Genesis | Week 8 | Full Service

So in 1976, there were three guys who kind of banded together to start a company. One of those guys in particular had this vision that he and his friends were going to change the personal computing space forever.

And after about eleven days of starting the company, one of them actually dropped off and that left too and it was Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs and they started a company called Apple. Maybe you've heard of it. Maybe you have it in your pocket and you have one of their devices,

but Apple is one of the most recognizable brands in the computer industry that we know of today. If you're an Android user, welcome. Glad you are here. We're praying for you.

I'm just kidding. Freedom, we can have whatever phone we want. But Steve

Wozniak and Steve Jobs, for the first ten years of the company, they were just crushing it. They were going after it and just changing things. They were competing with the likes of Microsoft and HP and they were holding their own and people were coming to them in droves and they were selling products that were blowing people's minds. And it was an amazing first ten years.

In those first ten years, Apple incorporated and therefore needed a board of directors and they needed a CEO and they needed to get all of this leadership stuff figured out.

Here's the thing, what we know about Apple is we would know that, okay, Steve Jobs was the visionary of it. He was the leader of the company. He did all of that. But for the first ten years of Apple, Steve Jobs actually never found himself sitting at the helm of his own company. He never found himself as the CEO.

In fact, the board of directors continued to let him know like, hey, we don't think you are the person to lead this company. And at about eight years in, they actually charged Steve with being the one to find who the next CEO of Apple was going to be. And so in about 1983,

Steve went to a man named John Scully, who was the CEO of PepsiCo at the time, one of the leading names in the beverage industry. And he famously in his biography recounts that he looked at John Scully, the CEO of Pepsi and said this,

do you wanna sell sugar water for the rest of your life or do you wanna come change the world with me? So John quit his sweet gig at Pepsi as the CEO and he went on to go be the CEO of Apple.

And for two years, Steve Jobs and John Scully became really good friends. But at the end of those two years, the board of directors and John Scully had decided that Steve Jobs was no longer fit to be a part of what was happening at Apple and so they fired him.

And in a 2005 address to the Stanford students, graduate students, Steve Jobs recounted this moment and he told them it was one of the hardest moments

he's ever experienced. He was embarrassed, he was ready to leave, he was ready to get out of the tech space, he was ready to move from Silicon Valley and just be done with it all. Getting ousted from the company that he poured his blood, sweat and tears into was one of the hardest moments, but he also recounts that it was one of the greatest.

Because Steve Jobs at the time, he was kind of thinking, man, am I gonna get away from all of this? I'm embarrassed. This is awful. I'm getting fired from my own company. Like that doesn't exactly look good on a resume. Or am I going to keep going?

And history would tell us that Steve Jobs actually decided that his dream to see tech and creativity come together to change computing as we know it back then to what it is today, he decided to go after it. And he started a couple more companies, one of which we would know today as Pixar.

Years later, he sold for a mere $7,400,000,000 Yeah, pocket change, right?

So I tell you that story because Steve Jobs, while he isn't a great example of what it looks like to be a follower of Jesus, his spiritual life was kind of all over the place, but he demonstrates something that I think you and I can learn and that we're actually going to see in scripture in the story of Joseph.

That he had a vision for something that was to come and he was really far from it, but he decided to go all in and still put his very best into whatever work he was doing.

That he was not going to get beat up and thrown out just and totally give up, but that he was going to continue to work hard at whatever it is that he was doing. And for many of us, we're pretty thankful for that because we have all the movies that came out of Pixar

and later in his life, he does find himself as the CEO of Apple, but he was outside of his own company for an entirety of thirteen years. For thirteen years, he watched his baby grow into something that he was not a part of. And so as we jump into the story of Joseph,

what we see in his life and what we see in us as followers of Jesus, if you're in this room and you call yourself a follower of Jesus, that we are to focus on faithfulness, not the future. If you're taking notes and you like to write things down, this is what I would write down, that we are to focus on faithfulness,

not the future. And we're gonna look at Joseph's story and see how he continually lives out faithfulness regardless of what kind of future comes his way. So again, if you have your Bibles, we're gonna be in Genesis 39.

If you haven't got there, do encourage you, get there. This is chance number two because we've gotta set up the Joseph story because like I said, it's a 13 chapters and if we were to go through all 13 chapters, we would be here until next week at this service and I think we wanna go home at some point. So Joseph's life starts at about 17 years old. So he's 17, he's young, he's got a little bit of that teen angst and he's excited. He's got some of that

lack of wisdom that we have in our younger years, but he's so full of excitement and what's to come. And the other thing with Joseph is he was the second youngest, but yet he found himself as his dad's favorite child.

And so as you can imagine, with dad showing favoritism towards Joseph, it created some tension in the family. If there's anything we've noticed over the last few weeks with Brent talking about Abraham and with Daniel talking about Jacob and Esau, parents showing favoritism often opens the door for some difficulty.

So let that be a fair warning to us parents. Favoritism can sometimes create tension in the home. And so Jacob

looked at Joseph and said, You're my favorite son. And not only would he say it, he also showed it by giving Jacob what scripture or Joseph what scripture would call a coat of many colors. Not quite like this one, but just as cool.

And he gave him this coat and he said, This is yours to wear. And it signified the favoritism, it signified his importance, and this made the other 10 brothers pretty upset, as you could imagine. So it wasn't just that dad coined him as the favorite. It was also the fact that Joseph had another problem. He was a dreamer.

He really liked to dream and he liked to share his dreams with his family. And there was one night where he laid his head down on his pillow. He probably had his own room while his 10 other brothers shared their room because he's the favorite. So he

gets the room and he's sleeping and he gets a great night's sleep and he wakes up and he's just like, this is great. I feel good. I had an awesome dream. Goes to the breakfast table. They're eating their Wheaties and it's all great. And he looks at his family and his brothers and he goes, guys, guess what?

I had a dream.

And they're like, oh really? What's the dream? So Joseph looks at it and he's like, okay, so picture this. There were these sheaves and a sheave is like something with wheat and farming. We live in Queen Creek, so we kind of understand what that is like. And he was like, there were these sheaves and then there were other sheaves and I was a sheave and you guys were sheaves. So all the brothers were sheaves and there were just sheaves all over the place. And he's like, guess what? Your guys' sheaves bowed down to my sheave.

And the brothers are like, oh, oh really? So you think we are gonna bow down to you? Joseph was like, that's the dream. So I dreamt it. That's kind of the plan. So this upset the brothers obviously, but Joseph laid his head down the next night and went to bed and he had another dream.

And so he wakes up and he's like, oh man, another dream. This is awesome. And he goes to the breakfast table and they're eating their pancakes. Mom whipped up some awesome homemade maple syrup and it's all tasting good. And he's like, guys, guess what? I had another dream. Oh Joseph.

I could imagine being like a fly on the mall in that room and just thinking, man, this guy learned anything? Like the day before his brothers are like, dude, really? You think that's what we're gonna do? Like I don't think they were exactly excited for your dream. So I don't know why you're so excited to tell them about your next dream, but he's 17 and if you're a parent of a teen, you kinda get it. And he's just like, I'm a tell you guys my dream. And he looks at them and he's like, okay,

family, check this out. The moon, the sun, the stars, the entire cosmos was bowing down to me. Okay.

So Joseph's brothers, obviously not excited about this news, are just like, are you kidding me, dude? Joseph's dad, Jacob, he's like, man, dude, I know you're my favorite son and all and maybe your brothers will bow down to you. That could probably happen, but your mother and I,

you think we're gonna bow down to you? You think the entire cosmos is gonna bow down to you? Like this guy, big head, arrogant as all get out.

And so Joseph's dad is just like, Hey man, you gotta cool it, knock it off. And scripture tells us that this continued to build the animosity that the brothers had towards Joseph. Because there was a day in which Joseph's dad, Jacob goes, hey Joseph, can you do me a favor?

Can you go out and check on your brothers? Because Joseph not doing his son any more favors by picking him out to be the favorite, he made sure Joseph never had to work very hard. And so while the brothers worked really hard in the fields, Joseph was the one who would kind of watch them. If you're a parent, you got multiple kids, try putting one kid in charge of the other kid. Try putting the youngest in charge of the oldest. Oldest. Tell me how that goes.

And this was their story. And so Joseph is like, you know what, dad, you take care of me. I take care of you. I'll go check on the brothers. And if they're doing anything wrong, I'll come tell you. So not only is he the favorite, he gets a coat, he's having dreams and he's telling all of his brothers that they're gonna bow down to him, but he's also the family tattletale.

And so Joseph puts on his coat and he goes out to check on the brothers and the brothers are super far away and they're doing their work and they noticed Joseph coming from a long ways away. They probably saw the coach and they're like, oh man, there's Joseph guys.

And so Joseph comes down and as he's coming down, they're like, here comes the dreamer. So they start mocking him and they're talking bad about him and they're like, one brother has this really good idea. And he goes, guys, I've figured it out. Our problems are solved. Let's kill him.

Okay, all right. So we go from like, we don't like our brother to finally like, hey, we're gonna kill him. It gives you an idea of the kind of tension that was in this home. If you think you got family problems, let me tell you, they got family problems.

And so all the brothers naturally are just like, yeah, no, that sounds like a good idea. Let's kill them. Yeah, sweet. So in an effort to be somewhat heroic, I guess, one of the brothers named Ruben, before Joseph got there,

he actually said, hey, maybe we shouldn't kill him. Which is as interesting coming from Ruben because he was actually the oldest son. And if you know anything about the family culture then is that the oldest son would have essentially been the favorite. He would have been the one to get the coat. He would have been the one to get the blessing. He would have been the one to get the favor. But yet we see Joseph, the second youngest getting it.

And so he has the grand idea of saying, hey guys, let's not kill him. Let's throw him into a pit and we'll just let him starve to death.

And they're like, you know what? You're so right. Why get our hands dirty when we can just let them die in a pit? And so they're like, it was a great idea. So Joseph shows up and they grab him and they throw him in the pit and Joseph's like, funny guys, let me out. I'm gonna tell dad. And they're like, no, you're staying down there. And they set up camp right next to him and they start eating food and they're like, we got our Chick fil A and this is awesome. And Joseph's down in the pit getting nothing. And then one of the brothers sees some people with some camels and some stuff walking by

and he has a great idea. The brothers are chock full of them. So he goes, Hey guys, if we just let them die down there, we don't get anything out of it. They're like, Okay, I'm tracking. Yeah.

What if we sold him to what scripture called these Ishmaelite traders? All the brothers are like, yeah, great idea. We make some money, we get rid of our brother. We'll just, they concoct a plan to take the coat, dip it in some goat's blood. They're gonna go tell their dad, hey, sorry, your son died. And bummer, oh. And so that's what they do.

These brothers really, really like these are the brothers you want, am I right? And so Joseph gets pulled out of the pit and he's thinking, oh yeah, so funny guys, good one. Oh, it's not a joke. You're going with these guys. So those guys pay them for Joseph and Joseph gets sold into

slavery and Joseph's brothers take the coat off of him and they dip it in some goat's blood. They could take it back to Jacob and they tell Jacob, hey, sorry man, your favorite son's dead. Guess you gotta pick another one. Can it be me? No, that was a little embellishment. That was just for the fun of it.

But that's what happens is Joseph gets sold by his brothers into slavery. So this guy who had a dream that one day lots of people would be bowing down from to him finds himself being sold into slavery. And that's where you and I pick up the story in Genesis chapter

39. So again, if you're not there, I think it's probably just too late for you. We're gonna put it on the screen. So hopefully that's helpful. So Joseph just got sold to the Ishmaelite traders and now they are on a journey with Joseph. In chapter 39 starting in verse one, it says this, it says, when Joseph was taken to

Egypt by the Ishmaelite traders, he was purchased by Potiphar, an Egyptian officer. Potiphar was captain of the guard for Pharaoh, the king of Egypt.

The Lord was with Joseph. Hold on to that phrase. The Lord was with Joseph so he succeeded in everything he did as he served in the home of his Egyptian master. Potiphar noticed this and realized that the Lord was with Joseph giving him success in everything he did. This pleased Potiphar so he soon made Joseph his personal attendant. He put He put him in charge of his entire household and everything he owned. From the day Joseph was put in charge of his master's household and property, the Lord began to bless Potiphar's household for Joseph's sake. All his household affairs ran smoothly and his crops and livestock flourished.

So Potiphar gave Joseph complete administrative responsibility over everything he owned. With Joseph there, he didn't worry about a thing except what kind of food to eat.

So Joseph gets thrown into a pit, he gets sold into slavery, he gets bought by Potiphar who is the captain of the guard. He is essentially in charge of the armies of Egypt. He is in close relationship with Pharaoh, who is the king of Egypt. He finds himself as a slave to one of the most powerful men in Egypt.

And Egypt at the time was not exactly known for their hospitality and their kindness their generosity. They were pretty ruthless and pretty not exactly the kind of people you'd want to be enslaved to. And Joseph finds himself in that spot. But what do we read and what do we see that Joseph does?

First and foremost, we see that the Lord was with Joseph. The second thing we see is that Joseph was a hard worker. That even in the midst of being a slave, he became the best slave. Scripture says right there at the end that the only thing Potiphar worried about was what's for dinner.

And so I wonder for you and for me, as we look at the story of Joseph, as we look at how his life unfolds, he finds himself very far from the dreams that he had when he was 17. He is incredibly distant from where God might've been showing him, hey, something's going to happen in your future.

And he's pretty excited about it, obviously, because he didn't catch on to any social cues, told his brothers about all of it. But yet he's a slave in a foreign country. And what we see in Joseph's life is he displays great faithfulness. He focuses on being faithful,

not on what's to come. Not once do we see in scripture that Joseph is upset or complaining that he's not where he thinks he should be. And I wonder if for you and for me, if that is the kind of attitude we have about our lives.

That maybe just maybe you find yourself in a place where you feel like, man, I am not where I'd like to be. I don't have the job I wanna have. My kids aren't acting the way I want them to act. My wife isn't doing the things that I want her to do. My husband's not doing the things I want him to do. I just feel like it's all falling apart. I don't like any of it.

What have you decided you're going to do about it?

Because in Joseph's story, we see that he displays faithfulness to exactly where he was at. And I would argue as followers of Jesus, if you call yourself a Christian in this space, that you and I are called to a life of faithfulness.

No matter where we're at, no matter what's going on, no matter what kind of situation we find ourselves in, we have been called to faithfulness. Here in America and in the Western Part of The United States, we find ourselves very

kind of encapsulated in our careers. We are a working people. We talk about our jobs a lot. Oftentimes when we're asked what we do, that's one of the first questions we get. And so our work is a big part of what we do.

And some of us, many of us, I would argue, have experienced in our work that we feel like we are enslaved to it, that we feel like we cannot get out of it, that we are working for a boss who is a tyrant, who does not care about anybody, does not care about what's going on, does not care about you or your family. All they care about is how much output you can give them.

And so when it comes to our jobs, when it comes to our work, it can become one of the places where we can find great joy or it can become one of the places where we dread the most. And if you're in this room and you dread work and it's terrible and it's awful, I want you to take a look at the Joseph story.

I want you to recognize that this is a man who is probably in a job, in a work environment where he has to work very hard for someone who does not even pay him. Who's someone who actually purchased him. He finds himself in a very difficult situation but he displays great faithfulness. Is that you?

Is that how you view your work? To be faithful to God, to work and give your very best regardless of how the situation is. In 1967, Martin Luther King Junior was giving a sermon to the next generation and he said this, he said, if a man is called to be a street sweeper,

he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all hosts of heaven and earth pause to say, here lives a great sweeper who did his job well. Martin Luther King Junior is making a point here

that regardless of your career, regardless of your job, whether you are a financial analyst, you are a barista, you are a custodian,

you are a teacher, you are a doctor, whether you are working for someone or you are someone's boss, He's making a point here that you should do that job with the same kind of tenacity, the same kind of love, the same kind of joy that some of the greats of the world composed music and painted.

He is saying to give it your all so that all hosts in heaven on earth, do they look down on you and do they say what Martin Luther King Junior said here at the very end, here lives a great, you fill in the blank, who did his or her job well. Can that be said about you now in your current situation? If you're in school,

can it be said about the kind of student you are? If you are working, can it be said about the kind of job you have? You fill in the blank. But would all hosts on heaven and earth look and say, man, that person is great at what they do. Because Joseph knew something that he was doing this all for God, not for Potiphar.

He was serving the one true God who created everything, who created him, who put a promise in his life, who said, I will be with you. As followers of Jesus, if you're in this place, Jesus said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. You have the spirit of God with you.

You have it in you to go into any place no matter the circumstance and give everything you have.

Here's the tension with the Joseph story is the Bible typically gives us a really good insight into reality. I think the creator of the universe knows a little bit about how it all works and so he put it in a book for you and me to understand and to get glimpses of what reality looks like. And the reality is that sometimes life doesn't always go the way we think it's gonna go. It doesn't always go the easiest way.

As we can see in the Joseph story, he finds himself enslaved and he gives eleven years of his life to serving Potiphar. Eleven years he was serving under the captain of the guard.

And for eleven years, he continued to be faithful. He continued to give everything he had. I wonder how many of us, if I told you that you were going to be in the situation you're in, you're gonna have the job you're gonna have for the next five, ten, fifteen, twenty years, would you be faithful?

Would you be faithful to the fact that God has you exactly where he wants you to be and that in your faithfulness you can actually find success in any future that's to come? That if we can focus on the faithfulness of the now, that whatever comes later is all in his hands.

Joseph served for eleven years and you would think after serving God so faithfully,

after making things go so well in Potiphar's household, that things would get better for him. That meant he would put his work in, he would put his time in and then everything would work out in his favor. But the story continues and that's not exactly what we see and so if you have your bibles, we are going to finish up the latter part of verse six and go into verse seven. It says, Joseph was a handsome and well built young man. I can relate.

And Potiphar's wife soon began to look at him lustfully. Come and sleep with me, she demanded. Potiphar's wife had a problem. She really liked the Hebrew boys. She was like, I like the Hebrew boys and I cannot lie. And so she was going after Joseph. But Joseph in verse eight says he refused. He said, Look, he told her, my master trusts me with everything in his entire household.

No one here has more authority than I do. He has held back nothing from me except you because you are his wife. How could I do such a wicked thing? It would be a great sin against who? God.

As you read those few verses, Joseph is giving his account for why this is a really bad idea and he starts talking about, you know, your husband Potiphar, he's given me this, he's given me that, I have all authority. And you would think the next line was gonna be, man, this would be a sin against Potiphar. But Joseph knew something.

It would be a sin against God. Joseph was living out a life in direct service and faithfulness to the God of the universe. He knew he was who he was serving and it was not Potiphar. He was giving everything he had. He was doing the best he could possibly do. He made Potiphar's life easy, Not to make Potiphar's life easy,

but to bring honor, glory and praise to the God Almighty. It says Potiphar recognized this in Joseph. When you go to work, when you go to school, when you talk to your kids, when you talk to your spouse, do people recognize that God is with you?

Does the way you live, the way you carry yourself, does your perspective on life open the door for other people to see that God is with you? Joseph was tempted time and time again. Scripture says it went on for a long time. Most theologians will tell you that it seems like it was a extensive

period of time that Joseph had to continually reject this kind of temptation. I don't know what it is for you, but I believe when we find ourselves in these situations where things are going well and I may not love my job, but I am giving it my best and man, I don't know how long this is gonna go. Joseph was a slave

but he found himself tempted time and time and time again in this situation where he's a slave and he is doing good work, but he's still away from his family and it feels like it's just never going to end. It could have made sense for Joseph to be like, man, like why not? I've been a slave for eleven years.

Why not just enjoy it a little bit?

And I wonder how many of us find ourselves in those situations where that may not be your specific temptation, but you might be tempted to throw in the towel. You might be tempted to say, you know what, I tried being a good parent, but I don't know what, I don't know why I would keep going. I tried to be a good spouse, but I don't know why I would keep going. I've tried to give everything I can at work, but it's so much easier if I just kind of slack off and maybe push things off. Maybe if I just change a number here or change a number there, it won't be that big of a deal. Maybe if I just take a little bit out.

What's the difference?

For you and for me, the difference is faithfulness. Because Joseph knew who he was serving and it was God and he was not going to sin against God. And so Joseph being faithful in this even as well, the story continues to unfold in a way that maybe just maybe doesn't make a total

bunch of sense. In verse 10 it says, she kept putting pressure on Joseph day after day but he refused to sleep with her and he kept out of her way as much as possible.

One day, however, no one else was around when he went into do his work. She came and grabbed him by his cloak demanding, come on sleep with me. Joseph tore himself away but he left his cloak in her hand as he ran from the house. When she saw that she was holding his cloak and he had fled, she called out to her servants. Soon all the men came running. Look, she said, my husband has brought this Hebrew slave here to make fools of us. He came into my room to rape me but I screamed.

When he heard me scream, he ran outside and got away and he left his cloak behind with me. She kept the cloak with her until her husband came home, then she told her, told him her story, that Hebrew slave you brought into our house tried to come in and fool around with me, she said, but when I screamed, he ran outside leaving his cloak with me.

Joseph is now falsely accused of something he did not do. He maintained his character, he maintained his faithfulness

and he is getting accused of doing something horrible. This is one of those moments where you think, man, Joseph was faithful, faithful so God's going to bring the goodness, right?

I think reality and the lives we live actually give us more of a picture of what actually happened to Joseph than that false notion that man, if I just do good then I'm gonna get good. If I just work hard then it's going to pay off.

Because in verse 19 it goes on to say, Potiphar was furious when he heard his wife's story about how Joseph had treated her. So he took Joseph and threw him into the prison where the king's prisoners were held and there he remained. But the Lord was with Joseph in the prison,

there's that phrase again, and showed him his faithful love. And the Lord made Joseph a favorite with the prison warden. Before long, the warden put Joseph in charge of all other prisoners and over everything that had happened in the prison. But warden had no more worries because Joseph took care of everything. The Lord was with him and caused everything he did to succeed.

Sounds like a repeat. Sounds like the exact same thing. It just happened again, except the situation's worse. He's in prison. Joseph gets falsely accused, he gets thrown into prison and what does he do? He focuses on faithfulness.

He focuses on following God and maintaining his character.

Sometimes for you and me, for some of us in this room, you feel like life just keeps hitting you. That you've been giving everything you have, you've been doing the best you can,

but then something else happens and you just feel like it's getting worse. This is the moment in the story where if it took a turn and Joseph was like, I'm done with this. Most of us would nod our head and be like, man, I get it. Like you gave eleven years as a slave and then you get falsely accused and now you're in prison. Yeah, I'd probably throw in the towel too.

We could all get around that idea, but for some reason, Joseph doesn't do that.

For some reason, he continues the narrative and we see him do the exact same thing he did, but in prison. He went from being a prisoner to being the best prisoner. The warden looked at Joseph and said, man, you're killing it. You can be in charge of it all. Do not mistake how risky that would have been for the prison warden.

The prison warden, if anything would have gone wrong under Joseph's watch because he gave him everything, if someone would have escaped, if Joseph would have taken advantage of the situation, the prison warden probably would have died.

It was incredibly risky for the warden to do this, but he noticed that God was with him and he said, you know what? I'm gonna give him everything and he's going to run it all. And once again, we see just like Potiphar, the prison warden didn't worry about anything.

How many of us walk into our jobs with that kind of attitude? That I'm gonna work so hard for the name of Jesus that it's actually going to make my boss's life way easier? Oh, that is not our culture today. Some people would even argue that's bad advice.

Some people would even tell you, you know what, just put your forty hours in and do that and don't ever work hard. Don't only do the bare minimum. But we see it on the pages of scripture, not just in this story, but the old and new testament writers go on to say that we are to work heartily. We are to work diligently.

We are to do it for the name of Jesus, not for man.

That you are not to go into your life thinking, man, it is all about me, but it is about the Lord Jesus. I am to give him all honor, praise and glory and that is included in my work.

What the New Testament writers refer to as working heartily or being a diligent worker, you and I might better understand as our work ethic.

That in our lives and in our days, whether you're a student or you're a teacher or you are working in corporate America or you are a barista or you are a street sweeper or if you are a janitor or a custodial worker, whether you work in finance or you work in the tech industry,

as a follower of Jesus, you have been called to be faithful to that work and to do it well for the name of Jesus to be glorified.

Let me tell you something that is not an easy thing to do.

It would not be okay for me to say, yeah, this is an easy thing. You just kind of do it. It takes the power of God, the spirit of God in you to have the kind of strength and determination to live this out. It takes practice. It takes time. It is a mark of having a level of maturity in your faith.

If this was easy, everybody would do it.

The Holy Spirit gives you the power and the strength to live this out, to practice this, to experience this. And what's the alternative?

You're gonna get bitter about life? You're gonna get upset? You're gonna just say that the world is out to get you? You're gonna start talking poorly about your kids and about your boss and you're gonna walk in and have a bad attitude and every meeting you're in, you've got a smirk on your face where you're upset and everybody's like, hey, what's wrong with John?

Sorry if you're John, if your name's John, I'm sorry. It's the one that popped in.

Is that how you wanna live? That sounds like a pretty dismal way to live. As I say that, I believe even a lot of us begin to imagine the kind of people that we have met that are like that. The kind of people that you walk into work and their first thing is, Oh, I hate being here. I hate my job. Our boss is an idiot.

He doesn't even care about us. Is that the kind of people you want to be? Is that the kind of person you want to be? Do you want to just throw in the towel and get all bitter about life? It doesn't sound enjoyable. They're not enjoyable people to be around.

I'll be the first to admit that I've even found myself being in that kind of place. And I've been challenged and convicted by the spirit of God, even in the reading of this story that I'm called the faithfulness,

that we are called the faithfulness, that we can walk into whatever job, whether we hate it or not, whether we hate being a student, whether we're tired of the job, whether we wish we were out. For now and in this moment, I can walk in with a smile because I've got the spirit of God in me and I am working for him and no one else. I do not serve my boss, I serve Jesus.

Is that you? Is that me? I find it really cool that the Bible actually gives us a really good glimpse into our own psychology and the way we work. I believe I was listening to this clinical psychologist about,

he was talking to one of his patients who was struggling with life and was starting to head down that path of, man, I don't know if all this is worth it. It's kind of frustrating. I just get annoyed with my job. I get annoyed with my family. I get annoyed with all of it. And in psychology, one of the things that they've kind of done is they've kind of taken the God element out of a lot of how we work and how we think and how we operate as people.

But they still are finding these

things that we've seen in scripture they're finding now. And one of the things he said they tend to do when they have patients who are starting to head down this route of being upset and getting bitter about life is they'll actually challenge them with this exact thing. They'll say, hey, your job, you're a barista at a coffee shop. Yes.

What would it look like over the next month for you to become the best barista you can possibly be? And clinical psychologists will challenge their patients with this and the patients that actually take this on

and take it to heart and start trying to become the best barista they can be, the best at whatever job they are doing, you actually begin to see over time, they begin to experience a joy of life that they did not have before. They start to get excited to go to their job. They start to get excited about what's going on because they are pushing themselves.

Now here's what they don't have. They don't have the spirit of God as the motivation and the drive in them. And that to me is the tragedy of it all. And my hope and prayer is that every single one of us would recognize that this kind of life comes only through Jesus.

That when Paul writes in Colossians that we do this for the Lord, not for man, we take it to heart. It was about two years ago.

I've been working here for roughly seven years or so and when I first got here, I was working under my boss, his name was Jeff Larson and He's one of my closest friends and he's been a man who has spoken immense amount of truth and life into me. He has been instrumental in my walk with Jesus.

And he, at an early time here, he would tell me and say, hey man, I see you one day kind of doing the job I'm doing. And at the time he was both the middle school pastor but he was also overseeing our entire youth team.

And I was like, heck yeah man, that sounds awesome. Know, I'm like young, I'm like 20 years old. I'm like, yeah, heck yeah, I'll take over the youth team. So he had spoken that over me and so for the next five years as the middle school pastor, loving it, doing that job, it was awesome. And

about two years ago, we're in the car and he's telling me about some of these changes and some of these moves that are coming and he's telling me about all the exciting things that are happening with our internship program and that he's gonna start jumping into that more and he tells me, hey man, but this means I'm probably gonna be stepping out of my role as overseeing the entire youth team. So I'm in the car thinking, yes, this is my moment. I'm like thinking in my head. I'm not like showing it or anything because you know I'm super humble and all that. And

I'm literally thinking this is the moment. He's about to tell me like, hey, this is yours. We want you to do that. We believe you are ready. And most of us can kind of see the writing on the wall and where this story is going, but he looks at me and says, hey, after talking

to some other people and our team and our leadership and all of this, we all kind of agree that at this point in time that's not going to be you. I was like, oh. So I swallowed all my pride, my stomach was full and

I said all the right things. I was like, no, I totally get it. You're right. I have so much to grow in and there's so much that I'm not ready for, makes sense.

And I said all the right things and I had to go home with an immense amount of disappointment and I had to process through that kind of stuff with my wife and I was put in a situation where man, can be disappointed and give up and be done.

And granted, I was thinking about that and I wanted to do that and there were even moments where I believe I even sacrificed my own current job out of the own disappointment that I had.

But I have been two years into that and I got a new boss and his name is Mario and he has been absolutely incredible. There was something I did not see that some other people saw.

There are things that Mario has done for our youth team. The way our middle schoolers and high schoolers have an opportunity to know Jesus, to serve Jesus, to be impacted by the love of Jesus has only come because of his direct leadership and they are things I know for a fact I could have never done. The team we have could have never come together under my leadership and I absolutely know that beyond the shadow of a doubt.

That's a hard pill to swallow.

And here's the other thing that I think is hard about our lives is oftentimes the verdict is still out.

That we don't know when the day is gonna come That the thing that God has maybe put on your heart and where you're going to be is going to come true. Last week, Daniel talked about doing some reframing and maybe you did that and you started thinking through where do I wanna be in five, ten, fifteen years?

May I just propose to you that it could take longer than five years, that it could take longer than ten years, that it could take longer than fifteen years. And the question becomes, are you going to be faithful?

That no matter how long it takes, you will be faithful to exactly where God has you. Not only do I believe that is the best thing for you, but I believe it is the best thing for the people around you.

For people to see that even in what you don't think is the ideal situation for you, you walk in with a smile on your face and it's not fake. You are truly joyful because of what God is doing in your life and that you found joy in what you do, that you find peace in serving the God of the universe.

That would be my hope and my prayer for our church. With Joseph's story, it goes on, I encourage you to read it, but he finds himself out of prison and he becomes second in command of all of Egypt working under Pharaoh. He gets charged with

seven years of prosperity and gathering enough food for seven years of famine. And in those seven years of famine, about twenty years after Joseph has those dreams,

he finds himself in a situation where his brothers are in front of him and they actually bow down to him because they don't recognize him and they're asking for food.

Because all of the surrounding nations were starving and they had no food and Egypt was the only place to get food and Joseph was there to make sure people ate. And so I really do encourage you to read it because we don't have time to go through all of it.

Joseph at the end of his life, his father passes away and the brothers start to freak out because they thought because dad was alive, Joseph wasn't gonna get back at his brothers because that's what brothers do, right? Like you get me, I get you, you throw me in a pit, I'm not gonna feed you so you starve, right? That's what family does and so they think Joseph is gonna get them back and

in the final chapter of Genesis, Genesis chapter 50, Joseph makes a statement to his brothers that I believe for you and for me is one of the most profound things we can walk out of here with.

Joseph's brothers are freaking out, they're like, we'll be your slaves, we'll do whatever you want, don't get us back, don't hurt us, keep giving us food, we don't wanna starve. And Joseph replies, don't be afraid of me.

Am I God that I can punish you? You intended to harm me but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.

You intended to harm me but God intended it all for good. When life hits you, when you feel like you're done with your job, you don't like working for your boss, your kids are driving you up a wall, your spouse is less than ideal. God is working all of the difficulty

for the good of those who follow him. We see that written in Romans by the Apostle Paul. He also writes that in your trials and in your difficulties, he is working it together for the greater good of those who know and follow Jesus. Is that you?

Do you focus on faithfulness or are you focused on the future and you're getting disappointed and you're getting upset? Church, would you walk out of here knowing that the Lord is with you and that you can be faithful in exactly the lane he has you in and you can be faithful as long as it takes

because it is the spirit of God who gives you the strength and the wisdom and the power to do so. As you guys step out of here,

one of the things I believe is instrumental to us as followers of Jesus is practicing the things we learn, the things that are taught. And so if you want to practice this, I really just encourage you to do a self audit, to look at your life and say, hey, maybe I've thrown it in somewhere.

Maybe life has just continued to hit me and I've kind of given up on being good at my job and I don't really care to be good at it. I don't care to show up with a happy face. I don't care to do it well.

Maybe that's you. Maybe parenting has gotten really difficult and the kids are getting older and you feel like it is just thing after thing and you can't get it right. I just propose to you to take a little bit of a self audit and say, maybe, maybe I've started to throw it in.

Maybe it's with your family, with your spouse or it is with your work. But walk out of here thinking, hey, where is that in my life? And ask Jesus to give you the strength to step into a new kind of faithfulness.

If you're in a home group, you're gonna talk about this in your home group. It's gonna be something that you and your community of people can challenge one another with. You don't have a community of people to do this with, I encourage you to look for one, whether that's here or somewhere else. Do not go through this alone. Do not experience that life without other people, without the challenge and conviction of those around you.

Practice. Practice is what it takes. Start to think, what is it that God is showing you that maybe, just maybe, you've lacked some faithfulness and would you go into your week and go into your days with a new kind of desire to bring honor, glory and praise to the one true God?

Let's bow our heads and let's pray. Dear Jesus, thank you so much for who you are.

Thank you that you are so good to us. I pray for everybody in this room that you give them your strength, that you give them your guidance, that you give them your wisdom in their career, in their parenting, in their marriage, in their life, and whatever it is that maybe was not said here but they know it in their heart.

That you would convict us and you would challenge us to move, that we would be people of practice so that we can grow in our character and our love for you and that we would work to bring you honor, glory, and praise, and for nothing else. That we would give you our everything because you gave us everything.

Jesus, we love you. We pray for a great rest of our day. In your heavenly name, amen. Thanks for joining us online this weekend. Let us know if we can help you in any way. Make sure to follow us on social media and connect with us on the We Are Rock Point app for prayer and everything happening here at Rock Point.