Practical Living

Dale O'Shields: Thank you for joining us for today's Practical Living broadcast, and I pray that through this message that you will learn how to apply God's Word and truths to any situation in your life. Stay with us as we discover God's truths that will transform us.

Well, today I want to pick up the series we've been involved in as we started the first of this year and we took a little break from it last weekend because of the snow that happened to us and I talked to you about Naman last week. I hope that you were able to be a part of that, either on Saturday night or you tuned in online on Sunday. I'm going to pick up again today with the Life Quake theme, learning how to stay sane in stressful times.

We're going to turn our attention back to the character we were studying just a couple of weeks ago, his name is Joseph. Let me start by telling you what this series is all about. What does it mean life quake? As we go through life, all of us experience all kind of traumatic moments and difficult moments, stressful moments. Times when our life seems to be shaken. Some of these moments are things that you can anticipate. You know that if you're about to get married, that's going to change your life. If you're about to have your first child, that's going to change your life. If you're changing jobs. All of these things are moments that produce in and of themselves a certain amount of stress in your life.

But there are other things that will come your way in life that you cannot anticipate. You don't know they're going to happen, but then you find yourself dealing with these moments. And these are the moments that can shake your world very significantly. They can sort of mess with your mind and affect your emotions and certainly even affect your physical body.

Jesus himself talked about these life quake moments in the gospel of Matthew chapter 7 where he talked about two men who built houses. One man built his house upon rock and another man built his house upon sand. Both of these men as Jesus described, they go through the storms of life, the rain and the winds come to both of them. One man's house will stand, the other will fall. The man whose house is built on the rock is able to endure all the shaking that comes his way. The man who builds his house on the sand, his house collapses.

And Jesus equates that with the man who builds his house on the commandments and obedience to the commandments of God's Word. That's a strong life. You life quake your life, you protect yourself from those moments when life can become very shaky to you. You can survive these moments and stay sane and stay strong in stressful times. And there are all kinds of things that stress us out. All kind of things that shake us up. And one of those things is something I'm talking about this weekend as we did two weekends ago, disappointments.

And many times in life, you can be severely shaken by something that disappoints you. Something you expected to happen that didn't happen. Something you expected to happen at a particular time and it didn't happen. Or something that you expected to happen in a certain way, it didn't happen. Or something that just you expected it to never happen at all. That you had certain hopes and dreams and anticipations of things transpiring in your life at a certain time or in certain events and they just didn't come to pass in the way that you thought they were going to.

And these are moments that can severely shake us, they can shake us to the core. They are a life quake moment for us. And there's nobody in the Bible that experienced any more disappointments and severe disappointments than the man named Joseph in the Old Testament. This is the Old Testament Joseph, not the New Testament Joseph. Joseph, to give you a little bit of his history, he is the son of a man by the name of Jacob. And you should recognize the name Jacob because he's one of the three primary patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

And of course then, Joseph being the son of Jacob, he is the grandson of Isaac. He is the great-grandson of Abraham. Think about that. You could not come from a greater family than to be associated with a great-grandfather by the name of Abraham, a grandfather by the name of Isaac, and your father is Jacob of the 12 tribes of Israel. Jacob has 11 brothers. Ten of them older than he is, a younger brother Benjamin that's a part of the family as well. And Jacob, or Joseph, had an amazing dream when he was 17 years of age. Actually, multiple dreams when he was 17 years of age and God gave him a picture of his future where he was going to be a ruler.

And he unwisely shared that with his brothers. And of course, that just added to the tension in the family. Because already Joseph was his father's favorite. His father had made him a coat of many colors to set him apart as a favorite son. And so now there's this tension in the home and all kind of jealousy that transpires in the family environment. And so we pick up the story in Genesis chapter 37 and by the way, the story of Joseph is found in the 37th chapter of Genesis all the way to the end of the book. About 1/3 of the book of Genesis is dedicated to the story of this one man.

Think about this. Almost a third of the entire book of Genesis dedicated to the story of Joseph. He must be a significant character and indeed is in the Bible. And we talked last week and or week before last about some of the ways that Joseph had to deal with disappointments in his life because he faced a number of disappointments. And I'm going to bring back to your remembrance two of those things that we talked about two weekends ago and then we'll look at two more together in a few moments. We talked about the fact that dealing with disappointments involves learning to expect life and people to treat you unfairly.

This is something that Joseph had to learn in his life. He had to come to expect that life was not always going to be fair and people were not always going to treat him fairly. That's a very important lesson for each one of us. To remind you of what happened to Joseph. Because of the jealousy of his brothers, Joseph was sold into slavery by his very own brothers. Having been sold into slavery, he was purchased by a group of Ishmaelites who took him down into Egypt and one of the officials of Pharaoh purchased him. And he became the slave of a man by the name of Potiphar. Things are going well for Joseph as the lead in Potiphar's house, the lead slave in Potiphar's house.

So much so that eventually Potiphar makes him in charge of his entire household. But Potiphar's wife has her eyes on Joseph and wants to seduce him and bring him into sexual relations with her. And Joseph refuses. And then this happens over and over again. And finally, she falsely accuses Joseph of raping her. And Potiphar learns of this story and this false accusation, but he believes it to be true. And he has Joseph thrown into prison. So here's Jacob's favorite son Joseph, who is then initially put in a pit and sold into slavery. He's then purchased by Potiphar and Potiphar's wife now has falsely accused him and here he is in prison.

He will spend somewhere between 10 and 13 years in prison. And all of this time Joseph is having to learn that this dream he has for his life is a dream that not everyone is in favor of, not everyone is supporting. In fact, he's learning that life will sometimes treat you unfairly and people will sometimes treat you unfairly. If you haven't lived life and recognized that yet, I promise you at some point in time you will experience that in your life. People will treat you the way that you should not be treated and life will treat you in a way that seems to be unfair. And that's one of the expectations that has to be adjusted in your life.

Joseph had to learn this. There's a second lesson that Joseph learned in review, two weekends ago. He learned the lesson that you have to choose to become better and not bitter. This is a very significant lesson for Joseph because it sets him up really for his success. See, as we go through life and as life treats us unfairly and as people treat us unfairly and life is difficult, we can choose two pathways and I've watched people choose both of these. Some people choose the pathway of bitterness. They become hard and cynical about life and angry about life and resentful about life and sometimes resentful toward God. And bitterness begins to set in.

It doesn't happen immediately, it happens slowly over a period of time, but they become hardened and cynical on the inside. It happens to so many people. And there are others who in fact, use the circumstances that are hard in life to make them better people. They learn how to conquer, how to overcome, how to be resilient, they allow these things to grow their character. And this was Joseph. He did not become bitter when he was sold into slavery. He did not grow bitter when he was falsely accused of rape by Potiphar's wife. He did not grow bitter when he was in prison and the cupbearer promised to remember him before Pharaoh and then forgot him when the cupbearer was released from prison.

Joseph kept getting better. He never grew bitter in his life. And so if you're going to deal effectively with disappointments, you have to realize life is going to be unfair, people are going to be unfair. And I have to make the choice that I will not get bitter. I am going to get better. This is a third lesson in the second or the first of the two lessons I'll give you today that I want to dive in more deeply. And here's our third of the four lessons we're looking at. We have to trust God to bring the best out of the worst. If you're going to deal well with disappointments, you've got to trust God to do what for you? To bring, notice this, the best out of the worst.

That when things seem to be really, really, really bad, you've got to believe and trust that God is to take what seems to be and what might very well be extremely bad and turn it into something that is extremely good in your life. Because in this situation with Joseph, he's going through all these difficult moments and in the process of this, God is doing something. God is setting up Joseph for his future success. Now Joseph doesn't realize it at the time, but God's plan for him is that he will ultimately become the Prime Minister of Egypt. And so everything that he's going through unbeknownst to Joseph, he's being prepared for his future.

And so for somewhere between 10 and 13 years, Joseph is incarcerated in a prison. Falsely accused, as we've already mentioned. But it's just not it's not a regular prison. This is important to grasp. Where Joseph landed was according to scripture, it was the prison where all of Pharaoh's prisoners were kept. This is very, very significant. Because again God is using something that seems bad to prepare him for his future. And anyone that had fallen out of favor with Pharaoh, had offended Pharaoh in some way, they ended up in this particular prison. It was in fact an official prison for the official government employees who had made a mess of their lives or had again offended or affected their relationship with Pharaoh in some adverse way.

And so they're all landed in this one prison. And here is Joseph, finding himself in the midst of all of these government officials. And so this becomes a unique training ground for Joseph. In fact, he's able to learn something that he could not have learned any other place. He's actually able to learn a lot about all the ins and outs of Egyptian government. How does the government work? How does Pharaoh work? And he's having all these conversations with people who've been in Pharaoh's court. And so he's able to grasp a lot of information that will be extremely helpful to him in the future.

And although he's in prison, I would submit to you today that Joseph perhaps earned what would be the equivalent of a graduate degree in Egyptian government affairs. He's learning things he could learn no other place. And here he is in this very difficult set of circumstances, but God placed him there to prepare him for what was in store for his future. The psalmist talks about this in Psalm 105. He in fact writes about Joseph here. Then he sent someone to Egypt ahead of them, Joseph. So this whole psalm, this section of the psalm, who is it about? Who is it about? Joseph. And then it describes his difficult set of circumstances. Who was sold as a slave? They bruised his feet with fetters and placed his neck in an iron collar.

I think we all would agree, bad stuff, right? Nobody wants that to happen in their lives. And then it says, until the time came to fulfill his dream, the dream that God gave him, the dreams that have been imparted to him by God. Notice this until that time came to pass until his dreams were fulfilled, what did the Lord do? What was God doing in Joseph's life? You got to get this. What was he doing? So all of this was happening to do what for Joseph? To test, to prepare, to grow him where? In his character so he would be the man that he needed to be when this moment happened when his dream was to be fulfilled.

So never underestimate in your life when you're going through a difficult set of circumstances, what God is doing in your life to prepare you for what is to come in your life. So it's vital to recognize this. Notice what it goes on to say. Then Pharaoh sent for him. So eventually this is what happened. Then Pharaoh sent for him and set him free. Joseph was put in charge of all the king's household. He became ruler over all the king's possessions. So that will ultimately be what happens to Joseph. And we'll talk more about that in just a moment. But God was using all of these disappointments, all of these ups and downs, all of these trials and tribulations to test Joseph and to train Joseph.

And Joseph had to trust God to bring good out of what seemed bad. He trusted God. He put his confidence in God. Paul the apostle understood this as well. This is not just isolated to Joseph. This is a principle all the way through scripture. When Paul was in prison, and he was imprisoned multiple times in many situations. He was abused and mistreated by people because of his preaching of the gospel. We find in Philippians chapter 1, one of those times when Paul is writing to the church at Philippi while he's under Roman imprisonment. And notice what he says here in Philippians chapter 1, beginning in verse number 12. He has a similar attitude to Joseph.

And he writes and says to the Philippian believers, to us as well, and I want you to know. I want you to be aware, cognizant, fully assured of the fact, my dear brothers and sisters that everything that has what? Everything that has happened to me here. Where was he when he writes this? He's in jail. Why is he in jail? For preaching the gospel. And he writes and says, I want you to know. Be assured of this that everything that has happened to me here has helped. Good has come out of it. Has helped to spread the good news for everyone here, including the whole palace guard, knows that I am in chains because of Christ. Paul says all of this that has happened to me has advanced the gospel of Christ.

And because of my imprisonment, most of the believers here have gained confidence and boldly speak God's message without fear. But what about you and me? Well that's Paul and that was Joseph in the Bible. What about you? Can the worst things in your life turn out for your good? Can God use the terrible things that you might be going through in your life to bring something good that you can't dream of out of it? He certainly can because Paul writes about this as well in Romans chapter 8. Look at what he says here. He's describing, first of all, some conditions on our part, what we need to do and then a promise he'll give to us.

And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don't know what God wants us to pray for, but the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words, and the Father knows all hearts, who knows all hearts, knows what the Spirit is saying. So Paul is talking here about prayer. He's saying you need to be a praying person. Even when you don't know how to pray, the Holy Spirit will help you to pray, because it's a weakness that we all have. He goes on to talk more about this now, for the Spirit pleads for us as us believers in harmony with God's own will. And so, you need to be a praying person. Amen? Paul's just saying, be a praying person.

Even when you don't know how to pray or what to pray for, go ahead and pray because God will help you. The Holy Spirit will pray as you need help in your prayers. But then he makes a statement and it's a promise. And we know that God causes, there's that word again, what? Everything to do what? To work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose. So if you're a praying believer, you're bringing your needs to God in prayer. You're asking for his will to be done in your life. You're trusting the Holy Spirit to help you to pray when you don't know how to pray.

And you're loving God to the best of your ability and seeking to live according to the call he has for your life, then here's the promise we have. We can know that God will cause everything to work together, not for your bad, but for your good. Can we get an Amen on that this morning? All right. And this is something you need to know and be fully aware of. As Joseph was, Joseph trusted God to bring the best out of the worst. Paul trusted God to bring the best out of the worst. And then Paul encourages us to trust God to bring the best even out of things that do not seem so good in our lives. Here's our fourth point, second major point today.

To deal properly with disappointment, you've got to do right when others have done wrong. This is how you handle disappointment. You do right when other people do wrong. Eventually, something happens with Joseph. He's in prison somewhere between 10 and 13 years. It's kind of hard to exactly get the timeline here, but no more than 13 years he would have been in prison. Probably somewhere around 10 to 13. In prison, he had been effective in interpreting some dreams for a couple of the prisoners. The Pharaoh's baker had had a dream and the Pharaoh's cupbearer had had a dream and Joseph had interpreted both of those dreams and the interpretation had come to pass.

And the baker that had the dream, Joseph interpreted it to the degree that the baker was going to be executed by Pharaoh, and that's exactly what happened. And the dream that he interpreted for the cupbearer was that he was going to be released and be back into Pharaoh's favor. And he Joseph told the cupbearer, when you get back in Pharaoh's favor, you tell him that I'm in here falsely and you remember me. And then the Bible says the cupbearer just forgot him and left him in prison two more years. Okay. But there came a time in Pharaoh's life when he has two dreams and he doesn't understand them at all. Can't make any sense of these two dreams at all.

And so he starts asking of all the wise men of his court, of his administration, to somehow explain these dreams to him, interpret them for him, nobody can interpret them. And the cupbearer says, Oh, yeah, I forgot. There's a guy in prison who interpreted a dream for me and I was supposed to mention him two years ago, but I forgot about it. But his name is Joseph. And so Pharaoh says, go get him and bring him to me because I need an interpretation. I need to understand what these dreams really mean. Now, the essence of the dreams will ultimately be this. He has two dreams, both of them with the same meaning.

They're going to be seven years of great harvest and great abundance. And then there will be seven years of great famine. And both of the dreams that he has emphasize this story. So Joseph is brought in and Joseph interprets the dreams for him. And then Joseph adds this wisely to his interpretation. Pharaoh, you need to find someone who can administrate in the seven abundant years, very well, take good care of all steward the crops that come in very well, so that there'll be plenty in the seven lean years. And Pharaoh says, well, I can't think of anybody better than you, Joseph. And so there at that moment, Joseph is exalted out of prison to become the Prime Minister of Egypt, second only to the king himself.

He's given the king's ring to administrate justice with. An incredible story. From the pit to Potiphar's house, to prison, to the palace. Amen. This is the story that happens with Joseph. Now the seven years of abundance happens. They have a great amount of harvest. And then seven years of famine kick in. And the famine is not only in Egypt. The famine is all across that particular portion of the world. And it included the territory where Joseph's family lived, back in Canaan. It's vital to remember that no not a single member of his family knew where Joseph was or what was going on with Joseph's life at this point.

The last they knew he was sold to the Ishmaelites who took him down to Egypt. They knew nothing of Joseph's life. In fact, Joseph's father Jacob thought Joseph was dead. That was the assumption he'd made that Joseph was dead. And I will not go into exactly how that happened. You can read about it again in Genesis 37 through 50. So they knew nothing about any of this transpiring, they didn't know a thing about Joseph. Vital to grasp. Now, let's see what happens here at this point. When Jacob, who's Jacob again? Whose father is he? He's Joseph's father, right? Doesn't know anything, he thinks Joseph is dead.

When Jacob heard that the grain was available, that grain was available in Egypt because they didn't have any anymore in Canaan, he said to his sons, why are you standing around looking at one another? It sounds like they had a bunch of lazy kids, right? Why are you standing around looking at each other? I've heard that there's grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy enough grain to keep us alive. Otherwise, we'll die. So Joseph's ten older brothers. Stop there with me for a moment. These are the same guys that sold him into slavery. Same guys. They didn't know where he was at this time. So Joseph's ten older brothers, where did they go? They go down to Egypt to buy grain.

So they show up there to buy grain. And who are they going to buy grain from? Well, let's find out. Since Joseph was governor of all Egypt and in charge of selling grain to all the people, it was to him that his brothers came. When they arrived, they bowed before him with their faces to the ground. Joseph recognized his brothers instantly, but he pretended to be a stranger and spoke harshly to them. Where are you from? He demanded. From the land of Canaan, they replied. We have come to buy food. Although Joseph recognized his brothers, notice the next statement. They didn't recognize him. So they had no idea who they were dealing with.

They just thought he's the Prime Minister of Egypt. But Joseph knows who they are. And he remembered the dreams he had about them many years before. What were those dreams? That one day his brothers would bow down before him, right? They were going to bow before him. So he remembers this and this is the moment that God had promised him about many years earlier. Now, once that transpires, Joseph eventually, there's this back and forth that happens that I don't have time to go into. You can read it for yourself in the narrative of the story of of Joseph there in Genesis. But there's this back and forth that occurs. There's a few trips back to to Canaan and back to Egypt again with the brothers and with the younger brother Benjamin, who Joseph wanted to see as well.

But ultimately, Joseph realizes, I've got to reveal myself to these guys. They need to know who I am now. I know who they are. It's time for them to know who I am. So notice what happens here in the story. Chapter 45. Joseph could stand it no longer. So he's in with his brothers. He knows, I've got to tell them. There were many people in the room and he said to his attendants, out all of you. So he sent everybody out. So he was alone with his brothers when he told them who he was. Then he then he broke down and wept. He wept so loudly that the Egyptians could hear him and word of it quickly carried to Pharaoh's palace.

I am Joseph, he said to his brothers, is my father still alive? But his brothers were speechless. I bet they were. They were stunned to realize that Joseph was standing there in front of them. Please, notice this attitude of Joseph. Please come, not stay away from me, but please come closer, he said. So they came closer. And he said again, I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into slavery in Egypt. Now, can I ask you, what do you think the brothers are feeling right now? What would you have been feeling at that moment? You can imagine their surprise.

You can imagine the fear that's going on inside of them at this moment, the anxiety. I mean, they must, I mean, you're talking about anxiety, it must have been through the roof for them at this moment. Because their brothers had to be sure that Joseph would kill them. They had to be sure that he was going to take revenge on them because he had, he had the, he had the power to do it, and he had a reason to do it. He had everything that would anyway give them a sense of believing that in fact, their future was doomed. It's just a matter of time, we're going to be killed by this guy. We sold him into slavery.

Now, I want you to notice how Joseph responds to the fear in them. Chapter 45, verse 5. But don't be upset and don't be angry with yourselves for selling me to this place. And notice this attitude. It was God who sent me here. Can you imagine that? Ahead of you to preserve your lives. This famine that has ravaged the land for two years will last five more years and and there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. God has sent me ahead of you to keep you and your families alive and to preserve many survivors. So it was God who sent me. Are you getting a message here from Joseph? He's always talking about what God has been doing in his life.

If you look at his circumstances, it didn't seem like God was anywhere around, but Joseph realized, God was working in his life. It was God who sent me here, not you. And he's the one who made me an advisor to Pharaoh, the manager of his entire palace and the governor of all Egypt. Now, hurry back to my father and tell him. This is what your son Joseph says. God has made me master over all the land of Egypt. So so come down to me immediately. You can live in the region of Goshen where you can be near me with all your children and grandchildren, your flocks and herds and everything you own. I will take care of you there for there are still five years of famine ahead of us.

Otherwise you, your household and all your your animals will starve. So you begin to see this amazing response of Joseph, revealing the character of Joseph that has formed over these years. You can truly see that over all of these years of difficulty and disappointment, Joseph did not become bitter. Joseph became better. He became a better man. And instead of treating his brothers as they deserve to be treated, Joseph now responded to his brothers in love. He responded with mercy and he responds with grace. And Joseph's family eventually moved to Egypt to be taken care of. Let's see what Joseph does when they move there.

So Joseph assigned the best land of Egypt, the region of Ramesses, to his father and his brothers. And he settled them there. Where? In the best land. Just as Pharaoh had commanded. And Joseph provided food for his father and his brothers in amounts appropriate to the number of their dependents, including the smallest children. Amazing story, but it doesn't end there. There's another part of it that we must grasp. Eventually, Jacob, the father, dies. And when Jacob, daddy, dies, what do you think the brothers start to start to contemplate? Dad's gone, now he's going to get us.

He was just waiting for Dad to die because he didn't want to upset Father Jacob and so now that he's gone, we're really, we're really in trouble now. I want you to see and sense the fear that's going on inside of them as it's recorded here in Genesis chapter 50. But now that their father was dead, Joseph's brothers became fearful. Now Joseph will show his anger and pay us back for all the wrong we did to him, they said. I get this part. So they sent this message to Joseph. They didn't go themselves, what did they do? Go tell Joseph this for us, okay? So they sent this message to Joseph.

Now, notice the message they concocted. They put a message together to try to earn the favor of Joseph. And here's the message. Before your father died, he instructed us to say to you, there's no evidence that this is true. Please forgive your brothers for the wrong they did to you. For the sin and for their sin in treating you so cruelly, so we, the servants of the God of your father, beg you to forgive our sin. So they've concocted and fabricated this message to be sent to Joseph, begging forgiveness. There's certainly a dimension of sincerity in it. They certainly wanted to be forgiven and they were certainly afraid.

Notice what Joseph does. When Joseph received the message, what did he do again? He broke down and he wept. Why did he break down and weep? Because he couldn't believe that they did not accept the love he had already offered to them. He wept because they were still living in fear. This is the kind of man that he was. This is the kind of character that he had. How about you? Do you have that kind of character? How about me? Do I have that kind of character? That he's weeping over the fact that they were still afraid of him. And then he makes this statement. Then his brothers came and threw themselves down before Joseph. Look, we are your slaves, they said.

And then Joseph responds with these words. Continuing on in the chapter 50. But Joseph replied, don't be afraid of me. Am I God that I can punish you? And one of the most powerful phrases in all the Bible. You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. You intended this to destroy me, but God intended it for good. If you don't remember anything out of anything I've shared with you today, remember that one passage. You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. No, don't be afraid. I will continue to take care of you and your children. So he reassured them by speaking kindly to them. What a man. What an amazing man.

A man that goes through all of these disappointments, these life-quaking moments of disappointment. Sold as a slave by his brothers and falsely accused and forgotten in prison. And when he comes to power instead of being revengeful and angry and executing retribution on his brothers, he takes this mode of forgiveness, love and kindness. And this is what all of us are designed to do as well by God. Called to do by God. Paul the apostle says this to us in Romans chapter 12. And with this we conclude today. In instructions to us. If someone does you wrong, don't try to pay them back by hurting them.

Should I read that again? If someone does you wrong, don't try to pay them back by hurting them. Try to do what everyone thinks is right. Do the best you can to live in peace with everyone. My dear, my friends, don't try to punish anyone who does wrong to you. Wait for God to punish them with his anger. In the scripture the Lord says, I am the one who punishes. I will pay people back. But you should do this. If your enemies, if you have enemies who are hungry, what are you to do? What did Joseph do when he had enemies who were hungry? He said, here's food for you. Give them something to eat. If you have enemies who are thirsty, give them something to drink.

And doing this, you will make them feel ashamed. That's exactly what happened to Joseph's brothers there. They were ashamed of what they'd done. Read this together loud and loudly. I want everyone reading it with me if you will today, and I want us to affirm it together as a commandment from God to each one of us. Don't let evil defeat you, but defeat evil by doing good. That's exactly what Joseph did. Don't let evil defeat you, but defeat evil by doing good. So how do you handle life-quake moments when these disappointments come our way? Something we expected to happen, didn't happen, we're shaken by it.

Just to adjust our expectations to realize that life isn't always fair, it's not going to always be fair to you. And just to adjust the expectations that life has to be fair. It's not going to always be fair. And people are not going to always treat you fairly. And to make the decision in your life that you're going to always be a person who is growing better, not bitter. I'm not going to be a bitter person. I refuse to be a bitter person. I'm making the choice. This is something I encourage you to affirm in your own life. I'm making a choice that I will never be bitter. I will seek to always be better in my life. I want to be the bigger person, not the smaller person. Amen.

And then trust God. Trust God to bring the best out of the worst. You say, Pastor, you don't know the things I'm going through. No, I don't know what everyone is going through today, but I know this, God is a big God and God is a good God and God is able to take whatever you're going through and turn it together to make it work for the good of your life. This is who our God is. So you trust him to somehow bring the best out of the worst. And for those who've mistreated you and those who've treated you unfairly, to do right, even when other people are doing wrong. Would you bow your heads with me as we pray today?

Father, we thank you for your word. And thank you for the beautiful, wonderful example of this Old Testament character Joseph. Certainly a picture of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who on the cross, when he was being crucified, was able to declare these words, Father, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing. Lord, we thank you so much for Joseph's life. We pray for each one of us that you would help us, Lord, to make the adjustments of our expectations to realize that life isn't always fair and that people don't always treat us fairly. Help us to make the choice to always get better and never get bitter. Wash the bitterness from our souls today, God. Lord, I pray that right now.

I pray that a mighty river of cleansing would come through the grace and power of your spirit. Lord, that there be a washing out of every bitterness of heart today, every hardness of heart. Lord, let us trust you to bring the best out of things that seem to be the worst. Lord, you're the God of redemption, the God of restoration, the God who's able to turn things around for us. Lord, we're grateful for that today. And Lord, whenever anyone treats us the wrong way, let us respond the right way, to not be overcome by evil, but to overcome evil with good. We ask this in Christ's wonderful and precious name. Amen.

I would like to close today by giving you an opportunity to ask Jesus to be the Lord of your life. Would you pray with me right now? Right where you are, just simply bow your head with me. And I'm going to give you a prayer to pray and you can simply speak this prayer out, whisper this prayer out and from the sincerity of your heart, call upon God. And I promise you that he will hear and answer you. So let's pray together. Start by simply whispering the name Jesus. Let there come from your heart, just the declaration of his name. Say Jesus. I know that that I am a sinner, that I have fallen short with you. I'm sorry for all of my sins.

Jesus, I believe in you. I believe that you are God's son. I believe that you are the savior of the world. I believe that you died on the cross for my sins. And I believe that you rose from the grave, that you are alive today. Now pray these words. Say, Lord Jesus, come into my heart. Come into my life. Forgive me of my sins. Give me a new start in you. I commit my life to you in Jesus name. Amen. Now, if you prayed that prayer with me, I want to encourage you with a promise from God's Word that says that when we call upon God's name, we call upon the Son of God. There is salvation that comes to our lives.

He changes us from the inside out. And you become a new creation. All things pass away, all things become new. And that's exactly what has happened to you today. Your next step really is to make sure that you get into a good Bible believing church. And you begin to study God's Word, get God's Word in you. And to make sure that you get a copy of the Bible if you don't have one and begin to read it. Spend some time every day in prayer. And I would encourage you also to check out the resources on our website that will help you to get going in your relationship with Jesus. You can find them at church-redeemer.org. Get those into your hands. Get started in your new life with Jesus Christ. Thanks again for joining us today. May God bless you and we look forward to seeing you next time.