Welcome to the weekly podcast of Wildwood Baptist Church in Ackworth, Georgia, just outside of Atlanta. We are so glad that you're joining us today. If you'd like to know more about Wildwood Baptist Church, you can find us on the web at wildwoodbaptist.org, or you can email us at info at wildwoodbaptist.org. Thanks for joining us. Let's open the Word of God together. Amen. Well, good morning, church family. Once again, it's a privilege to be able to preach to you all this morning as we continue in our series, Undeniable Destiny. And what a great series that we have had so far as Pastor Rick has led us through different character studies where we find that God can turn our challenges into triumphs. And this morning, we are going to be examining the story and the life of Joseph. And again, we're going to see this pattern that God truly can turn our challenges into triumphs that ultimately they glorify him and they teach us and encourage us as believers to be comforted by their stories. And this past week, Pastor Rick and I were talking and we both agreed that truly Joseph is one of the characters whom His story is so interesting and distinct, and we find from the very beginning to the very end that God has a very clear destiny for Joseph's life. And he has a dramatic story. He has an incredible story. But I want to invite you this morning to open your copy of Scripture to Genesis chapter number 50 and verse number 20. I just want to start looking at this one verse, and then we'll really take a bird's eye view of the life and the story of Joseph. In Genesis 50 and verse 20, the Bible says, as for you, this is Joseph speaking to his brothers, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today. As we look at Joseph's story this morning, I want us to see really just two main truths that his story can be defined with, and that is suffering and sovereignty. And that's the title of this morning's message. And as we jump into scripture, let's pray once more and ask for God's blessing over the message. Let's pray together. Our Father, we're grateful this morning for your word. We're so thankful that we have a copy of scripture, that we can learn from it, that we can grow by it, and Lord, that we can be transformed as believers. Lord, we're grateful that we have a strong foundation for our faith to be built upon. And Lord, as we do look to your word, Father, I pray that what we hear this morning, Lord, that we would be transformed by it, myself included. Lord, I ask that you would help me to speak and to preach, Lord, to say everything that you would have me to say and nothing that you wouldn't. Lord, I pray that you would encourage us by the sufferings of Joseph, Lord, and I pray that you would help us to recognize and to respond to your sovereignty in our trials and in our circumstances that we could find and follow your will and your destiny for our life, Lord. And we'll give you all the praise and the honor. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Joseph is a man whose life really stands for us as a spectacle to observe. We find in Joseph's life that even from a young man, really, the Bible says that he was a teenager, we learn that Joseph's belief in God was evident. And God spoke through Joseph through the dreams that God gave to Joseph. If you turn back a few chapters to Genesis 37, we find where Joseph begins to dream these dreams that God gives to him. And I believe that Joseph didn't really even know what they meant. He wasn't interpreting dreams at this point. He was just having them. And the Bible says in Genesis 37 verses three through ten. 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 of his brothers, they hated him, and they could not speak peacefully to him. Now Joseph had a dream that when it was told his brothers that 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 arose and it stood upright and behold your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf. Then his brothers they hated him and They said to him, are you indeed to reign over us or are you indeed to rule over us? So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words. And then he dreamed yet another dream and told it to his brothers and said, behold, I have dreamed another dream. Behold the sun and the moon and the eleven stars. were bowing down to me. But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said unto 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 Joseph here, he prophesies of this somewhat unknowable future occurrence that is about to take place. And what I believe Joseph lacked in tact, he did in fact speak with a belief in what God was saying. I was reading this weekend in the book of Acts and Stephen, the martyr deacon who died after he preached Jesus, Stephen said that his brothers were jealous of Joseph, they sold him into slavery, but God was with him. And we'll see that throughout his whole story, that God truly was with Joseph. And we find that Joseph's life is so incredible. But what we also learn that Joseph's life was incredibly difficult. It starts out, Joseph's in his papa's house. It's a dysfunctional family. His dad's married to four different women and he has half brothers from all of these different moms in his life. And it's dysfunctional. His dad favors him and it's just like, what in the world is going on here? His brothers, hate him because of that favor. And then when he speaks these dreams to him, as we just read, the Bible says they could not speak peaceably to him because of the hatred that they had towards him. From there, Joseph's life gets significantly worse. His brothers conspire against him one day. They throw him into a pit. He's drawn out of the pit and sold into slavery. He ends up ruling in Potiphar's house. He's the steward over all that he had. Things seem to be good, but then Joseph gets again cast down into prison. and there's a false allegation against him, and then his life really lands him to the point where he is leading the nation of Israel in the palace. What a wild story that is. And through his life, with every up and with every down, Joseph can be summarized by those two words, sovereignty and suffering, as our title suggests. In fact, we learn that God's undeniable destiny for Joseph's life did not exclude him from suffering. And that's our first bullet point this morning. God's undeniable destiny for Joseph's life did not exclude him from suffering. We see in this portion that Joseph is shown his destiny by God, although he didn't necessarily know how it would look or what it would play out like. And then from there, what happens? Almost immediately, the Bible tells us that when he goes to check on his brothers and to see how they fare, where they had their sheeps grazing, he goes to where they're supposed to be at. They're not there. He finds a guy. He's like, oh, they're over in Dothan. And so he goes there, looks for his brothers. And what do they do? They say, here comes this dreamer. And so they begin to conspire together and they're like, well, let's just kill him. And then Reuben steps in and says, no, no, no, we're not going to kill him. We can sell him into slavery. At least we'll spare his life to that end. And so the brothers agree and Joseph comes up to see how they're doing. And they come around him, they surround him, they grab him, they rip the robe of many colors off of him, and then they take it and they throw him into this pit, which would have probably been an empty well. And at that point, they say, I'm kind of hungry. Let's go have lunch. And they decide, okay, we're gonna, we're gonna go conspire some more. And then Reuben even was thinking, oh man, I'm going to go free him, let him out of the pit. But during that time, some Midianites passed by, some Ishmaelites, and they were merchantmen. They were people who would have been in the slave trade. And so the brothers at that point draw him out of the pit, and then they sell him to those people. And think about how in a day's time, Joseph went from being the favored sibling to being human property. Can you imagine that? How his life very quickly got turned upside down. And we see, and we will continue to see through Joseph's story, how he suffered so greatly as he was in the center of God's will for his life. And what a paradox that we can live our lives following God's will, faithfully obeying Him, yet at the same time endure trials and endure sufferings and go through things that are almost unimaginable, yet the same thing that was true with Joseph can also be true of us, and that is that the Lord was with Joseph. In fact, in Genesis 39 verses 2, 3, 5, 21, and 23, the Bible says the Lord was with Joseph. If it wasn't clear the first time, it's certainly clear the fifth time. Pharaoh says of Joseph later in the story in Genesis 41, 38, and Pharaoh said unto his servants, can we find such a one as this is? man in whom the Spirit of God is. And folks, can I encourage you this morning that every believer has the same assurance that Joseph had that the Lord is with us. In fact, Jesus gives us this promise in Matthew 28 in verse 20 where he says to the disciples, always, even until the end of the world. You see, we must understand that God is with us in our trials and our suffering, and that God is using those trials and that suffering along the pathway of our destiny, both for our good as well as for His glory. You see, in Joseph's day, it was almost like, wow, God is with this man. He has the blessing of God. But folks, understand today that if you are a saved child of God this morning, if you have placed your faith and your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, that at the moment of your salvation, you receive the Holy Spirit of God. He is the one that regenerates your soul. He's the one that brings you from spiritual death into spiritual life. and from the moment you get saved until the moment that you die and you're in the presence of God, the Holy Spirit of God indwells your being and his presence is with you and he can fill you and teach you and convict you and comfort you and use you in a mighty way. Understand this morning that in your suffering, God's sovereignty and his presence is always with you. I think this morning about the character in scripture, Job, and how Job stands as really the shining example of somebody who went through trials and who came out better for it on the other end. Job said in Job 23 in verse number 10, but he, God, knows the way that I take. And when he has tried me, Job says, I shall come forth as gold. Job knew what it was like to be in the refiner's fire. He understood what suffering truly meant. What happened to Job? He lost his farm. He lost his fortune. He lost his family all on the same day. The only people he had left was a wife who told him to curse God and die, and his friends who tried to convince him that he was always in the wrong. But what did Job understand? God is doing something through my suffering that I both need and that is necessary. Job said in Job 42 and verse 5, I have heard of thee, speaking to God, I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear. But he says, but now mine eye seeth thee. Job was a man who God himself said he was perfect and upright and he rejected evil. But Job says of his own relationship with God, he says, listen, I have heard of God. I've prayed to God. The Bible says he sacrificed on behalf of his sins and on the behalf of his children's sins. But he said at the end of his trial, on the other side of his suffering, but now I have seen God in a way that I had not before. Folks, when we go through suffering along our life's journey, we will learn things about God that we never would have before. Our suffering oftentimes constrains us and it stretches us and it pushes us into our faith where we can truly learn, yes, faith is the victory. God is revealing himself to me in a mighty way. I think of the Apostle Paul, how he told Timothy in 2 Timothy 3 and verse 11, he says, persecutions and afflictions which came unto me at Antioch and Iconium and Lystra. He says, what persecutions I endured. but out of them all, the Lord delivered me." Folks, can I remind you this morning that God is a delivering God, that he will not leave you in your sufferings, he has not forgotten you in your trials, but we must understand that in order to successfully and to rightly use the pain that God has for a specific purpose in our life, in every season and in every suffering, Believers must recognize and respond to God's presence and purpose for their life. That's your next bullet point this morning. In every season and in any suffering, every believer must recognize and respond to God's presence and purpose for their life. As we talk about an undeniable destiny, understand this morning that your destiny has a destination. God is bringing you from one point to another. And can I encourage you to understand this morning that God has you here for a purpose. I don't know what burdens or what struggles you might have entered into Wildwood Baptist Church with this morning, but please know that those should not and will not be wasted by God. I want to encourage you with this truth that God is doing a work in your life. He is doing the work to change you, to make you a better person, to make you more like his son. He wants to show himself strong in your life. And this morning as we take a bird's eye view of the life of Joseph, I want us to see three ways where we find God's sovereignty working through Joseph's suffering. The first way we find God's sovereignty in suffering is we learn that God uses our darkest days to prepare us. God uses our darkest days to prepare us. That's your next bullet point this morning. After Joseph's brothers sell him into slavery and they return home, what happens? They lie to their dad Jacob. They say, hey, was this Joseph's robe? As if he didn't know, right? And the Bible says that they killed a goat, and they took the blood from that goat, and they spread it over the robe, and they said, yeah, we just found it out in the field. And it must have been that a wild beast got him, and Jacob goes into mourning. He goes into depression, and he just wants to die. He laments over his son, not knowing that his son is alive and that he's on his way down into Egypt. And the Bible says in Genesis 37 and verse 36, Meanwhile, the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard. And so what happened to Joseph? Joseph went from this dysfunctional family where his father had unrightly and unjustly favored him, his brothers hated him, he was the youngest, he was the bottom of the totem pole in some regard, and from there he goes into being a piece of property. Imagine what he felt. Imagine the sorrow. Imagine just the mental angst that he was under not knowing what's going to happen to me. Am I going to live or am I going to die? Am I going to work for a few years and then just be killed? I don't know what's going to happen. But you see what I find interesting is, is that when Joseph was sold, he was not sold to another nation to be a conscript in their army. He was not sold as just a manual laborer to work on a pyramid or a sphinx or whatever. Joseph was sold as a valuable asset to the captain of the personal guard of Pharaoh. His captors undoubtedly saw the merit of his character as he was no doubt tied to the back of a wagon or a cart or an animal. And he was walking from Canaan all the way down into Egypt for many days, weeks, and maybe even months. And these captors, they would have been like, man, look at Joseph. He's different than the rest. And so what do they do? They don't sell him. As a lowly slave, they say, well, this is the cream of the crop. We are going to sell him. And what a great testimony Joseph has as he responds well in this time of suffering. The merit of his character, his distinctive attitude. Listen, that's God's sovereignty ultimately at work. God was working through Joseph's lives and God worked out to where Joseph would land. You know, the Bible tells us in Philippians 2 and verse number 13, For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Do you know what that verse teaches us? That God is first going to do a work in your life before he does a work through your life. And in order for us to be used by God as believers, we must submit and understand that God wants to change us. From the moment you get saved until the moment you go to be with Christ, God is doing a progressive work of sanctification in your life by which he molds you and he makes you into who he wants you to be. By the way, that who he wants you to be is the Lord Jesus Christ. And God's work of preparation will allow many struggles that stretch us and mold us into who he would have us be. to be. You see, God was at work in Joseph's life long before he ever got into Egypt. And while Joseph travailed through some of his darkest days as a young man, God was preparing him on the inside. Church family, can I encourage you this morning that God has not forgotten you? in your trials. God has not forgotten you in your suffering. He knows where you're at. He knows how you feel, and He knows what you are going through. But listen, don't waste your trials this morning. Don't let your pain have no purpose, but recognize and respond to what God allows you to go through, because He is using your darkest days to prepare you just like He did Joseph. As we move along in our story this morning, we see further that God uses our difficulties to prune us. That's the next bullet point in your notes this morning. God uses our difficulties to prune us. If you're following along in your Bible, Genesis 39 tells us this in verse seven. Well, actually, if I go back to verse six, the Bible says, now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. That'll be important in just a moment. But verse seven says, and after a time, His master's wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, lie with me. But he refused and said to his master's wife, behold, because of my master, he has no concern, or because of me rather, my master has no concern about anything in the house. and he's put everything that he has in my charge. He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except for you, because you're his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?" And as she spoke to Joseph, notice what it says, day after day, he would not listen to her, to lie beside her, or to be with her. I love that Joseph put a godly standard in his life. He says, listen, I'm not gonna sin and do this great wickedness in the sight of God and ruin this spot where I'm at. I'm also not gonna be around you. I'm gonna, like Job, eschew this evil. I'm gonna stay far away from it. What a great testimony for us to learn from. The passage continues on and it says, but one day, when he went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the house was there in the house, she caught him by his garment, saying, lie with me. But he left his garment in her hand and he fled and he got out of the house. And as soon as she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled out of the house, she called to the men of her household and said unto them, See, he has brought among us, referring to her husband, a Hebrew to laugh at us. He came in to lie with me and I cried out with a loud voice. And as soon as he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried out, he left his garment beside me and fled and got out of the house. Then she laid up the garment by her until her master came home. And she told him the same story saying, the Hebrew servant whom you brought among us, he came in to laugh at me. But as soon as I lifted up my voice and cried out, he left his garment beside me and he fled out of the house. Don't you love how she had to rehearse her story before she gave the false accusation? And the passage continues to say this, and as soon as his master heard the words that his wife spoke to him, this is the way your servant treated me, the Bible says his anger was kindled. And Joseph's master took him and he put him into the prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined, and he was there in the prison. Can you imagine that? Joseph went from one hardship to the next. Now he sits in prison with his reputation ruined, a false accusation hanging over his head. And it would seem that God had very quickly delivered Joseph out of slavery into this position of stewardship over Potiphar's house where his character shined through. He says, listen, I'm kind of on the same level as Potiphar here. knowing that it's his, but he entrusts everything to me except for the food he eats on his plate, but also his wife. And Joseph encounters temptation, and what does he find but victory over his temptation. But because of Joseph's character, he would not be with this woman. And what happens? She gets mad at him when he finally, maybe she was just insulted, but he flees from temptation, and he runs out of the building, and so she accuses him, lands him in prison. And no doubt Joseph might have thought when he got to Potiphar's house and Potiphar said, hey, you're so responsible and you're such a good man. Everything in my house, Joseph, because I trust you, is in your care. You're no longer a slave, but what happened? That was not the place that God had Joseph to be. God's point for Joseph's life, his purpose, his destiny was not in Potiphar's house and God's work both in Joseph and through Joseph's life was also not done. He is now in prison. By the way, when Joseph was in Potiphar's house, certainly God used that time for Joseph to learn the Egyptian culture and to learn how to have the dignity of an Egyptian. That'll be important for the story later, but here now Joseph is in prison. It would seem that Joseph's story is hopeless, that he has nowhere to go, that he has no future. He doesn't know if someone's going to come knock on his door one day and say, hey, it's time for your execution because of what happened with Potiphar's wife. But the reality is, is that we can see that God was pruning his character. You say, what do you mean, Pastor Alexander, pruning his character? Jesus gives us the teaching about pruning in the life of a believer. In John 15, verses two through five, Jesus says this, every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he, God the Father, takes away. But every branch that is in me that does bear fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit. In verse five, he says, abide in me and I in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. Jesus says, I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. And so what is Jesus teaching us here in this passage? But that God's will for every believer is that they would live a spiritually fruitful life. That brings us to our next point, that the pruning work of God in our lives produces spiritual fruit. The pruning work of God in our lives produces spiritual fruit. What does spiritual fruit look like? Well, we have an answer from that from Scripture. Paul tells the churches at Galatia, he says, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, it's joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Don't you love how the fruit of the Spirit shows forth in our relationships? That's what they all have to do with. It's how we treat others. It's how we navigate our relationships. Because along the way of life's journey and following God's destiny for our life, He wants us to live harmonious and peaceful relationships, bringing others along with Him. But ultimately, the fruit of the Spirit worked out in our life is to develop a Christ-like character in us. That's why the Apostle Paul would say things like, until Christ be formed in you. Listen, that's the will of God for every believer, that the character of the Lord Jesus Christ would be formed in our life in the way that we make decisions and treat others and our actions. He said this in Romans, that we are predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son. God's will for every believer is to be like Jesus. When we look back on our story, Joseph's new difficulty was now not that he was a slave, or that he had a myriad of responsibilities ahead of him, but he was now a political prisoner. his reputation's ruined, he's sitting in a jail cell, and you might wonder, where's the hope in that? But Joseph again responds well to this new bout of suffering that he's enduring in his life. And the Bible says in Genesis 39, 23, that the keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph's charge, because the Lord was with him, and whatever he did, the Lord made it. to succeed. And so we learn that God blesses Joseph and he doesn't abandon Joseph when he goes through this new difficult circumstance. God saw his fruitfulness in Potiphar's house. He saw the holiness of his character. And now, because of that fruitfulness, he is again allowing Joseph to be pruned more and more. And so we learn that the pruning work of God in our life produces spiritual fruit. I was thinking about this idea of pruning and it reminded me of when I was, when Grace and I first got our house back in 2019 and we saw that in the backyard there was like 20 five to 27 trees really across our whole property. And I remember saying, Grace, these have got to be cut down. And the reason for it was is that they all leaned towards our house. And almost all of them had kind of a rotten stump underneath and you could kind of put a stick up there and realize, okay, this is rotten, there's critters up and down. With one bad storm, these trees are going to be on our roof. And so I said, let's save, let's prepare, let's get ready to cut these down. And so we hired somebody, they cut every single tree on our property down. And you might be thinking, well, what's the merit in that, right? Apart from saving the house, we now have grass. And that's very nice to have, to have grass in your yard. And so as we cut the trees down, there was one stump in particular that we said, okay, we're not going to take this one out. We're not going to have it ground or ripped out or anything like that. And it was in our front yard. There was a river birch that was planted right beside our septic tank. And underneath that river birch, as it grew over many years, it grew to almost 40 feet tall. It was massive, just absolutely massive. But underneath it was our water line that went into the house, as well as a sprinkler line that went the other way. And I was thinking, okay, if we start having this stump ground down, it's going to interrupt one of those lines. Let's just leave it. Let's let it rot. And then we'll take it out with time. And I remember there was some like sprouts that were coming up around this tree stump and around the roots. And I thought, man, is it still trying to grow? Like what's going on? So I would go every year and I would cut these little branches, these little seedlings out until finally they were just like this cluster, this ball that were planted. There was like six areas all around this river birch. And so finally I just stopped cutting them. And what I realized is that it was a completely different plant. They were crepe myrtles that someone had planted all around this tree. And they're beautiful now. And actually, the former owner of our home, he was a landscape designer. And so he had planted that very beautifully around this river birch. But every year when I would cut those trees back, what would happen is that they would just bloom more and more to the point of frustration where I said, okay, let's just leave it, right? And now what has happened is they've grown up around that stump, which is still there, by the way, and you can't even see it through most of the year. And I'm like, these are beautiful, these crape myrtle bushes. And I'm thinking, man, I'm actually really glad that I pruned those every year because now once they finally grew up year after year, they have grown up and they blossom and they're huge and they're beautiful. And folks, that is exactly what God is doing in our lives when he allows us to go through a season of pruning or a season of chastisement. Listen, God is not abandoning us. He is not upset with us. What he is doing is he is drawing us back into himself. He is teaching us. He is making us more and more fruitful. And undoubtedly, that was the work that God was doing in Joseph's life. So the pruning work of God in our lives, it produces spiritual fruit. But further, it also produces spiritual fortitude. It produces spiritual fortitude. While in prison, God was not only increasing the fruitfulness of Joseph's character, but he was also increasing Joseph's dependence upon himself. By the way, we know it was over two years that Joseph was in this prison. And what happens? Pharaoh, he gets upset with two different men. He gets upset with his butler, this cup bearer, and he gets upset with the baker, and he sends both of them into the prison. And while Joseph sat in this prison, and he was the steward of it, but he was still a prisoner, what happens is he really kind of shepherds these men. One day he comes to the cupbearer and to the baker and he says, Hey guys, what's wrong? You both look sad today. And, and both of them confess that we've dreamed these dreams and we, we don't really even know what they're about, but they've disturbed us. And so Joseph having some experience in these dreams and being put in this prison for a very specific reason by God, what does he do? But he interprets the baker's dream about how he had these three baskets of bread. He was carrying them on his head in these baskets. And then the crows came and they were picking the bread out of the baskets. And he says, here's the meaning of your dream. In three days, you're going to get out of prison, but you're going to be executed and the crows will pick it at your flesh. And it was a terrible, interpretation, but it was true what this baker's fate would be. And to the butler, he interpreted his dream and he says, listen, in three days you're going to get out of this prison and you'll be restored to your position of being the cupbearer to the king. But Joseph asks the man, he says, listen, when you get out of prison, Would you remember me? Would you mention me to the Pharaoh? Can you help me out? And the Bible says that both of the dreams came true as Joseph interpreted them. The baker went to his execution. The cupbearer went back to his former position. But the Bible says that the cupbearer forgot about Joseph and that he did not get out of prison. And like Joseph, the Apostle Paul was a man who was greatly used of God. But where do we find the Apostle Paul at throughout the New Testament? He likewise was in prison. And Paul said this to the church at Corinth. He gave this testimony saying that, Through the abundance of revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buff at me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength has made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, Will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me? Therefore I take pleasure, Paul says, in infirmities, reproaches, necessities, persecutions, and distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, Paul says, then am I strong. Think about that response to trials that Paul had. He says, most gladly will I rejoice in all of the hardships that I endure. He says, I take pleasure in these things, knowing that weakness is right around the corner, but God has me here for a reason. And when I am weak, God has allowed it. He is going to step in and his grace will strengthen me. And that's exactly what Christ said to Paul. My strength is made perfect in weakness. My grace is sufficient. It is enough for you. Folks, oftentimes when we endure suffering and when we go through the darkest night of the soul, God has us there for a reason that we can learn of his sufficient grace to strengthen us and to bring us to where he would have us to be. He allows us to go through pruning so that we can be spiritually fruitful, so that we can be spiritually strong. in our life. And so what happens to Joseph? Where does his story wrap up at? Well, we learn finally that God is doing a work to position us. And certainly we find how God did a work in Joseph's life to bring him from that pit to the Potiphar's house, the prison, and then finally the palace. The reason that Joseph was brought to Egypt is so that God would have a man with his spirit who can interpret these dreams. And despite the suffering that Joseph endures, the darkness he went through, the false accusations from wicked people, the jealous hatred of others, God molded Joseph, he prepared Joseph, and he pruned Joseph because God knew that when he needed Joseph, he wanted to have him ready to position him for his specific purpose. You see, God taught Joseph to retain his character and his attitude on his walk into Egypt. He taught Joseph how to be a responsible steward in Potiphar's house. He taught Joseph how to be a light in the prison that he sat in. Well, two years after Joseph speaks to the butler, this cupbearer, the Pharaoh also dreams a dream. And he dreams a dream that there were seven cows that came out of this river and they were fat, they were healthy, they were abundant. But then following them come seven lean cows who were weak and disgusting and nasty. And they came and they consumed the seven healthy cows to the point where it did not even look like they had eaten anything. And Pharaoh was disturbed by this dream that he keeps having and he goes to his magicians and he goes to his servants, like the butler, and he says, what is the interpretation of this dream? No one can give him an answer. But at that moment, the butler remembers there's a man in prison, who I was supposed to mention, and he can interpret dreams. And so Pharaoh calls for Joseph to be brought up out of prison and they clean Joseph up. They give him a fresh set of clothes. They shave his face to make him look like an Egyptian. And he goes before Pharaoh and he says, here is what your dream means. God is going to give Pharaoh an answer of peace for the interpretation ultimately belongs to him. And God speaks through Joseph and he interprets this dream. He says, Pharaoh, what's about to happen? Egypt is going to have seven plenteous years of crops and of food. That's what the seven healthy cows mean. And then we're going to have seven years of famine that follow those seven years of plenty to the point where we wouldn't have even known that we went through years of plenty. That's how bad the famine is going to be. And so Joseph begins to have this conversation with the Pharaoh. He's saying, here's what should happen. You need to save 20% of the year's crops every single year of the wheat and the grain so that Egypt can have bread and also that we can sell it to other nations who are going to come here to us. And Pharaoh being so impressed by Joseph, both the wisdom that he had, ultimately that was from God. That's when he says the verse we read earlier, Is there such a man as this in whom the Spirit of God is? And so what happens? Pharaoh says to Joseph, there will not be a man who is of greater position in the nation of Egypt except for me. You're number two in Egypt. Whatever Joseph says, that you are to do, speaking to his royal court. And at that point, Joseph was promoted to this position where God uses him to now steward all of the grain and the crops and the economy and the agriculture of the entire Egyptian empire to the point where not only Egypt would be saved, but also his family who would come down into Egypt in the years to come. Seven years go by, their years of plenty. Within two years of the famine, people are selling their land to buy grain. People are selling everything that they have and who shows up but Joseph's brethren. They don't recognize him. He looks like an Egyptian at this point. He has an Egyptian wife. He even has two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. And by the way, Manasseh's name means the Lord has made me to forget about my hardships. And where does Joseph's story land? Genesis chapter number 50. Jacob has just passed away. His brothers are like, hey, what if Joseph comes and tries to kill us? And what does Joseph answer them? We've already read it, but we'll read it again. Joseph says, as for you, to his brothers, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today. Joseph had the courage to look in his brother's eyes and say, listen, I know that you were trying to harm me, I know that you were trying to hurt me, you were jealous of me, you hated me, you threw me in a pit, but God allowed it to happen to bring me to a point where he could use me for a specific purpose. As our musicians come back out on the stage this morning, can I just encourage you with this thought that God is allowing you to go through whatever burdens and whatever sufferings and whatever trials you may be experiencing this morning for a set and specific purpose in your life. Listen, God has not forgotten about you. He is with you. He is preparing you. He is pruning you. And He is getting ready to position you. I think about the Apostle Paul. He was also prepared and pruned in position like Joseph was. He told the church at Philippi this, he says, Paul testified. of the fact that God did not waste his trials, but rather his trials are what God used to advance the gospel, to spread the good news, and God used Paul in a mighty way. Folks, I want to encourage you this morning, whatever suffering you're enduring, whatever burdens are on your heart, that God is using it for a specific purpose. And so as our musicians come back to the stage this morning, and as we begin a time of invitation, I wanna invite everybody to stand up this morning. We're gonna continue with worship here in just a few moments, but I also wanna encourage you to respond to the message. Perhaps you can make an altar in your seat. If you feel inclined, you can come down to the front and spend time in prayer. Really the point of decision today is this, is that God would have us change our perspective on any trials we go through. Whether it's a minor inconvenience or a major tragedy, understand that God has not forgotten us and that whatever we walk through in our life, God can and he will use it for our good and for His glory. I wanna encourage you, if you filled that connection card out, bring it down at the end of the service. We'd love to put a connection or a gift bag in your hand for being a part of our service this morning. Our deacons will be down front. If you need somebody to pray with, you can pray at the altar or pray in your seat. Then I also wanna encourage you to sing along as we have a closing hymn of invitation. But let's pray this morning as we close out in God's word. Our Father in heaven, we are truly grateful for your word. We're grateful for what it means to us. to have a firm foundation to our faith, Lord. We know that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Lord, I pray that you would help us to be not only hearers of your word, but also doers. Lord, that we would leave here this morning with a new perspective, changed and transformed, ready to follow your will and pursue the undeniable destiny that you have for each and every one of us. Lord, we love you. Help us to love you more. Bless this time we have left with one another. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. You've been listening to the teaching ministry of Wildwood Baptist Church. We hope that today's message was an encouragement to you. For more information, you can find us at wildwoodbaptist.org, as well as on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Just search for Wildwood Ackworth on the web and on social media. Thank you for joining us, and we look forward to hearing from you.