Live Free with Josh Howerton - Learning from Joseph's Journey | Ep. 116 | Monday July 17, 2023

Episode Date: July 17, 2023

Are your current circumstances not what you believed they would be, could be, or should be? When we are faced with difficulties in life, we can often wonder why we are experiencing them, as well as how God could possibly be using us or growing us in those situations. Despite being sold into slavery by his brothers, Joseph served with excellence, integrity, kindness, and joy. We may not understand why we're going through certain things, but we can trust that God is with us and shaping us into the person we are meant to be. For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's Word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.comit. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, what's up, everybody? Hope you're having a great summer. Our family just got back from our annual trip. We're 34 of us, yes, 34 of us hanging in one house together for a week. We had 15 adults and 19 kids. So much fun. But now I needed a vacation. Even though your routine might be a little different in the summer, thanks for making these few minutes apart of the regular rhythm of your day.

We've been talking about discovering God's will for our lives. And we've thrown out a few principles all around that, such as God's will is much more about who we are than what we do or where we go. God longs for us to desire him more than just his answers for our life, and our role is not so much to find God's will as it is to follow his voice. And last episode, we added this one. God does have a plan for our lives. He just has a much better view from above. And I told you that we would start walking through the story of a guy that illustrates all this and much more. His name is Joseph, and his story began. in Genesis chapter 37.

Now, his family tree is full of some familiar names. You may have heard of Abraham. He was his great-grandfather. Isaac was his grandpa. Jacob was his dad. And this is how the story begins in Genesis 37. It reads like this. Now Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other children,

because Joseph had been born to him in his old age. So one day he gave Joseph a special gift, a beautiful robe. but his brothers hated Joseph because of their father's partiality. They couldn't say a kind word to him. One night, Joseph had a dream and promptly reported the details to his brothers, causing them to hate him even more. Listen to this dream, he announced. We were out in the field tying up bundles of grain. My bundle stood up, and all your bundles gathered around and bowed before it.

So you're going to be our king, are you? His brothers taunt it. and they hated him all the more for his dream and what he said. Now, we see here in the beginning that Joseph was his father's favorite, and he'd been given special treatment in this, you know, technicolor dream coat thing. It made more than just a fashion statement. It kind of flaunted his dad's partiality in the face of his brothers.

I heard a story about a guy, a traveling salesman going door to door, knocked on the door to this house. The door opens up, and a kid is standing there, like a 10-year-old kid, smoking a cigar. And the salesman says, is your mother home? The kids says, what do you think? So, sorry. Either mom wasn't home or he was the youngest,

because the youngest in the family gets away with everything, right? Anybody, the baby, the family, let's just call collectively boo these privileged divas right now. Now, I'm just kidding. Now, the fact that he was his dad's favorite was not Joseph's fault. There's not real great parenting. But you can see why it says that his brother just, like, couldn't stand him. And can any of you imagine?

Just walking into the family room one day and saying, heads up, everybody, excuse me, I got an announcement I need to make. I got a word from God. I don't have all the details yet, but this much is pretty clear. Everybody in this family is going to bow down and serve me. All of you are going to bow down. Not real great discernment on Joseph's part. Probably should have kept that one to himself.

Just more than a little cocky to tell your whole family that you were going to become greater than all of them. Now that was the word that God gave to Joseph. He was saying to him as a 17-year-old guy, I'm going to raise you up someday, not only to a position above your brothers and your own family, but to a place of power over all the nations. And spoiler alert, that's what eventually happens.

The most powerful king in the world at the time the Pharaoh of Egypt puts Joseph in charge, and he does rule the nations as a 30-year-old guy. But you know as well as I do. Sometimes this great adventure of discovering and understanding and living in God's will for your life can be quite the roller coaster ride. Sometimes when you hear the still small voice of God saying,

this is where I'm leading you. Follow me. In the next breath, God says, and please fasten your seatbelt. Grab hold the bar in front of you. Keep your arms and legs inside the ride at all time until your car has come to a complete stop. Enjoy the ride.

And that's what we discover in Joseph's life. from age 17 to 30, the 13 years that fall in between these two events were absolute wild ride years. 13 years where it might have been possible for Joseph to lose sight of any hope that God really cared about him at all, much less that God had something good in mind for his life. You ever have one of those days? One of those weeks? One of those months? One of those lives?

And I'm telling you, I'm so excited to unpack this story. Because I think you will find hope. I think you'll find inspiration, patience, and courage as we walk through this story together. Again, you can read it on your own, starting in Genesis 37, and we'll pick up right here next time. We'll see you then. Have a great day today. Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services on Saturdays at 6 p.m.

and Sundays at 9.30 and 11 a.m. Central Standard Time. Also, if this podcast was helpful to you, would you be sure to rate, review, and share this podcast to help get the word out. For more information about all digital ministries of Lake Point, visit lakepoint.compt.combe.combe.com slash daily drive.