From Pit to Palace | When God Moves You Forward, Don’t Drift

If in doing so, if in celebrating those moments, we actually neglect the maturing process of what it took to get there, if we neglect that, man, we've missed the whole point of the journey because we can't forget that as God works in our circumstances towards a redemptive future, he often uses us in the process. Right? As God is moving in us, working in us in our circumstances, as he's pushing us towards a redemptive future, he uses us in the process. Now we don't always get to know where he's taken us. We don't always know what the endgame looks like, we but just have to trust that he's taking us somewhere. [00:10:55] (41 seconds)  #TrustTheProcess

Right? So what we've been seeing all through Joseph's story is that oftentimes in life, God will bring us through the prison as a way to prepare us for the palace that awaits. He uses all of our story, all that we've been through, that whole prison season, those pit moments. He uses all of it to prepare us for the palace that he has waiting for us. The question is, what do we do when we get there? Right? What do we do when we get there? Now, just wanna make something clear. Like, we all live in the palace. [00:11:55] (36 seconds)  #PrisonToPalace

The question is, what do we do when we get there? Like, how do we live each and every day as if we're living in the palace of God's kingdom? And here's what we're gonna see today as we wrap up the story of Joseph. We're gonna see that the palace is not about what God has done for you. It's not about that. It's not about what he's done for you. It's about what God wants to do through you. Yeah? [00:12:57] (25 seconds)  #PalaceIsPurpose

And I feel like most of life, I think maybe especially our faith journey, right, which we're all on, we're all at different points, we're all at various points of our faith journey and and and our growth and all that stuff. But I think most of life, it's it's about perspective. That's ultimately what it comes down to. How we handle our situations, what we do in our situations, it comes down to perspective. [00:13:22] (22 seconds)  #PerspectiveMatters

Guys, the palace isn't about what God has done for you. It's all about what God wants to do through you to reach others, bless others. Right? But here's the thing, and we've been talking about, you know, living life when you're unfairly at the bottom. And when that happens, when you get thrown into the pit, we gotta find a way to escape. Or when you get thrown into the prison, you know, after prison, you gotta live there for an extended period of time. [00:14:29] (28 seconds)  #ServeToBless

The prison, that builds dependence. You you've gotta depend on other people for food, for water, for activity. Right? You are at the mercy of the of the jail, the warden. Yeah? But the palace, that that can lure us into that false sense of independence. Right? And, guys, that that can actually be the greater danger. That can be the greater danger for us. [00:17:10] (25 seconds)  #DependOnGod

Because you gotta understand the palace, that's not the reward for living a good life. It's actually a responsibility that God places on us to be a good steward of all that he's given to us. Our culture, that's defined success as about what have what have you done? What have you accomplished? What have you accumulated? What does your bank account look like? What does your retirement plan look like? How many vacations do you get? That is what culture has defined as success for us today. [00:18:17] (33 seconds)  #StewardshipNotStatus

But the kingdom, man, it's different. It is flipped. Kingdom success is defined by living a life that's marked by grace and stewardship. Grace and stewardship. Yeah? So just as Joseph didn't let the prison that he was in define who he is, right, define his potential, he also didn't let the the palace that he went into elevate him. Right? His sense of worth to the point where he actually stepped away from his his kingdom responsibilities. [00:18:50] (31 seconds)  #GraceAndStewardship