get to work. Management guru Jim Collins has some good
- 20:31Speaker 1: words here. He and Morton Anderson studied leadership in turbulent
- 20:35Speaker 1: times and they evaluated over 20,000 companies. sifting through data
- 20:41Speaker 1: in search of an answer to this question. Why, in
- 20:44Speaker 1: uncertain times, do some companies thrive while others collapse? In
- 20:52Speaker 1: other words, why do some companies come out of the
- 20:54Speaker 1: other side of an economic turbulence stronger while some of
- 20:58Speaker 1: them are destroyed? The paragraph that caught my attention was this.
- 21:04Speaker 1: Successful leaders are not more creative. They're not more visionary.
- 21:09Speaker 1: They're not more charismatic. They're not more blessed by luck.
- 21:12Speaker 1: They're not more risk-seeking. They're not more heroic. And they're
- 21:16Speaker 1: not more prone to making big, bold moves. Then what
- 21:19Speaker 1: sets them apart? They all led their teams with a
- 21:24Speaker 1: surprising method of self-control in an out-of-control world. And they
- 21:32Speaker 1: gave the example of two teams, both teams trying to
- 21:37Speaker 1: be the first To reach the South Pole. Perhaps you
- 21:41Speaker 1: remember this famous race.
- 21:43Speaker 2: 1911.
- 21:44Speaker 1: Between the Norwegians and the Brits. The Norwegian team was
- 21:48Speaker 1: headed up by Roald Amundsen. The British team headed up
- 21:53Speaker 1: by Robert Scott. They faced the identical challenges on the
- 21:59Speaker 1: same identical unforgiving terrain. They had equal access to technology
- 22:04Speaker 1: and the equipment of the day. Everything was the same.
- 22:08Speaker 1: The elements, the challenges, the size of the team, the
- 22:10Speaker 1: distance to travel, everything was the same. Yet the Norwegian
- 22:15Speaker 1: team arrived 34 days earlier than the team from Great Britain.
- 22:22Speaker 1: What made the difference? Well, the leader of the Norwegian
- 22:26Speaker 1: team was a tireless planner. A planner, a plotter, a planner.
- 22:32Speaker 1: He just kind of planned every detail. Where the leader
- 22:35Speaker 1: of the British team was given to impulsive acts. And
- 22:39Speaker 1: kind of more of a fly-by-night leader. The Norwegian leader,
- 22:45Speaker 1: for example, Amundsen, said, we're going 20 miles a day.
- 22:49Speaker 1: No more, no less. Bad weather, we're going to plug
- 22:53Speaker 1: through and cover 20 miles. Good weather, we're going to
- 22:57Speaker 1: go 20 miles and then we're going to stop. And
- 23:00Speaker 1: they did. They resisted the temptation on the good days
- 23:03Speaker 1: to go farther. Scott, on the other hand, would go, well,
- 23:08Speaker 1: as the weather defined. On good days, he would push
- 23:11Speaker 1: his team to near exhaustion. On bad days, they would
- 23:14Speaker 1: hold up in the tents, sometimes for days at a time,
- 23:17Speaker 1: until the weather blew through. He just kind of followed
- 23:22Speaker 1: what felt right on a given day. As it turned out, Amundsen,
- 23:28Speaker 1: the planner, won the race and made it home without
- 23:33Speaker 1: losing a man. Scott, on the other hand, not only
- 23:36Speaker 1: lost the race, but he lost the lives of every
- 23:41Speaker 1: member of his team. And he lost his own life.
- 23:46Speaker 1: All for the lack of a plan. Don't make the
- 23:50Speaker 1: same mistake. Now, I know if you're in a crisis,
- 23:53Speaker 1: you want an immediate intervention. You want the Red Sea
- 23:58Speaker 1: to open. You want Lazarus to come out of the grave.
- 24:00Speaker 1: And I believe God does that sometimes. But it seems
- 24:04Speaker 1: to me that for every time God does that, there
- 24:06Speaker 1: are many more times in which he says, all right,
- 24:08Speaker 1: I'm in this with you. Don't panic. Don't freak out.
- 24:13Speaker 1: Let's come up with a plan. And what we have
- 24:17Speaker 1: is a wonderful marriage of God's sovereignty with our responsibility.
- 24:23Speaker 1: God's part and our part. God does his part and
- 24:26Speaker 1: we do our part. There's a verse in the book
- 24:29Speaker 1: of Nehemiah that just gives a one-line summary of God's
- 24:33Speaker 1: sovereignty and our responsibility. Nehemiah said, we prayed to our
- 24:38Speaker 1: God and posted a guard day and night to meet
- 24:42Speaker 1: this threat. Think about that verse. We prayed to our
- 24:47Speaker 1: God and then we posted a guard. He didn't say
- 24:52Speaker 1: we prayed to our God and then we didn't do anything.
- 24:55Speaker 1: Nor did we post a guard and not pray. But
- 24:58Speaker 1: healthy response to a crisis is entrusting it to God
- 25:02Speaker 1: and then saying, okay, we better post a guard. Better
- 25:05Speaker 1: keep the powder dry. We better do our part. So
- 25:09Speaker 1: what's your part? What's your part? Suddenly unemployed? You can
- 25:14Speaker 1: write a resume. Sick? You can undergo physical therapy. No car? Well,
- 25:23Speaker 1: you can learn the bus routes. All alone, you can
- 25:27Speaker 1: find two or three friends or people who need friends
- 25:31Speaker 1: even more than you do. The big point is this.
- 25:34Speaker 1: Don't let the crisis paralyze you. Don't let the crisis
- 25:39Speaker 1: control you. Don't get sucked in into a valley of sadness.
- 25:43Speaker 1: Don't let the fear intimidate you. To do nothing is
- 25:47Speaker 1: the wrong thing. To do something is the right thing.
- 25:53Speaker 1: And to believe... Is the highest thing. No it's not easy.
- 26:00Speaker 1: And sometimes it's quick but seldom. More often it takes time.
- 26:05Speaker 1: It's not easy. It's not quick. It isn't for anybody.
- 26:08Speaker 1: But you know what? You're not an anybody are you?
- 26:10Speaker 1: You're a Joseph. You're a Joseph. Yeah you've had your
- 26:14Speaker 1: time in the pit. Yeah you've had your time being
- 26:17Speaker 1: sold out. Yeah you've had your time working through these issues.
- 26:20Speaker 1: But you're learning to see. That God can take a mess.
- 26:24Speaker 1: And he can use it for something good. That he
- 26:27Speaker 1: can take the saddest country song. And turn it into
- 26:32Speaker 1: something happy. Final verse of that song. God saved me
- 26:37Speaker 1: from the pit. Gave me a place to sit. In
- 26:40Speaker 1: the palace where the royal people stay. People meant to
- 26:43Speaker 1: do me wrong. But I'll tell you with this song.
- 26:46Speaker 1: That God can use it all. For something good.
- 26:50Speaker 3: Amen.
- 26:52Speaker 1: Amen. Lord Jesus, thank you so much that you have
- 26:55Speaker 1: granted us this story of Joseph that lifts our spirits.
- 26:59Speaker 1: Please be strong now in this time of prayer and
- 27:02Speaker 1: go where a preacher's words or a counselor's advice cannot go.
- 27:06Speaker 1: Go deep in our hearts and bring healing. Through Jesus
- 27:09Speaker 1: we pray and all God's people say. Thanks for watching!