Unwanted: Joseph Part 2

So Joseph is able to understand all that he has gone through from the lord's perspective. We need the lord's perspective for our lives, and it doesn't come easy. We we lose it easily. One of the reasons one of the many reasons that we gather on a consistent basis, why we study the word of God on a consistent basis, why we encourage each other on a consistent basis, because if we do do not do those things, we will lose the Lord's perspective. We will begin to get fluffy in our thinking, and we'll and we'll start, you know, going down some other roads. We need the lord's perspective for our lives today. [01:10:00] (41 seconds)  #SeekHisPerspective

We need the lord's perspective for our lives today. We need to see our lives through the grid of eternity. And and just friends, I mean, our lives are relatively brief in light of eternity. Right? I mean, very brief. We need to fully embrace whatever the lord has for us, And I know that this is something we we all struggle with, but we can trust him when we recognize he's doing something new in our lives and he's asking us to take a step of faith into something that's different for us. We need to remember that, first of all, he's smarter than us. He knows what he's doing. We can trust him. [01:10:37] (41 seconds)  #EternalPerspective

So finally, Joseph is gonna catch a break. This guy needed to catch a break, but this wasn't he wouldn't he didn't catch a break. This was the sovereign will and timing of God. This was the sovereign will and timing of God. And and there there were no coincidences in the life and the challenges of Joseph. The Lord knew what he was doing. He had prepared him for such a time as this. And the application for our lives is this. When we go through disappointments, when we go through things that seem to be setbacks or seem to be failures in the eyes of some, in the eyes of the world, in the in our own eyes, we need to understand the Lord is using all of it, all of it, to prepare us for what is next if we are willing to seek things from the lord's perspective. [00:55:58] (55 seconds)  #PurposeInPain

And so our good friend, pastor David, and our good friend Clint Morgan, and I just want you to be Clint is a very gentle man. He's a very thinking guy. He's so Clint starts to pray for me, and I have to remind Clint of this prayer all the time. He forgets. He says, Paul, he says, the lord is giving me a picture. He says, I I see you on this highway, and you're getting off these exits. You're you're picking up some bags. You're getting back in the highway. The lord wants you to know you're in the right direction. And then he says, and the lord wants you to know that nothing has been wasted. [01:01:50] (40 seconds)  #OnTheRightRoad

So the culmination of the story has Joseph's brothers coming to Egypt because of the famine. They they need to get food so they don't starve. And when the brothers arrived and and they're they're they're coming into the Governor's Palace, right, they they they bowed before Joseph with their faces to the ground. They don't know it's Joseph. That was what the original dream implied that you guys are gonna bow before me. That's why they were so angry with him. Joseph recognized his brothers instantly. They didn't recognize him. It's been twenty one years now since he was sold into slavery. [01:06:29] (44 seconds)  #DreamsFulfilled

Holy Spirit, we're encouraged to know that you know us. You know our hearts. You know our life circumstances. You know the pains that we're carrying. You know the things like like like my story. Anyone here is carrying something that's just been such a burden. Holy Spirit, we're we're grateful that you now had a speak into our lives. We're so grateful that we can open up our hearts to you. We're so grateful that you are the one that led us to place our faith in the savior. You did that. So I pray that for those who who might need that, that they would be open to your leadership, open to salvation in Jesus. And whatever healing is needed in this place, emotional healing, physical healing, encouragement of any kind. [01:17:19] (60 seconds)  #LedByTheSpirit

In 2004, I I felt like a failure. I felt like a a failure. And I felt I felt like the stuff that we did for those seven years was a waste of time. It was a complete waste of time. I couldn't see the value of anything. Have you ever experienced anything like this? And I'm carrying that weight. I'm carrying that weight, that perspective on my soul, and it's heavy. It's heavy. So so at this gathering, this pastor's frack, it's it's an office building, a floor that they rent in an office building. It's all these round tables. Not a very big space. I don't know how many people there. Not a ton. But we're sitting around round tables in groups of five, groups five or six. [01:00:46] (54 seconds)  #CarryingTheWeight

Like, he will empower you. He will empower me to do what he asks us to do, whatever that might be. And, also, the Lord specializes in taking painful things that we have gone through and turning them around for the good in the way he works through us of his good pleasure. Many times, he uses us to influence the lives of those who've gone through some of the painful things we've gone through. Right? That's something he really specializes in. And and and for me, the most vivid example that I've seen of this over the last year and and since I've been up here with you guys are the ladies that came here on a Sunday a year ago and visited us from the Hoving home. [01:11:50] (47 seconds)  #TurnPainToPurpose