Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
Let's stand and worship together.
I'll praise in the valley Praise on the mountain I'll praise when I'm shout Praise when I'm doubted I praise when outnumbered Praise when surrounded cause praise is the water my enemy's drowning as long as I'm breathing I've got a reason to Praise the Lord oh my soul Praise Praise the Lord oh my soul I'll praise when I feel it I'll praise when I don't I'll praise cause I know you're still in control My praise is a weapon it's more than a sound My praise is the shout that breaks Jericho down Lo as long as I'm breathing I've got a reason to pray Is the Lord oh my soul Praise the Lord oh my soul oh I won't be quiet My God is alive how could I keep it inside?
I'm going to pray Praise the Lord oh my soul.
I Praise cause you're sovereign Praise cuz you reign Praise cause you rose and defeated the grave I praise cause you're faithful Praise cause you're true Praise cuz there's nobody greater than you I praise Praise cause you reign Praise cause you rose and defeated the grave I praise cause you're faithful Praise cause you're true Praise cause there's nobody greater than you Praise the Lord oh my soul Praise the Lord oh my Praise the Lord, oh my soul Praise the Lord, oh my soul oh I won't be quiet My God is alive how could I keep it inside?
I won't be quiet My God is alive how could I keep it inside?
Oh I won't be quiet My God is alive how could I keep it inside? I'm going to praise the Lord on myself.
[00:04:18] Speaker B: Amen. Amen.
[00:04:19] Speaker C: You can have a seat.
[00:04:21] Speaker D: My name is Sean Calber. I want to welcome everybody here today. We're so glad to see you guys this morning. So glad to have our church family worshiping with us this morning. You guys ready to worship this morning?
We love that we get a chance to worship with y'.
[00:04:32] Speaker A: All.
[00:04:32] Speaker D: And if you're a guest here with us, we welcome you as well. We love that you're here with us. We'd love to. To meet you. We'd love to connect with you. And there's many ways you can do that. There's cards in the front of your pews, connection cards that are down there. You can fill those out. You can put them in the boxes in the back. You can put them in the tithing tubs.
Any way that we would love to connect to. You can also go on to our Westgate Chapel Toledo app. Any of the app stores have the app. You can find our worship guide there and those connection cards and just ways that we can be praying for you, connect with you, get to know you and how we can help you tie into the ministries here at Westgate Chapel.
[00:05:04] Speaker B: We would love to hear from you.
[00:05:06] Speaker D: There's a lot of things that are going on at Westgate, not only here on Sunday mornings. So first of all there's grace and gratitude. There's a women's brunch.
[00:05:16] Speaker B: Woo hoo.
[00:05:16] Speaker D: I got one woman ready to go.
The women's brunch is going on. The women's ministry has done a phenomenal job in feeding into the women of Westgate Chapel and the surrounding areas. So on February 7th, that's a Saturday from 10 to 11:30 they're gonna have a women's brunch.
Love to have you guys come. I won't see you there because I won't be there. But all the ladies can have fun that day and enjoy God's blessing for that day.
And one other thing, we have Grief Share. Grief Share is a ministry that we.
[00:05:43] Speaker B: Have and have been involved in.
[00:05:45] Speaker D: The church for a long time is a phenomenal ministry in ways for people to deal with grief. We all go through grief in our lifetimes, but being able to walk through that process and be able to process that grief in itself is all a part of what Grief Share is. So would love to have you involved in that if you'd like to. Tuesdays February 3rd to May 5th from 6:30pm to 8 8:30pm 6:30 to 8:30pm in the chapel.
So that's what's going on at Westgate. Would love if you take a minute and watch the video here.
[00:06:18] Speaker E: Well, Happy New Year everybody.
If you've not gotten to meet My name is Josh Cook and I get to be the missions resident here at Westgate Chapel and I get to talk to you a little bit more about the video you just watched about this upcoming class or video series we're going to be walking through called Alpha.
Alpha is a video series that's played in over 70 countries around the world and we're going to be doing it here at Westgate chapel in just two weeks starting Friday the 23rd from 6 to 8pm and one of the main reasons why this is played in so many different countries in so many different languages is it's because it's for everybody.
Whether you're the Christian that's Been coming to church and followed the Lord your whole life.
There's a seat for you at this class because this is a place where you can come and and have conversations with people about your faith. Hey, if you're a new believer, this is also a great place for you because it's going to talk about all the foundations for what we believe as Christians.
Or hey, maybe you're not a believer at all and you just want to know answers to the questions like who is Jesus? Is the Bible relevant today and how should I pray if I do pray, this is a place for you.
Hey again, maybe you have some people in the new year you really want to share faith with or share church with them. This is a good time to invite them to and a good place to invite them to because it's low pressure. Because every night on Friday nights there's going to be three things that they can expect. Food. So we got dinner covered for you for eight weeks. That's probably enough reason to come.
Sign up please because I got to know how much you need to cook. But we're going to have food, we're going to have a video lesson or two about the topic of the night and we're going to have open ended conversation with one another that's laid back, low pressure, open ended and non judgmental. So I encourage you guys consider coming here or consider who you might be able to invite and come with. If you are a table host for the International Thanksgiving Dinner. This is also a great class to invite your students to because we even have transportation coverage for them. So we are trying to make sure we can provide spaces for everyone to come and experience. Alpha, thank you. If you guys would like to stand up and greet one another, we can continue to worship the Lord this morning.
[00:08:50] Speaker A: Sam, Lift up your voice and with us sing oh praise Him Hallelujah.
Thou burning sun with gold and beam Thou silver moon with softer glee oh praise him oh praise Him.
Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia.
And worship him in humbleness yes.
Oh praise Him.
Hallelujah.
Praise Praise the Father Praise the Son and praise the Spirit Be in one oh praise him oh praise Him.
Hallelujah.
Hallelujah. Love.
Hallelujah.
Washed by his love Come and rejoice in his great love oh praise Him.
Hallelujah.
Christ has defeated every sin Cast all your burdens now on him oh praise him oh praise Him.
Hallelujah.
Hallelujah.
Hallelujah.
O heaven and earth will join to.
[00:12:08] Speaker C: Say.
[00:12:10] Speaker A: O praise Him Hallelujah.
Then who shall fall on men dead knee we all fall down victories of our God and King with one voice now Praise him, oh, praise Him.
Hallelujah.
Hallelujah.
Hallelujah.
Hallelujah.
Hallelujah.
Sa.
What gift of grace is Jesus my Redeemer?
There is no more for heaven now to get.
He is my joy, My righteousness and freedom, My steadfast love, My deep and boundless peace.
To this I hold My hope is only Jesus for my life is holy bound to this oh, how strange and divine I can sing. All is mighty and not I But through Christ in me.
You.
The night is dark but I am not forsaken for by my side the Savior he will stay.
I labor on in weakness and rejoice for in my need his power is display.
To this I hold.
My shepherd will defend me through the deepest valley he will leave all the night has been won and I shall overcome. Yet not I But through Christ in me you.
I know I am forgiven the future sure the price it has been paid For Jesus bled and suffered for my parting and he grace to overthrow the grave.
To this I hold My sin has been defeated.
Jesus now whenever is my queen all the shame are released I can see I am free and not I But through Christ in me.
For he has said that he will bring me home and day by day I know he will renew me Until I stand with joy before the throne.
To this I hold my hope is only Jesus all the glory ever more when the Ra is complete still my lip shall repeat Not I But through Christ in me.
To this I hope my hope is only Jesus all the glory ever more to live when the Ra is complete still my lips shall repeat yet not I look through Christ when the race is complete still my l shall repeat yet not I But through Christ in me yet not I But through Christ in me yet not I But through Christ in me.
[00:18:39] Speaker B: Yes, let's give glory to the Lord.
Would you pray with me? God, we praise you and we thank you that we again can gather together here this morning and worship you as we do on this first Sunday of the New Year. Father, it pushes us to look back and to remember this past year.
And, Father, in so many different ways, you have been so faithful to us, faithful in our lives. The way that you have walked with us, been gracious with us, provided for us as individuals and families, but also God as a church, you have continually showed your faithfulness over and over again. And God, it is the thing that as we move into this New Year, that continues to move us with incredible hope for we know from our experience that your faithfulness will continue even in the times, Father, where we are not deserving of your grace and your mercy and your love. Times where we fall short. You remain faithful and you continue to pursue us.
And Father, it's a thing that draws our hearts to you and causes us, Father, to move to that place of being faithful to you. So thank you for how you pour that out in our lives.
So we come to our time of offering God again. It's an opportunity for us to express our thankfulness for how you have been faithful to us and God. We desire that you would take our gifts this morning and that you would multiply them. Multiply them, God, so that more people will hear of your son, Jesus Christ, than in this world that is perishing without you.
In this world where there is so much that is broken that people would find hope in, your son is our deepest desire.
And so, Father, in the way that you've provided in this past year, continue to provide in the year to come as we give of our gifts. And we pray, God that many in this year to come would come to know your son, Jesus Christ, because of it. We love you and we give this morning to you as our act of worship. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
You may be seated. And we will take our morning offering. So if you're seated here in the center aisles, you can grab the offering buckets and pass them out to the sides. And then they're in the corners up in the balcony and we'll just continue to worship the Lord. Lord, through the giving of our tithes and our offerings for just a moment.
Well, again, happy New Year to all of you. It's great to be back together. I cannot believe it's 20.
[00:21:54] Speaker A: Already.
[00:21:56] Speaker B: And gosh, tomorrow it'll probably be 27 the way things are moving. But we won't try to go that fast. It is good to be back together. And before we jump into God's word together this morning again, just want to give you a quick reminder of a couple of things that are happening this month. One, at the end of the month, as we talked about last week, it is our annual meeting as a church. Our annual meeting is kind of a full day celebration, if you will. During our services, we spend time celebrating the things that we that we've seen God do over this past year, but also with an eye towards the vision that God has given us for the year to come. And we'll be sharing that with you that morning in our services and then following our service we'll have a luncheon over in our gymnasium. Everyone is invited to, to come and to be a part of that. We'll talk about a few more things about the vision for the year to come. We'll be electing new leaders, elders and deacons for the church. And so so would love for you to be there for that. And one of the important key pieces of that is that you let us know that you're coming. We typically have around 300, 350 people that come and join us for the luncheon. And that is helpful to know ahead of time as we are preparing food. And so if you will join us that morning, I'd encourage you just to I believe you can go online and register through our app or on our website as an event and let us know that you're coming to the annual meeting. You can also just grab a connection card, you can write your name on it, how many people are coming and either drop it in these next weeks in the offering or in one of our giving receptacles that are in the back of the room as you leave. And so that would be great if you could let us know. I also let you know last week that one of the things we'll be doing at the meeting after the service is we're going to be making a couple changes to our Bible, specifically our statement of faith. And as I always say before we go, they're touching their statement of faith, what it is non theological changes. The Christian Missionary alliance this last summer made some updates to language and trying to just update the language of the statement of faith, get rid of some of the these thous and those King James kind of stuff, make it, have it a little bit more modern sound to it and then finally fix some grammar things. And so but because it's in our bylaws, in order to change it, our congregation has to vote on it. And so that's important for you to know because as I said last week, we're going to have two meetings this week where if you would like to come and to hear just a short presentation on the statement of faith and the changes that are being made, you can come to those meetings. One of them is tonight here in this room at 6:30.
We've slotted it for 6:30 to 8 just in case a whole bunch of you show up with a whole lot of questions.
If that's the case, I have a feeling it'll be a bit of a shorter meeting, but we're going to take some time to walk through that together. If you're not available this evening, but you would like to be a part of that, there is another opportunity this Wednesday evening from 6:30 to 8 here in this room as well. And so I would invite you to come out. I will be here waiting for you to come and for us to have a great time together. So just a reminder for you, you can put that on the calendar and hope we get a good opportunity to interact on those, on those couple of things.
Well, as I was preparing for this morning's message, I was thinking back to when I was in Biola at Biola University, finishing up my first round of school as an undergrad. And in my second to last semester, I took my second to last internship class. And one of the, one of the assignments that the professor gave us was to do a 10 year plan or dream for our lives, if you will. Now basically it was, he looked at us and said, hey, I want you to dream about where you, where you want your life to be in, in the next 10 years and take some time to write out what that would look like. Anybody here ever done an exercise like that, whether it's in school or maybe it's some kind of work thing, right, where you're just goal setting or kind of thinking about what your dreams are and where you'd like to be in life? Well, I went and I found that because I've saved every assignment that I've ever done on my computer from school and I found it this week and I was reading through it and here's the list of things that I wrote down. Number one on the list, very top written very bigly, I want to graduate, I want to be out of school. And some of that as I remember back was also because when I was graduating high school, there was some question there for a little bit of if I was going to make it.
But not always the greatest student when I was in high school, but I did make it. And so I had that at the top of the list. I wanted to be married in 10 years. I wanted to be married, I wanted to, to be cemented as a youth pastor for life. And that's the way that I wrote it because my dream was to be a youth pastor. And it was, I would, I would do that for the rest of my life. I would never move over to being a lead pastor, which we called going to the dark side. And so apparently I've moved into the dark side. And in a weird way I like it. But that was one of my goals was to be a youth pastor. For life until 10 years. I wanted to have a couple of kids, wanted to own my own home, live near my family, and then lastly to be a scratch golfer. Now a lot of those things happened, I'll let you guess which one did not. But follow that through about nine years later into the 10 years, I would have been able to look back at that list at that point and go, wow, man, I am rocking the goals and the dreams that I had for where I would be in 10 years.
I had graduated, I was married, I had couple of kids, I was serving as a youth pastor in my home church and loving life and pouring into students.
We had just bought a year earlier our own home. We lived near both of our families. I was not a scratch golfer or anywhere close to it. But you know, we can't have everything we want. So I look back and I go, man, I was, was really living the dream. I fulfilled almost every single dream that I had and I was living in the enjoyment of it until as I've shared with you, that I walked into a meeting in my church and was fired in that meeting.
And when I was fired, I was told that I would have to read my resignation six days later, that I couldn't say a word about anything, I had to go quietly or I wouldn't get a severance package and all of that without being given a reason.
And I remember that in that moment, with lightning fast speed, the dreams that I had had felt like they were all falling apart.
I called my dad and I said, dad, he was at work, I need to meet with you for lunch. I've just gotten fired. And he's like, whatever you need, let's go. And we met at a restaurant together.
And as we sat there, I remember going through all of these questions with him that I had and fears I was feeling. Crushed, incredible despair. I was hurt, I was angry. I don't think I've ever felt so many emotions at one time.
Wrestling with how I would provide for my family, how would I pay for the home that we just bought a year ago? And if you know what housing prices back then were in California, it drove you to a place of true, true fear.
Where would I find a job?
Would I be able to find one anywhere near my family?
Would anybody even hire me? Because, man, I hadn't looked in a job for a job for years.
And I wrestled with these questions and everything felt in the midst of it so unfair. But it wasn't just the circumstances surrounding what happened.
What felt unfair was that I also, it was a point in my life where I struggled deeply with God, where I felt like the dreams of my life were being ripped away. And I thought, God, how could you let this happen?
Why would you do this? Why do I deserve this? I have been serving you faithfully. I don't even know what I've done. How is this just?
And where are you? How can anything good possibly come out of what has happened?
It put strain in my marriage.
It brought sorrow for our family.
I felt worthless and like I wasn't enough.
And yet I still didn't even know what I did. God, how could you let this happen?
And my dreams were shattered. And honestly, I had no idea where to turn or what to do.
And I ask you this morning, have you ever walked through a season in your life where it feels like your dreams have fallen apart?
The things that you've desired, the things that you've wanted to see happen?
Maybe you didn't get into the school of your choice.
Maybe you were rejected by a friend that caused deep pain.
Maybe it was the loss of a job.
Maybe there was a project that you poured enormous time and energy into and resources, and it was derailed or failed.
Maybe you've gone through a broken marriage, you've dealt with infertility or a miscarriage, dealing with financial loss, watching your kids make bad decisions, walk away from the Lord.
Maybe you've gone through the death of a loved one or watched a loved one suffer through chronic illness, or maybe you've received a bad health diagnosis yourself from a doctor.
It causes me to think that as I think about all the potential things, not only is there a great potential, all of us have walked through these seasons together, but the likelihood is that there are many of us in this room this morning that are walking through a season of such loss of our dreams, and we're in the thick of it.
And maybe in this moment, you as well are wrestling with the same types of emotions and anger, fear, sorrow, uncertainty, devastation.
Questions of where do I go from here? Where is God in the middle of all of this? And why in the world would he let this happen to me? How is this? Just this morning, we're going to begin a series together going through the life of Joseph from the Old Testament. If you have your sermon notes that you grabbed on the way, and I encourage you to pull those out, and you'll see at the top and you'll see here on the screen that the series is entitled Joseph Forged for God's Purposes.
You know, as I think about this series, the life of Joseph holds incredible significance in my own life. Because when I went through that experience some 16 and a half years ago, it was one of the most difficult moments of my life.
And yet it became one of the most significant and forming moments of my life.
And as I went through that difficulty, even, even wrestled with God and all of the stuff that was happening and why he would allow it to happen and the way that it happened and the hurt that occurred, I did a study on my own reading through the life Joseph. And it was a time where there was so much loss and yet God taught me so much about himself and his plans for my life and his faithfulness.
And as we go through this series over the next many weeks together, I want us to push into that together, you see, because Joseph's story reveals how God used betrayal, temptation, waiting in silence and suffering. Not to derail Joseph's dreams for his life, but to forge his character, to deepen his faith and to prepare his servant for even greater dreams and responsibility than Joseph himself could have possibly imagined. And this morning, as we dive into it, into the beginning of Joseph's life, we're going to see that learning to trust God in the midst of disappointment and loss of our dreams is the first step towards seeing God's purposes and dreams fulfilled in our lives.
So if you have your Bibles, turn with me to Genesis chapter 37. We're going to begin together in verse one. And if you have your sermon notes, kind of how I've broken this chapter down this morning is I want us to take a look at the different dreams so that we understand context, especially of what is taking place. I want to look at the dreams, if you will, that the different players in the story had for their lives. And we're going to begin with your first fill in. Here is Jacob's life. I want us to begin by taking a look at Joseph's father, Jacob's life.
Genesis chapter 37, beginning in verse one. Let's read it there together. We'll go through verse four to begin. Says that Jacob lived in the land of his father's sojournings in the land of Canaan.
And these are the generations of Jacob.
Joseph, being 17 years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Billah and Zopah, his father's wives. And Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father.
Now Israel, that remember, is the name that God had given to Jacob, Joseph's father. Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons because he was the son of his old age, and he made him a robe of many colors. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him.
As we dive into this first part of the passage, one of the things that we often do is we just jump straight to Joseph without really looking contextually at what happens and what has been happening with his father Jacob's life. And I want us to think for just a moment about what Jacob's dreams were, even for his own life.
One of the first things that stands out to me as I think about the history of Jacob preceding Genesis 37 is this, is that one of the deep things that he longed for in his life was a continuation of the covenant promise that had been given to Abraham and that would would go through his lineage. You'll remember that in the. In the book of Genesis, God comes to Abraham and makes a covenant with him. And the covenant prophets that was given to Abraham was essentially four things. That from Abraham would come this great nation.
And then not only would there be a great nation, but that they would live in a land, the land of Canaan, that God would provide for them.
Not only were they promised land, but that there would be universal blessing. In other words, not just blessing on this nation and this people, but blessing for the entire world through this line of Abraham. And on top of it, there is a promise of divine protection that no matter what, God is going to fulfill his promises for Abraham. What an incredible dream. What an incredible life to live, to know that God was going to provide all of these things. And not only would that be for Abraham, but through his line. So we have Abraham, and then it passes on to his son Isaac. Isaac. And then from Isaac, it passes on to Jacob. We'll talk more about that in just a moment. But one of the things that Jacob would have longed for in his life was a continuation of this covenant promise. He strove for it in his own life.
But letter B, we also see that one of the things I think Jacob would long for would be a unified family.
There was incredible significance, even tying back to the covenant process promise, as we'll talk about in just a moment, there was no doubt great tension between Jacob and his brother Esau because of how Jacob inherited this covenant promise, the birthright and the blessing, all of that. But what it did is it caused years of infighting within his family between Jacob and his brother Esau. But one of the things that we see Jacob, as he matures and he grows with God, is that he desperately to reconcile with his own brother. He wanted to have that unifying moment with him where they were together and not separate and divided as well. We see in the chapter previous to what we just read this morning in chapter 36, we'll see. We see that there was a point of violence with his own sons where a couple of his sons at Shechem mete out some incredible violence. And Jacob condemns their actions. But what he does is he calls the entire family in that moment of condemnation to put away their foreign gods and to purify themselves before the Lord. You see, what Jacob desired in his family was spiritual reform, collective obedience to God and also a shared identity under God. And the reason is he, I believe he understood the ramifications of the covenant promise.
It would be through his family line, through his twelve sons, the twelve tribes of Israel, that ultimately this promise would be fulfilled. And he desired to see this family united together under an identity of serving the one true God. And yet, what we see as we move into this story in chapter 337 is letter C. His dreams were broken by his sin, specifically the dream of a family that was united together.
And the reason for this is that he wrestled with the sin of favoritism.
The passage tells us as we read, that Israel or Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other sons sons.
And this was a problem that not only existed for Jacob, but it pre existed him.
As we read about Jacob's own life, we understand number one in your notes that there was a pattern of a generational sin of favoritism in his family line. If we were to look back at Genesis 25, we would see that it reads this way, that Isaac loved Esau, his brother, because he was a skillful hunter. He connected his father. Isaac connected with his brother in some significant way. And so he loved Esau. And then it says, but Rebekah loved Jacob. He was kind of the mama's boy, the stay at home boy, and she loved him. And there was this spirit of favoritism that had been woven into their family unit for years.
And what we see is the story continues is that that favoritism no doubt created a divide between the brothers. And with that divide, we see that at one point, Jacob exploits and manipulates Esau into selling his birthright as the firstborn. You remember that Esau comes in from hunting and doing what he did and comes in from being out for a long time. And he is famished. He's hungry. He's so hungry. He's like, I'm going to die if I don't get something to eat. And here you've got Jacob, who. Who's made some red lentils and he's got some bread. But he goes, well, hey, I'm only gonna feed you and give you this food if you will sell me your birthright. Now, that birthright was significant because what a birthright meant was that you would receive a double portion of the inheritance from the father. But not only that, you would also be the one who would be considered the leader of the family that was often given to the firstborn. And here is John Jacob manipulating maybe a little bit of extortion of his own brother, saying, well, I'll keep you alive if you give me this. But not only that. I believe that Jacob knew very clearly as well that as the head of the household, that meant that the blessing, the blessing and the covenant promise given to Abraham and passed to Isaac would then pass through him. And it's something that he desired eagerly. And so because of this, we see that out of favoritism, or, I'm sorry, out of his manipulation, Esau sells this birthright to his brother.
But as we read a little bit later into the story, we see Isaac at the end of his life, their father, essentially out of his own favoritism, going to confer a blessing on Esau and to give it to him at the end of his life. Life.
And so because of this favoritism, Rebecca, who's got her little favorite Jacob, devises this plan that what they're going to do is help Jacob trick his blind father into giving him the blessing.
And when this happens, it creates an incredible divide between the family. Well, this spirit of favoritism that was happening with his parents no doubt transferred into Jacob's own life. Number two, Jacob repeated this sin in his own life.
We see that Jacob favored his wife Rachel over his wife Leah.
It also tells us, as we read our passage just a moment ago, that he favored and loved Joseph more, that he gave him special gifts that the other brothers didn't receive. He made him an ornate robe of many kinds colors. And it says that he loved him more because it was his son of his old age. And so he received regularly special treatment from his father. And as well, you'll see throughout the story how, how, how he himself also uses Jacob, uses his son as an authority of sorts over his older brothers. Now, you know how that's going to go over, right?
Like, if you've ever been in a. If you've ever had older siblings, if you get like some sort of power or authority over them, or they think you're getting favoritism. Does that go over well? Not usually. It causes some pretty good fights. And yet this is what was taking place because Jacob was repeating the sin of favoritism in his own family. And the result was clear letter D. The result was hatred and division.
The passage, as we read there at the end of verse four tells us when the brother saw that their father loved him more. It doesn't say when the brothers saw that he got this cute, special little coat to wear. No. It says that when they saw their father loved him more, there was this deep feeling of hatred that infused into their hearts because of the jealousy that was created. And they recognized that somehow they were lesser than in their father's eyes.
I want you to hear this this morning as we think about how this hatred created such division.
What I see is I think about what happened in Jacob's lives. Like Jacob's dreams for his own life weren't realized because of his own sin. And the truth is, is that sometimes our broken dreams are the result, direct result of our own sin.
Think about it this way. There was a time when we lived in California where we owned Disneyland passes as a family. And one of the things we love to do is to take the kids. When Gracie is sitting over, she's jealous. She's like, I wasn't born, but Garrett and Riley. Garrett I think was, you know, somewhere around four years old, Riley a couple years younger.
And we would take them to Disneyland. We would have a good time doing so. But I remember one day in particular where we were going. We had made the plan on a Saturday to go to Disneyland together as a family. We were going to spend the day there, having a good time. The kids were super pumped and excited and sorry, Garrett, if you're in the room. But Garrett was extra excited, which was always the case when he was younger, but so much so that there was fighting that was taking place amongst the kids.
There was lots of noise. And we kept trying to tell the kids, you got to stop. You got to relax. Please listen, Please obey. We even got into the car and we began our drive to Disneyland together as a family. And the chaos was continuing to ensue in the back seat to the point that I finally broke, like no one was listening to me. So I stopped the car and I said, that's it.
[00:46:51] Speaker A: It.
[00:46:51] Speaker B: We are not going to Disneyland. I turned the car around and went home. The shock on the face at that exact moment of the kids in the back was phenomenal. And not only that, there was much weeping and gnashing of teeth taking place.
There was deep, lamenting sorrow. I think, Rochelle, even the front seat was, I can't believe he did this. And we're driving back home, and let me tell you, that weeping and gnashing of teeth, sweet music to my ears. I mean. I mean, I was tired of the chaos, but I knew that I had struck the chord. A lesson was being taught.
No doubt my kids were upset with me, and in their eyes, I was the reason for their sorrow.
But the reality was their sorrow came because of the consequences.
That was a direct result of their disobedience.
Some dreams in our lives fall apart not because God has failed us, but because we have sinned.
And our sin has consequences to it.
When Jacob is showing favoritism within his family and not thinking about the impact of that sin, it sowed incredible division inside of his family and hatred. There were consequences to that sin.
When we speak harshly or hatefully to other people, there are consequences to that.
Consequences of broken relationships, of lack of trust.
When we give ourselves over to alcohol or drug addiction or sex before marriage.
There are natural consequences at times to the sinful decisions that we make in our lives. And we would love to point a finger and blame somebody else for how our lives aren't going the way that we pictured they would or that we dreamed that they would.
And yet we sometimes don't recognize that, again, those are the consequences of choices that we have made.
We can give ourselves over to a lustful mindset. So many people struggle with pornography and then yet wonder why there are so many painful moments in their lives or even in their marriages because of the choices that they've made made.
Sin has consequences.
But sin has even more consequences when we compound our sin with pride. And we're unwilling to own our own shortcomings and actually surrender them to God.
Because here's what happens when we are confronted with our sin. And our pride keeps us from being able to admit our wrong and our shortcomings.
It keeps us in bondage to that sin.
It erodes trust in our relationships with people.
It destroys our relationships with them. And especially holding onto that sin separates us from a holy God who loves us and who desires to develop his character within us.
What I want to say this morning is this is. Don't confuse consequences with abandonment.
Consequences or even discipline can feel like rejection in the moment.
And this is where people get stuck many times because of the consequences of their sin. They will blame God for the consequences that he warned them about in His Word or even more, they will drown in shame, believing now that somehow God is done with them.
But I want you to hear the clear teaching of Scripture that tells us that discipline is actually proof of sonship and of God's love for us, not of rejection.
Listen to the words of the writer of Hebrews. In Hebrews chapter 12, verses 5 and 6 and 10 and 11, he says this. He says, my son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline and do not lose heart when he rebukes you because the Lord discipline the one that he loves and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.
God disciplines us for our good in order that we may share in his holiness.
No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful later on. However, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
Sometimes what we understand from God's word, trusting God when our dreams fall apart, begins with honest, truthful self examination and not self justification or blame.
Because God's greatest work and his greatest dreams for our lives take place when we are humble and enough to admit our own brokenness and we allow him to develop his character within us.
Sometimes the dreams for our lives that we desire are broken because of our sin.
Now let's continue because not only did Jacob's sin cause his dreams to go unrealized, but we're also going to see how it impacted the entire life of his family around him. Next, fill in your notes. We're going to take a look at Joseph's dreams together in Genesis chapter 37. Beginning in verse 5, it tells us, now Joseph had a dream.
And when he told this dream to his brothers, they hated him even more. And he said to them, hear this dream that I have dreamed. Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field. And behold, my sheaf rose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf. And his brothers said to him, are you indeed to reign over us, or are you indeed going to rule over us?
So they hated him even more for his dreams and his words.
And then he dreamed another dream, and he told it to his brothers and said, behold, I have dreamed another dream.
Behold, the sun, the moon and 11 stars were bowing down to me.
But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, what is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you? And his brothers were jealous of him. But his father kept the saying in mind.
I want you to think about this with me for a minute. The letter A in your notes. In some way, Joseph was already living the dream. It's one of my favorite statements when people say, like, hey, how's life going? I'm living the dream, right? He was living the dream. He was living in a well to do family. Not only was he in a well to do family where everything he could possibly want would be provided for him, but we read that he is the favorite son far above. He is more loved by his father than any of the other children. And because of this, he's getting special treatment on a regular basis.
And what it did is at times it had even allowed him to get away with his own fair share of mischief. Life was good for Joseph. He was living the dream. It couldn't be better. In some sense, his brothers probably also knew that this favoritism would potentially lead to him getting even greater blessing than they would later on when his father would pass. It caused incredible tension. But Joseph, he's living the. The dream. He's got it good, but let her be. What we see as we read this next part of the passage is that God gave him an even bigger dream, an even bigger picture of a dream for his life. And it begins with this dream. It talks about binding sheaves. Now you'll see here on the screen a picture of a sheaf. A sheaf is a bundle of stalks of grain, of either wheat or barley or something, something that has been tied together after harvesting.
And we don't read in the passage that his family was into agriculture. We know that they were taking care of sheep. But it is possible. But whatever happens, he has this dream and he tells his brothers, look, my dream is that we were out in this field together binding sheaves and then all of a sudden mine stood up in the middle, upright. And all of yours, as you see in this next picture, were bowing down to my sheaf.
How do you think that went over with the brothers?
Right, here's Joseph, little 17 year old boy, looking at his brothers, the oldest of whom, Reuben was likely in his 30s, saying, One day you're going to worship me, you're going to bow down.
You know, young people say dumb things. I've done it my entire life. That's why I still think I'm young. I still say dumb.
But when I think about this, what I see is that his brothers were incensed at what they determined was incredible pride in Joseph's life that stemmed from the favoritism of their father.
And so it continued to drive an incredible wedge. And if it isn't enough, Joseph doesn't seem quite smart enough to understand the implications of what he's just done.
Because behold, he had another dream. And behold, he told his brothers again, and this time even his father. And the dream, as you'll see in the picture on the screen, is a dream that the sun, the moon, and specifically 11 stars representing his 11 brothers and his father and his mother were all bowing down to him in worship.
You know, here's the deal. As he shares this dream, he gets rebuked even by his own father for what is deemed some sort of arrogance. His father's like, really? You think your mom and I and all of your brothers are one day going to bow down to you?
And yet in the middle of this rebuke again, we see that it bred incredible jealousy among the brothers. Now, the word jealousy that is used here feels really soft for what was actually taking place, like in the English language, because in the Hebrew, this word jealousy suggests retaliation.
It wasn't just that they felt jealous. It said that we were moved to a place where we are going to get back at him. We have had enough. And there are going to be consequences for this arrogance that he has and for the favoritism that he is being shown. They were not going to let, let it stand anymore. But then it also tells us at the end of the passage that it says his father kept the saying or this dream that he shares in mind. It's important for us to recognize that in this time they believed that dreams specifically were about revelation.
And so even as Father hears this and goes, man, that sounds really arrogant. You probably should not be saying this. It says it is. Father walked away pondering and keeping in mind this dream.
Could this be possibly be something that God is trying to tell him?
Well, what we see, letter C, is this, is that Joseph's own immaturity and naivete deepened the wedge between he and his brothers.
The reality is that there was something to these dreams.
God was incredible, was revealing incredible dreams of future leadership and purpose that would shape Joseph's life.
He was going to have an incredibly significant role in the life of his family. But his life was going to impact countless numbers of people.
And yet it seems that Joseph didn't have the tact or the wisdom in this moment to know how to share such dreams with his family, let alone to own, understand their meaning beyond the sensational idea that his family would somehow bow down to him.
Thus his brothers it appears have had enough, and their jealousy is going to turn to true hatred that we see as we continue in the passage. What we see next, letter D, is that Joseph's dreams appear to die at the hands of his brother's hatred in Genesis, chapter 37. We're going to begin here in verse 18. Prior to verse 18, I'm skipping a small section. Essentially, what Jacob does is he tells Joseph, hey, Joseph, your brothers are out. They're tending the flocks. They're out in this direction. I want you to go and check up on them again. This is something that would have incensed his brothers and drove them crazy. Because the idea behind it is that somehow Jacob again is showing favoritism to Joseph and using him as his pawn to make sure his brothers are doing what they're supposed to, to do, kind of giving him a position of authority over them. And they come back and tattle on them if things aren't going the way that they should be going. He wants him to come back and to give a report.
And this doesn't go over well. And what we see In Genesis chapter 37, verse 18 is what happens and transpires from this overwhelming hatred that had developed. Read it with me. It says that they saw him from afar.
And before he came near to them, they. They conspired against him to kill him.
They said to one another, here comes that dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits.
Then we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him. And we will see what will become of his dreams.
But when Reuben heard it, he rescued him out of their hands, saying, let us not take his life. And Reuben said to them, shed no blood. Throw him into. Into this pit here in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him that he might rescue him out of their hand to restore him to his father.
So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colors that he wore. And they took him and they threw him into a pit. The pit was empty and there was no water in it. And they sat down to eat. And looking up, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead with their camels bearing gum, balm and. And myrrh on their way to carry it down to Egypt. Then Judah said to his brothers, what profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites. And let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother in our own flesh.
And his brothers listened to him. Then Midianite traders passed by, and they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit. And they sold him to The Ishmaelites for 20, 20 shekels of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt.
The passage begins by telling us that when Joseph is arriving on the mission that his father sent him on to check up on his brothers, that his brothers saw him afar and that they. They conspired to kill him. The correct word is to murder him. They wanted to put an end to him. Their hatred had grown to such a point in their life that they didn't want him to be alive.
But then it tells us that Reuben, the oldest of the brothers, probably somewhere around 30 years old, stands up for him, and he says, hey, wait, rather than killing him, why don't we throw him into a pit?
And this idea that he conspires is that somehow maybe he would be able to come back and rescue him and restore him to his father.
And it tells us that they did just that. That as Joseph arrives, it tells us with. With Hebrew verbs that, again, are what we would call qual. We. Ictal verbs. They're verbs that, when they're used in succession, move the story along very, very fast. It says that they stripped him of his clothes, they took him and they threw him quickly into the pit. It happened immediately. There was no waiting, there was no talking. There were no games about it. They simply did it as he's thrown into the pit. What I think is hard, as we read this passage. And much of what. What we see in Joseph's life is we don't hear from Joseph. We don't hear how he's feeling and what he's experiencing and what he's going through. But if we were to read further down the line in chapter 42, verse 21, when his brothers come and meet with him again, Joseph actually says to them, and he talks about them, about the distress of his soul when he was in that pit, and that he was begging and he was pleading with them for his life. But they would not listen.
They had turned their ears off in hatred towards him.
And so Reuben wanders off, and rather than killing him, they devised this plan as these traders walked by to sell him as a slave, because then they would get some kind of money out of it.
And so they rid themselves of Joseph for good.
What a horrible story.
What a way to end our chapter. This morning, Joseph's dreams have been shattered and taken from him. And he experienced nothing but incredible injustice.
Whose letter? E. There was Nothing about these circumstances that seemed fair, Nothing.
The punishment did not fit the crime.
The injustice of what we've just read was so overwhelming.
And to be honest with you, this is where Joseph's story often also collides with our own.
Because Joseph didn't lose his dreams because of his sin.
He didn't lose his dreams because he rebelled against God or he rejected responsibility or walked away from obedience.
He lost his dreams because of circumstances that were outside of his control in a very broken family, in a very broken world.
And the Bible doesn't soften this like it doesn't try to make it less than what it actually is. This wasn't discipline, it was injustice.
This wasn't correction. It was cruelty.
This wasn't fair.
It was evil at its core.
And in the moment of our lives when we experience unjust things that happen, have you noticed how we feel about those moments when it feels like the dream is taken away and there's nothing that we did?
I remember back to my own wrestlings with God when I lost my job and I sat there and I wanted to shake my fist and be like, how could you let this happen? I didn't do anything wrong. Where are you in the middle of this? Why would you let this happen?
You felt those things.
And you've also heard the whispers of Satan in our ear telling us in those moments that God isn't good, that you're allowed to be bitter and that you don't need him because he doesn't have your best at mind.
And we wrestle listening to these whispers and allowing them to live rent free in our minds.
But when we do this, we fail in understanding that this is also part of living in a broken world.
And that in a broken world, unjust things happen.
As Christians, we aren't promised in the Bible ever a perfect life without pain or sorrow. Actually, quite the opposite.
Jesus warned his followers and his disciples that there would be pain and brokenness and suffering throughout the whole of their life lives because of the broken, sinful state of the world that we live in.
It's what happens in a world that chooses to reject God.
But rather than believing these lies that Satan wants to whisper in our ear that God isn't good, or that somehow he doesn't have our best at mind and that we don't need him.
What the account of Joseph's life does is it begs us in these moments of our own lives is to remember that in all things God is faithful.
You see, for Joseph, I believe what he would come to realize throughout his Time and his suffering, which did not end with just being in this pit, as we'll see in the story to come. There is so much injustice that happens in his life. He goes to Egypt, he raises up to power some deranged woman, you know, yells rape, even though he didn't do anything wrong. And once again, he finds himself in prison losing all power.
Then he's in prison, completely forgotten. Like, it just seems like his life is this constant set of calamity where it would be very easy to sit and to question God. But when we get to the end of his life, one of the things we recognize is that Joseph knew and understood God's faithfulness. God had been faithful to Abraham.
God had proven his faithfulness to Isaac.
God had proven his faithfulness to his father James.
And even in this moment, he would remain faithful to Joseph in Egypt.
What I want you to see and that we will see as we continue through this study together, letter F is this truth. What looked like and felt like broken dreams was actually direction.
It was direction from God.
And I want you to think about this morning, God's dreams and God's plans, because they're revealed to us and they're beginning to be revealed as we go through this series together.
Because we have Jacob's dreams, we have Joseph's dreams, but God had different dreams in letter A. What we learn about God's dreams is often they are different than our own. One of the greatest mistakes that we make in the Christian life is that we make our own plans and our own dreams for our life. And we. We ask God to bless our plans and our dreams without an eye or an ear turned towards what God would desire and what God wants to do. And then when our plans don't work out, we are left feeling as though somehow God has failed us.
Well, the life of Joseph teaches us a powerful truth. And that truth is that every moment of our lives is under the sovereign control of God's hand. That from before the very time that we were born, God has had a plan for our lives. And he is working out all things to fulfill that plan. A plan of incredible blessing that isn't just about the here and now and every single solitary moment, but about the purposes of eternity.
Often God's plans are different. And letter B, his plans are bigger and better than anything we could ever imagine.
Joseph's life, with all of the pain and the injustice that he was, will experience in the years to come, would later learn and have the insight of looking back and going, everything that I have gone through and experienced has been part of God's plan. And it's been part of God's plan because he is desiring to do something and create something in me that will forge my character, but that will also be used to bless the lives of other people in a way that I could never possibly imagine.
And I can tell you the truest same in my own life, having walked through these types of seasons, even as I shared this morning, is that there have been times where and I walked through that season of my life. It was hard and painful. I hated it. The loss of my family, the loss of everything familiar coming to frigid, cold Ohio.
The difficulty and pain that Rochelle and I felt in our marriage, our kids and their loneliness and their separation from their family and friends.
The hurt and the pain of feeling betrayed by somebody that I trusted deeply.
Like there was so much that I walked through that was hard.
But I can tell you, being on the other side of it and looking back, I would do it again.
All of it, 100% of it.
As much as it hurt, as much as it was one of the darkest moments of my life.
The things that God taught me in those seasons are things that I would never want removed from my life.
The deepening of my character, the teaching me to trust when I can't see the light at the end of the tunnel.
But even more, to see the blessing that he has put in my life and the life of my family is something that is irreplaceable. I would do it all again.
And the reason for that letter C is because God's plans are shaped by his greater purposes for my life and for the lives of others. And that is what I have to remember.
And we must focus on what God is teaching us, us, even as we walk through seasons of great disappointment or great loss of the dreams that we have had. That even in the midst of it, God is here with me. He's shaping me. He is using me. He is creating deeper faith and trust in me that I believe. No doubt for each of us that he is going to use to impact the lives of other people, not only here while we are alive on this earth, but even long after we are gone.
Thus, I would exhort you with this truth this morning of my understanding from God's word. But my also my own personal experience with God in seasons of Disappointment is that when it feels like our dreams have fallen apart, rather than run from God and accuse him of injustice, wisdom says to run to God and to ask him these questions. What do you want to teach.
And how do you want to use me?
Because God has a purpose and a plan that is far greater for our lives than we could ever possibly imagine, even if we can't see it in the moment.
Romans 8:28 tells us we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purposes.
God has a plan for every moment in every. Every season of your life that he is using to craft and create his character within you, to develop your faith and trust so that it will impact the lives of other people, not just for this moment, but for the purposes of eternity.
And Jesus himself says in John 16:33, in this world you will have trouble, but take heart, because I have overcome the world. In other words, what Jesus says is, I hold. Hold it all in my hands. And not only do I hold it all in my hands, but I have proven to you, with giving of my very life, that I love you more than anybody else in this world ever could. And I am working out all things in your life for your good for eternity. And he calls us to trust his goodness and his greatness.
God's plans and greater purposes for my he has greater plans and purposes for my life in the lives of others in letter D. His plans are unbreakable.
Nothing can stop them. He will accomplish them.
And I would say this to you this morning, it feels weird to stop this passage right here because I want to tie everything up in this nice, neat little red bow for you so we can all go home feeling like, ah, everything's better.
But the truth is it's far more powerful to leave us in this spot where Joseph feels lost and hopeless and everything has been taken from him. He's been str.
Because that's how we feel in our lives sometimes.
And as we sit in that moment and we continue through this series and we look at Joseph's life, one of the things that we're going to see is that he comes to a place of faith and trust in God because he remembers and sees how God has always been faithful, faithful to him.
It is the very thing that enables him to walk through dark seasons when things are falling apart, when things aren't going the right way to say God is good.
He has proven it over and over again. And because of that, I know that he will continue to be good in my present and in my suffering and for the future and especially for eternity.
Can you see, sit there with me this morning in that tension, whatever it is that you are going through or you have Gone through.
Can you sit in that tension to say, I will remember that God is good, that he has proven his faithfulness to me.
God, I just pray over this room right now. There are people in this room who have been going through loss in many different forms, whether it is current or it is past. And I know that each of us have wrestled with you in deep, dark places of where are you and why are you letting this happen? We can't see the end of the road. This isn't the dream that we had.
And yet, God, would you teach us in those moments of wrestling and question to trust you?
Because you've proven your faithfulness to us.
You've proven it time and time again and how you have moved in our lives and how you sent your son Jesus into this world.
You love us.
And so, Father, as we sit in that tension this morning, Would you just simply remind us of your faithfulness and your love for us? Would you overwhelm our hearts, that it would push us to deeper places of faith and trust, develop our character in these moments, develop our faith in these moments and use our lives.
We're going to come to our time of communion together. I know I'm going long, but way to start the new year.
We're going to take communion together this morning. And I see no better way to go into communion this morning than to give you these last couple of notes because here's the deal.
One of the things that you'll see as we continue through this series is this. Joseph's life ultimately points us towards the hope we have in Christ, which reveals the foundation of God's greater plans and purposes for our lives.
I want you to see this. You're going to see it in every single of this story.
Like Joseph, letter A, Jesus is the beloved Son.
Letter B.
Like Joseph, Jesus was rejected by his creation.
Letter C, Like Joseph, Jesus suffered unjustly.
And letter D, Jesus suffered, was raised to save many lives.
When we look at the life of Joseph, we get a very clear picture of the blessing that would come to the entire world through Jesus Christ, the beloved Son of God, who would be rejected by man, suffer unjustly and yet give everything and be raised to life so that our lives would be saved.
My friends, as we walk through the darkest moments of our life, I can think of no greater time for us than to stop and to pause and to remember that God himself sent his son into this world to show us the depth of his love for us, that he would die on a cross to pay the penalty for our sin. So that one day this brokenness would be wiped away. And we would reign with him forever in that perfect relationship that he designed for us.
God has shown you that he is faithful because he sent His Son.
And so remember that with me today.
That Jesus, when He was in the upper room with his disciples on the night that he was betrayed, it said that he took bread and we. And when he broke it, he looked at his disciples and he said, this is my body.
It is broken for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.
Let's take together.
It says in the same way that he took the cup.
A cup was a symbol of the cup covenant, the new covenant of his blood that would wash away all sin and restore us to a right relationship with God.
No greater act of love that we have ever seen or experienced that reminds us of his faithfulness to us.
That not only was he faithful in the past, but he did that so that we would be reminded that he will be faithful to us for our time.
Let us take together.
Lord, thank you for this time of remembrance this morning. Because as we walk through moments that are painful and difficult, it is so essential for us to be reminded of how you have poured out everything for us. And that, God, not only have you been faithful in the past, you will be faithful in the present and in the future. And God, I pray that for those who are struggling this morning that you would meet them in a very special and significant way. That they would be reminded consistently of the way God. That you have proven your faithfulness to them throughout their lives. And that God, it would give them courage and strength and boldness to walk with you and to trust you in ways that they never have. And that you would develop their faith and their courage and their character, God.
So that they will be become more like you.
That your life, Father, will be a living testimony of your son, Jesus Christ to this world. It's in his name that we pray. Amen.
[01:21:13] Speaker C: God of Abraham, you're the God of covenant and faithful promises.
Time and time again you have proven to do just what you say.
Though the storms may come and the winds may blow. So I remain steadfast and let my heart learn. When you speak a word, it will come to pass.
Great is your faithfulness to me.
Great is your faithful.
[01:21:59] Speaker A: To me.
[01:22:01] Speaker C: From the rising sun to the setting, I will praise your name.
Great is your faithfulness to me.
[01:22:36] Speaker A: God.
[01:22:37] Speaker C: From ancient age, though the earth may pass away. Your word remains the same.
And history can prove there's nothing you can do.
You're faithful and true.
Though the storms may come and the winds may blow I remain steadfast and let my heart learn when you speak oh, it will come to pass.
Great is your faithfulness to me O great is your faithfulness from the rising sun to the setting same I will praise your name Great is your faithfulness to me.
[01:23:46] Speaker A: Your faithfulness never runs out, never runs out oh, your faithfulness faith never runs out, never runs out never runs out, never runs out.
I put my faith in Jesus, my anchor to the ground My hope and firm foundation he'll never let me me down no I put my faith in Jesus, my anchor to the ground My hope and firm foundation he'll never let me down.
My only hope, my anchor, my hope open for foundation foundation.
You never let me down.
Down you never let me down Great is your faithfulness to me Great is your faithfulness.
[01:25:43] Speaker C: From the rising sun the rising sun unto the setting save I will praise.
[01:25:51] Speaker A: Your name Great is your faithfulness.
[01:26:00] Speaker C: Sing it again. Great is Great is your faithfulness to me Great.
[01:26:12] Speaker A: His is your faithfulness to from the.
[01:26:19] Speaker C: Rising sun to the setting I will praise your name to the setting say I will praise you one more time.
From the rising sun to the setting sing. I will praise your name.
Great is your faithfulness to me.
[01:27:00] Speaker B: Thank you as always for your patience with me as we went a little long this morning.
You guys are good and gracious, but it's good to be with the Lord. Isn't it?
So good to be with him? As we close our service, our prayer team's here at the front. If there are any needs that you have prayer for healing, just somebody to talk to, things that you're walking through and you need somebody to pray with and over you. Our team would love to pray with you, so I'd invite you to come at the close of our service. Or if you'd like a quieter place, you can go out these doors and to the right to our prayer room. We have prayer team members that would love to pray there with you also.
As we close our service today, I just want to continue to push you and draw you back to this. If you are walking in a season of loss, and I know that there are many people that are, I want to push you and continue to encourage you to keep your eyes focused on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of your faith, the one who has proven time and time again the depth of his love for you and his faithfulness. He will never fail you, even when you walk through the hard moments of life.
But learn to remember and to trust that he is working all things together for good. And in those moments where it's hard and you wrestle with the hard questions, don't run from him, run to him, run into him, run into the body of Christ that will support you and encourage you and love you and continue to point your eyes towards him and to remember that he will be faithful.
And as well you may be sitting here this morning going, there's not a lot. I'm not feeling that loss right now. But you know people that are, and God has given you as a special gift, an instrument of his to be used in their life to continue to lovingly and patiently help them be pointed to Jesus and to encourage their faith. And so church families, you go from here today. Be that for one another and strengthen one another.
And let's point our eyes towards Jesus and allow him to develop our character and our faith in the hard seasons of life. Because as he does, he is going to use your life as a testimony to a world that does not have the hope of Jesus. And when they see it in you, especially as you walk through the hard moments of life, it will speak volumes to them of their need for a Savior. So go out and be his light this week. God bless you and have a great week as you serve Him.
