God's Control in the Chaos | Genesis 41

I wonder church family, is there an area in your life this morning where you are tempted, to take credit for God's work? Like, you look at your life and you go, yeah, James, I hear that, but I'm pretty disciplined. I've worked pretty hard, like, I I grind, I get things done, I'm pretty good at what I do. And like, and there and there is this this sense where we connect our gifts, abilities, ultimately with our work and our talent. But scripture is going like everything that we have, every gift, every talent, every ability is ultimately from the Lord. So here's our truth to remember. When it comes to our gifts, our abilities, and our accomplishment, God gets the credit, and God gets the glory. [00:52:04] (45 seconds)  #GiveGodTheGlory

There's a truth to remember, church family, God's delays are not God's absence. God's delays are not his absence. God is doing something in your life, in you and through you in the midst of waiting. God's plan is unfolding. Like, I I I get that we're not always able to pull back the curtain and connect all the dots and see exactly what God is doing, like we live by faith, not by sight. We don't always know what God is up to, but we know he's up to something. We know we're not forgotten. We know that in the delays of life, God is not absent. [00:48:09] (44 seconds)  #DelaysNotAbsence

Have you ever felt, like you were in a season of waiting? Have you ever felt forgotten, or ignored, or looked past? Have you ever felt like there's a world of activity happening around you, and nobody notices? Like you feel you are walking on a busy New York Street, and people are zipping by, and they're doing their own thing, and thousands of people pass you, and nobody notices you, like you are lost in a sea of humanity. You're you're just in a season of waiting, and you feel forgotten. Joseph was forgotten by men, he was not forgotten by God. [00:47:10] (40 seconds)  #NotForgottenByGod

God has perfectly positioned you to accomplish his purposes. God is sovereign, not just over, like, macro world events, but over your life and mine. We see the hand of God all over this story. Like, we see the God's hand all over this story. We see it in other places in scripture, Daniel chapter two verses 21 through 22. God changes times and seasons. He removes kings and he sets up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. He reveals deep and hidden things. He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him. I love that. What a great reminder. God promotes. [00:59:26] (47 seconds)  #GodIsSovereign

God is gonna raise up a man to ultimately accomplish his plan. He's he's an ordinary guy, ordinary people. That's who God uses, people like you and people like me. God has a plan and purpose for the world, and the way that he advances his plan and purpose is through you. Who knew? Like, the God of the universe It's like, I got a plan. I have a purpose, and I'm gonna use ordinary people, like people like you and people like me, to advance his purpose in the world. Here's a truth to remember, God has perfectly positioned you to accomplish his purposes. [00:58:40] (45 seconds)  #GodUsesOrdinaryPeople

It's a truth to remember, church family. There are times in life when no amount of experience or success or intellect can give us clarity. There are times in life when no amount of experience or success or intellect can give us clarity or help us understand the world around us. We are limited. We are finite. We are not God. We're not God, and so we experience life with limits. You experience life with limits. I experience life with limits. And I know that sounds crazy, but there are times when that is difficult, for folks like us, to hear and believe and understand because we are a smart bunch. [00:37:44] (60 seconds)  #LimitedNotGod

There are times in life when God calls us to admit, hey, listen, I don't know. That is intellectually honest and it is humble to admit. There are times in life when no amount of experience, success, or intellect can give you or I clarity. We are limited, we are finite, but God is not. God is not. So, Pharaoh runs out of options, he, gathers all his his best and brightest. He says, interpret my dream. They cannot. And then, almost suddenly, someone in the story remembers that, oh, that's right. There is there is a Hebrew, who might just be the man for the job. [00:42:49] (51 seconds)  #HumbleToAdmit

Man, I love that reminder. Like, in in a world where we, have resources and means and the abilities, to accomplish great things and to experience great things, sometimes, what is spiritually most dangerous to you and I is not failure, but success. Success comes our way, and we sit back, and we think to ourselves, look at what I've done, Like, look at what I have accomplished. And it's such a temptation. I'm looking out this morning, I mean, like so many of you will have experiences of success in your life. Like, the blessing of God, like you will be able to do things and accomplish things that the vast majority of the world would be blown away by. [00:55:13] (53 seconds)  #DangerOfSuccess