Replay | There's More to the Story! with Karl Hartman

He is glorious.

Behold the one who has come to us.

Welcome to Hub City Vineyard.

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you feel called to make a change in your life,

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Thank you and enjoy the message.

I want to start off by saying

what an honor it is to have you with us here this evening

for our Good Friday worship experience.

Every year here at the Hub City Vineyard,

we set aside time to worship

and reflect on the incredible sacrifice

that Jesus made on our behalf.

The Son of God put on skin and flesh

and He came down to this earth

to heal and restore what was broken

and to bring His kingdom on earth here

as it is in heaven.

And we remember

that late into the night

in the early morning hours of Good Friday,

Jesus was betrayed by a brother.

He was sold out for a few pieces of silver,

taken into custody

where He was unfairly accused and unjustly tried.

Though He was innocent,

He was condemned to die on a criminal's cross.

He was beaten, whipped, cursed at,

made to carry that cross to the top of the hill

where the perfect Lamb of God died.

And that is the Good Friday narrative,

or at least part of it.

At the very beginning of this year,

Chris gave an incredibly impactful message

where he challenged us to go deeper

and to brace a mindset of new year, new narrative,

where we examine and reframe what we believe

about our relationship with Jesus.

And so tonight, I want to take a few moments

and discuss how Good Friday offers us an opportunity

to step into a new narrative.

So Holy Spirit, I ask that you come right now, God.

I ask, Lord, that you would just bless this time, Father,

as we remember the incredible sacrifice

that you asked your Son to make on our behalf, God.

And I ask that as we observe the sacrifice that you made,

that it would allow us to have courage

to step into freedom, Lord,

the freedom that you offer us through the blood of Jesus.

In your name we pray, amen.

It never ceases to amaze me

that my wife and I can be in the same place,

at the same time, with the same people,

having the same conversations,

and we can walk away with two vastly different interpretations

of what's really going on.

And after nearly 20 years of marriage,

I have come to the conclusion

that my wife's gift to maintain a wider perspective

can only be explained by her uncanny ability

to obtain detailed background information.

I'm not saying that my wife is a creep,

but I am saying that oftentimes she sees and knows more

than she lets on.

And so often her and I will be having discussions

about our kids or a family member

or a shared experience that we've had,

and I'll be explaining all the things

that I think that I've seen and heard.

And when I finish up, she'll look at me and she'll say,

that's a very interesting perspective,

but let me tell you the whole story.

Let me tell you what you didn't even know

that you didn't even know.

Let me tell you the whole story.

And so tonight, as we examine the Good Friday narrative,

I wanna encourage us to look at the whole story.

And I wanna start with what is arguably

a rather unconventional spot for Good Friday.

Genesis chapter 37.

Genesis 37 · chapter mention

Now, I know y'all just heard me say Genesis.

Don't check out.

I promise you this will all make sense

by the time we get to the end.

Genesis chapter 37 is a story that's familiar to many of us.

Genesis 37 · chapter mention

It's a story about family drama and a favorite son.

It's about colored coats and a white shirt.

It's about colored coats and dangerous dreams

and a diabolical plot by Joseph's own brothers

to interrupt the flow of God's favor in his life.

And to fully understand Joseph's story,

we need to take a step back and look at his father, Jacob.

Jacob, after he had deceived his brother Esau

and his father Isaac, fled with the birthright

and ended up at the house of his uncle Laban,

where he immediately fell in love

with Laban's younger daughter, Rachel.

Jacob would go on to marry Rachel,

but not before Laban had deceived him into also marrying

his older daughter, Leah.

Talk about trouble with the in-laws.

Now the Bible says that Jacob loved Rachel,

but he tolerated Leah.

And while Leah was able to produce several sons for Jacob,

Rachel's womb remained closed.

After a period of time, God heard Rachel's prayer

and he opened her womb.

And thus, while Joseph was born 11th in line,

he was really the firstborn son of Jacob.

The firstborn son of the woman that Jacob truly loved.

Now there's a powerful spiritual truth here.

Isn't it true that oftentimes,

the things that are born out of what we love the most

tend to cause problems for the things that are born

out of what we tolerate?

And this explains the tension in Joseph's life.

So as Jacob's favoritism towards Joseph grew,

so did Joseph's brother's jealousy.

And when they got to a place

where they could take it no more,

they threw Joseph into a pit,

they sold him into slavery for a few pieces of silver,

and they created a story to convince Jacob

that his beloved son was dead.

And that's where we pick up the text

in Genesis chapter 37, verse 34.

Genesis 37:34

Then Jacob tore his clothes,

put on sackcloth, and mourned for his son many days.

All his sons and daughters came to comfort him,

but he refused to be comforted.

No, he said, I will continue to mourn

until I join my son in the grave.

So his father wept for him.

Verse 36, meanwhile, look at your neighbor

and tell them, I'm thankful for the meanwhile.

Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph

an Egypt apodifer, one of Pharaoh's officials,

the captain of the guard.

Meanwhile, there's power in that word.

While Jacob was busy weeping and mourning,

meanwhile, God was preparing Joseph

for his path to the palace.

And as we reflect on our own spiritual journeys,

all that God has rescued us from

and all that he's leading us toward,

I wonder if you can begin to identify

meanwhile moments in your own life,

where you were busy weeping and waiting and wondering,

God was busy working.

Maybe you were mourning the loss of a person

that walked out on you, and meanwhile,

God was changing his or her heart.

Maybe you were mourning that you didn't get the promotion,

but meanwhile, God was preparing you

for ministry.

Maybe you walked out of the doctor's office

and you were mourning that the test results

came back the same and the diagnosis was the same

and the infertility remained unchanged,

and meanwhile, God was preparing you for a miracle.

And I wonder if there's anybody here tonight

who's been walking with God long enough

to have experienced a meanwhile moment.

Come on, can we give him some praise

for the meanwhile moments in our life?

Yeah.

So I was studying this passage of scripture.

I wanted to do a deep dive into the ancient Hebrew.

I wanted to give you this incredibly insightful revelation

about the Hebrew for the word, meanwhile.

So I dug into the text and here's what I found.

You ready?

This is gonna blow your mind.

It's not there.

The words that begin the opening phrase,

verse 36, are simply translated,

the Midianites or and the Midianites.

And here's what I learned from this.

You can be in the middle of a meanwhile moment

in this season and you may not even realize it

until you get to the next season.

See, Joseph had to end up

at Potiphar's house.

Potiphar was the captain of Pharaoh's guard

and Joseph had to end up serving Potiphar

so that he could ultimately end up serving Pharaoh.

The reality is that there are some things

that are gonna happen to you, some pit stops

that you are not gonna understand until later on.

Even the disciples didn't understand

Jesus' death and resurrection.

In Luke chapter 24, Jesus appeared to the disciples

Luke 24 · chapter mention

in his resurrected form and they were confused

and verse 45 says that Jesus had to open their minds

so they could understand the scriptures.

There are some meanwhile moments

that have to happen to you in order for you

to experience all that God has for you.

Now, hopefully you can see where I'm headed here tonight,

but if not, let me connect the dots for you.

While Joseph's story came first chronologically,

it was really just a foreshadowing

of what Jesus would experience during Good Friday

and Easter Sunday.

Let me show you.

Like Joseph, Jesus had an incredibly special relationship

with his father.

In his earthly relationships,

he was despised for his father's favor.

Like Joseph, Jesus was betrayed by a brother

and sold out for a few pieces of silver.

He was thrown into a grave or a pit, if you will,

where he was presumed to be dead.

And while the disciples were busy weeping and mourning,

meanwhile, come on, meanwhile,

Jesus was busy conquering death, hell, and the grave.

And this is so important,

because as followers of Christ,

we've been given the opportunity to step into a new narrative.

Here's what I found out.

When you make the decision to follow Christ,

to align yourself with God's will for your life,

all of God's favor over the purpose in your life

goes with you no matter where you end up.

And somebody here tonight needs to hear this.

No matter what the world throws at you,

no matter what pit they try to throw you in,

you are a child of God, and his favor is on you.

Come on, can I preach this?

They threw Joseph into a pit,

thinking that would be the end of him.

But what they didn't realize is that when they threw Joseph into the pit,

all of God's favor went with him.

They threw Jesus into a grave, thinking that would be the end of him.

But what they didn't realize is that when you bury

the Son of God, all of the Father's favor,

all of the wonder-working, miracle-making, resurrection power goes with him.

It's a new narrative. It's a new narrative.

Like when Jesus touched the lepers, he wasn't infected by their leprosy,

but rather he flipped the script and infected the lepers with healing.

It's a new narrative.

Although Jesus' physical body had died, the Son of God was not overcome by death,

but rather he flipped the script and overcame death itself.

It's a new narrative.

Colossians chapter 2 puts it this way.

Colossians 2 · chapter mention

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh,

God made you alive with Christ.

He forgave us all our sins,

having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness,

which stood against us and condemned us.

He has taken it away, nailing it to the cross,

and having disowned the powers and authorities,

he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

That's the new narrative.

While we were dead in our sins,

meanwhile, come on, meanwhile, God was making a way

for us to be reconciled to him through Christ.

And that's the good news.

I believe that there are some people here tonight

who are walking through the middle of their own meanwhile moment.

And I have some words that God has laid on my heart that I need to share with you.

Somebody came here tonight,

and you're feeling stuck.

Stuck in a pit, stuck in a pattern, stuck in a perspective.

And I want to meet you in your meanwhile moment and tell you

that there can be movement in the meanwhile.

Somebody came here tonight,

and you're facing impossible odds.

You're staring down the barrel of a situation that you know cannot change

unless God himself intervenes.

And I want to meet you in your meanwhile moment and tell you

that there can be a miracle in the meanwhile.

Somebody came here tonight,

and you are carrying with you something that you have already buried.

Maybe it's a passion, a desire, a dream that God has laid on your heart

that's died out on you over the years,

and you've got just enough faith to hang on.

And I want to meet you in your meanwhile moment and tell you

that there can be wonder working, resurrection power in the meanwhile.

And this is the one that God laid heavy on my heart.

Somebody came here tonight,

and you are feeling bound by a force that you cannot identify.

Something has wrapped itself around your soul and is pressing in

from the moment that you wake up in the morning

to the moment that you go to bed at night.

You've got this incredible tension in your heart, in your life.

And I want to meet you in your meanwhile moment and tell you

that there can be freedom in the meanwhile.

As I was coming into worship team practice here this past week

preparing for this message, God just laid this so heavy on my heart

that right here, right now in this moment,

He is going to set some people free.

And I don't want to complicate it. Here's what I want to do.

I want to invite you to close your eyes and bow your head

and simply place your hands out in front of you to receive.

I'm going to share a passage of scripture that God laid on my heart.

I'm going to invite the Holy Spirit to come

and then I'm going to give you an opportunity to respond.

Isaiah 61. This is the passage of scripture that Jesus quoted

at the onset of His ministry to declare why He had come to earth.

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me

because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted

to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners

to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

So Holy Spirit come.

God I pray that right now in this moment that you would just flow through this place God

that you would touch every heart and every mind God.

Somebody needs to hear this tonight. God just laid this on my heart.

You are seen. You are known. God sees you. He sees every tear that you've cried.

He sees every struggle. Every moment of darkness when you've hit your knees.

When you've hit rock bottom He's seen it.

But beyond that He can see you walking in freedom on the other side of this.

He can see it.

So if that's you here tonight. If you're struggling with feeling bound or stuck

I want to ask you to just slip up your hand and I want to pray for you.

Holy Spirit come.

If you're around somebody that has their hand up would you just place your hand on their shoulder.

After Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead He told him to come out. Come out of that grave.

And then the next thing He did He invited the people who were standing there

to partake to join in the miracle and to unwrap Lazarus to take those clothes off of Lazarus.

And right now right here and right now we are going to get freedom.

We're going to take those clothes off. We're going to take those grave clothes off and we're going to walk in freedom.

So in Jesus name I declare something dormant is waking up.

In Jesus name I declare something broken is being restored.

In Jesus name I declare something buried is coming back to life.

And in Jesus name I declare something bound is being released right here and right now.

Now if you're here tonight and you have not made the decision to make Jesus your Lord and Savior

I want to give you that opportunity right here and right now. What a perfect time.

We are remembering. We're standing here remembering that Jesus gave absolutely everything for you.

And this is a perfect opportunity to lay it on the line and to give Him your life.

So here at the Hubsanity Vineyard we pray this prayer all together.

Jesus I'm broken, full of doubt, shame, fear, regret.

I'm bound by my sin. But tonight I'm walking in freedom.

Tonight I'm coming up out the grave.

Tonight I'm choosing to follow you.

Fill me with the Holy Spirit. Change me. I receive new life.

In Jesus name can we give Him a round of applause.

We're going to get ready to transition into our time of baptisms.

But before we do I want to share a personal testimony and I'm going to try to hold it together.

My wife's birthday is in late December.

And this year after a particularly long and exhausting season she simply asked for a day of good food and rest.

And because she loves movies she wanted to take the whole family to go see the new Wonka film that had just come out.

So being the prepared husband that I am I pre-ordered tickets, I got everything together.

I was feeling really good about the plan I had in place.

Her birthday was on a Saturday this year.

Wednesday rolled around and we started to notice that our son Jake didn't seem to be feeling well.

He got in a runny nose and a cough.

And he got progressively worse until we got to the place where we realized that we needed to postpone our plans.

And this should not have been that big of a deal but I've got to give you some perspective.

My wife is the single most important person in the world to me.

She regularly gives and gives and sacrifices so that I can walk forward in the calling that God has placed in my life.

And more than anything else in the world I just wanted to honor her and celebrate her.

And I became disappointed and frustrated that sickness had interrupted my plans.

And to be honest I just found myself in a bit of a funk.

Sunday rolled around and Jake still wasn't feeling well and so my wife and daughter came to church and Jake and I stayed home

to catch the service on the livestream.

And I remember this Sunday because this is the Sunday

that Chris gave the message that challenged us to go deeper and to embrace the mindset of new year, new narrative.

And during that service Chris gave an opportunity for people to respond by slipping up their hands

to indicate that they were ready to go deeper and to take the next step.

And I remember I was folding some towels at the time and I slipped up my hand and I just happened to glance over

and I noticed that Jake had slipped up his hand as well.

And after a few minutes he looked around and he said to me,

Dad I'm thinking that this is the year that I might like to get baptized.

See if Jake hadn't gotten sick he would have been in children's church.

And if he had been in children's church he wouldn't have been with me listening to Chris' message.

And if he hadn't been listening to Chris' message he may not have had the opportunity

to take that next step in faith to respond and say that he wanted to get baptized.

So here it is. I'm going to testify about the goodness of God.

While I was busy weeping and mourning, frustrated and disappointed that sickness had just interrupted my plans,

it interrupted my preferences. Meanwhile, come on, meanwhile God was using that sickness

to create an opportunity for my son to take the next step of faith.

Come on can we give him seven seconds of praise.

There's nothing that our God can't do. There's nothing that he won't use.

There's no grave that he can't turn into a garden.

There's no pit that he can't turn into a proving ground for his faithfulness.

So if you find yourself in a meanwhile moment hang on because there's more to this story.