How to Bloom Where You're Buried | Pastor Jason Mick

My name is Jason Mick.

I get to serve you as the executive pastor here at United City Church.

Go ahead and open your Bibles with me to Genesis chapter 39.

Genesis 39 · chapter mention

And if you happen to be here last week and you got your kindergarten Bible, okay.

So also little kids who've got your children's Bibles, you can open up with me the page 53.

The rest of you have no idea what page number you're at.

Uh I'm 33 in mine.

But also, Pastor Chris has encouraged us through the course of this series, Rise from the Pit to be taking notes.

And so you might be new with us this week.

If you do not have a journal or a notebook, we've got some people who are going to be passing those around.

If you would just make yourself noticeable, just slip up your hand.

And we'd love to put one of those in your hand this morning.

If for whatever reason you have a journal or notebook, but you left it at home, that was me last week.

Anyone else?

You just sometimes forget things.

Uh, I would encourage you to take notes in your Bible, get out your phone.

But I'm gonna trust that if you're using your phone, it's for the sake of the Bible app or taking notes.

Uh, and follow along with us today uh in note taking.

I think it's imperative that we do that.

All right.

So we got people passing those around.

Excellent.

While we're doing that, can we also just extend a warm United City family welcome to all those who are joining us online, especially from our correctional facilities this morning?

What a joy, privilege, and honor it is for this to be able to be broadcast to the ends of the earth and especially into our correctional facilities.

Last week we picked up in our story in the life of Joseph, where we looked at how leaders choose integrity.

Leaders choose integrity.

But what do you do when integrity doesn't seem to pay off?

What do you do when doing the right thing still lands you in the wrong type of place?

Well, that's where Joseph shows us.

And if you're taking notes this morning, which we all are, our title of today's message is How to Bloom Where You're Buried.

This is what Joseph shows us how to bloom where we are buried.

I am a huge fan of Forrest Frank.

Anyone else?

So, truth be told, if you were to check out my Spotify playlist, it is just on repeat.

If you don't know who Forrest Frank is, go check him out.

He's different than Forrest Gump.

Because I understand there might be a generational gap here.

Forrest Frank is a musician who loves Jesus.

And can we just praise God that we have people like that who are glorifying Jesus in that space?

So he's putting out incredible songs and lyrics.

So I highly encourage you, go check out Forrest Frank.

Well, a month ago, Forrest was skateboarding around and he did exactly what I would happen to me.

He fell.

And when Forrest fell, he broke his back.

That sounds painful.

He actually documented this on social media, his whole experience.

He showed the video of him falling, breaking his back, and he showed how he was in bed in a ton of pain, but not able to do anything.

And what he also led us in on and into this situation was he had his headphones in, he had his microphone on, he had his laptop out.

And what God was stirring in his heart and what God was showing him turned out to be a hit song called God's Got My Back.

He also wrote another song called Lemonade coming out of it.

Funny enough is that even because of what God was showing Forrest during that season of time, it spurred on artists like David Crowder to write a song when David Crowder broke his foot.

And then, funny enough, and subsequently, other people have kind of done spoofs on it, like I got a splinter, so I need to write a song or stub my toe.

But I love this.

I want to read a few of the lyrics to you that Forrest authored and pinned.

God's got my back.

Even when I fall or get attacked, God's got my back.

Even when I'm low and full of lack, God's got my back.

Even when my soul is full of sorrow, I don't have to worry about tomorrow.

Why is that?

Y'all are my people.

Go check it out.

I highly encourage you to listen to it.

Forrest Frank broke his back.

But in that painful season, God gave him the words, God's got my back.

And maybe you've been there too.

Perhaps not a broken back or a broken bone, but a broken relationship, a broken situation, a broken season.

Have you ever felt stuck in a place you didn't choose, living through a season you didn't want, and wondering if God even knew where you were?

Joseph did.

Joseph knew exactly how that felt.

Buried in a prison, forgotten, overlooked, and surrounded by walls, he couldn't escape.

But God was with him, and Joseph recognized God's presence.

Joseph remained faithful and relied on God's strength.

And here's the truth for every single one of us here today.

The place you feel buried may not be the end of your story.

It may be the very soil where God is growing your greatest influence.

Each stage of Joseph's pain was soil God used to prepare him and reminds us if you're taking notes, leaders don't waste the weight.

If we're going to be people, if where we're buried we bloom, we also must recognize that leaders don't waste their weight.

And Joseph demonstrates that even in this story.

Despite betrayal, slavery, and false accusation.

And if again you're new to us, this is week four in our series Rise from the Pit, destroying the life of Joseph.

Allow me to catch us all up to speed and give you a quick summary and recap.

Because if there's anybody who knows anything about unfair treatment, about being an innocent victim, and on the receiving end, it was Joseph.

He received unfair treatment from his family.

His brothers hated him, wanted to kill him, and then slow him, sold him into slavery.

Next, he became a slave in a land where he didn't even know the language.

One minute, he was a 17-year-old boy with his whole life before him, and the next, he was totally at the mercy and actual property of some stranger.

Following all that, as we studied last week, he was falsely accused.

After earning the favor of his master Potiphar, the master's wife tried to seduce Joseph.

And as we saw in that chapter, when Joseph didn't submit to her wishes, she lied, and as a result of her lies, he was unjustly put in prison.

But he was willing to do the right thing at the right time, despite being put in prison.

Genesis chapter 39, verses 21 through 23 is where we'll begin this morning.

Genesis 39:21–23

Notice it says, but the Lord was with Joseph.

Go ahead and underline that in your Bibles or make note of it.

And showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.

And the keeper of the prison put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners who were in the prison.

Whatever was done there, he was the one who did it.

The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph's charge because the Lord was with him.

And whatever he did, the Lord made it succeed.

So we noticed twice here, the Lord was with Joseph.

And what could have been the darkest, direct, dreariest of positions and places, Joseph didn't waste his weight.

And if you and I are going to bloom where we're buried, we've got to learn to do what Joseph did.

Simply put, recognize God's presence.

Recognize God's presence, fixing our eyes on the author and perfecter of our faith.

Joseph recognized God's presence, even in the darkest places.

And listen, my friends, the secret of joy isn't your circumstances, it's Christ in you.

Every single one of us born into this world are born into sin.

There's no escaping it.

You and I are sinners in need of a savior.

We are in the prison cell of sin, and the only way we can break free is through the blood and an empty tomb of Jesus Christ.

You will never have the peace of God without knowing God, who is the Prince of Peace.

His name is Jesus.

If you and I want joy that is not dependent upon circumstance, choose Jesus.

Recognize that He is with you, God is everywhere.

Fix your eyes on Him.

You don't need a palace to lead.

Because you can bloom in a prison if your roots are in God's presence, because your environment doesn't determine your fruitfulness.

God's presence does.

That's what it means to bloom where you're buried.

Stay rooted in Him.

Let's be real.

Sometimes it doesn't feel like you're planted in a garden.

Sometimes it feels like you've been tossed in a compost pile.

And there is a difference between suffering because of your own sin choices and suffering, living out the glory of God.

But even in both situations, God can grow something beautiful.

I'm reminded when we look at the life of Joseph, it parallels even with a situation in the life of Paul.

Paul, another hero of our faith, a leader of our faith, who lived for the glory of God, despite what may come, authored the entire letter of Philippians in a prison cell in Rome.

Talk about the joy of the Lord.

That even in a prison cell, he could author a letter of encouragement to the church of Philippi.

That really he explained great contentment and joy.

Philippians 4, 4 says, Rejoice in the Lord when?

Always.

And again I say, I think we're almost there at 10 o'clock.

8:30, had you whooped on that.

Rejoice in the Lord when?

And again I say, now we're with it.

Paul is really talking about it's not my circumstances that are bringing bringing me joy, it's the presence of God with me that gives me joy.

And their example of leadership of God's presence did not come from titles, it did not come from positions, it came from the presence of God and reminds us to remain faithful even in the dark places.

Remain faithful in the dark places.

What options did Joseph have with his attitude?

What could have Joseph responded to here?

He certainly could have chosen anger, frustration, bitterness.

Okay.

Thank you for being honest.

I would have waited for you to raise your hands, but um my mom always used to tease me when I got into ministry 20 years ago working with students for so long.

She's like, I don't know how you do it.

How do you have patience for those students?

She goes, because when you were growing up, you had zero of it.

I said, that's just the work of the Lord.

This is called sanctification.

Patience, what we see in the scripture is endure long suffering.

To have patience is to endure long suffering.

To wait.

That's hard, isn't it?

That's really, really hard.

But to wait on God isn't to sit and do nothing.

It waiting on God is waiting with the assurance that the goodness he promises will come to pass.

There's a hope that surpasses all understanding.

There's a peace that surpasses all understanding.

A couple days ago, marked one month since we moved back to the area.

If you've ever moved, you know how tedious opening boxes and putting stuff away can be.

First world problems.

So we're unpacking boxes, and I came across my memorabilia type boxes.

Came across some trophies, like my Pinewood Derby.

Came across, like, I didn't know this, I couldn't remember it, but like back in the day in first grade and second grade, I apparently won trophies for putting together puzzles the fastest.

I don't know how.

Track ribbons and all that kind of stuff.

Now, mind you, I've got these trophies and ribbons, not because I participated, people, because I earned them.

I grew up in a generation where if you got a trophy, it's because you earned it.

Okay.

So I'm looking at this stuff, and Aaron's like, Do you want to throw it away?

I'm like, oh, but the puzzles.

Like, I wrecked these kids growing up.

And if I'm like, all right, I gotta throw it away.

Came across my high school football jersey that only I care about, still smelled.

I don't know how.

And then came a special part of the box.

Pictures that weren't on my phone, actual printed pictures, still in the Kodak envelope.

If you know, you know.

And I'm going through some of these pictures, like this thick, of the envelopes.

And I took, there's like doubles.

Everyone remember like getting double printed, like they scammed us for so long.

And I've got like all these doubles, and I'm looking through all these pictures, I'm reminiscing.

I'm looking at like a trip I took in 1999 as a high school student to New York City with my orchestra playing the violin on this trip, and I'm like reminiscing, like this was such a great trip.

I see the twin towers in the background on some of these pictures.

Captivating.

I've got all these pictures, and then behind all the pictures with these little strips called the negatives.

And I'm like, man, what did we do before phones?

We'd go to the store, we'd get a disposable camera, or for some of us, we had a really nice camera.

We had a Polaroid picture, you know.

Some of y'all just know the song.

There was actually like this thing where you took a Polaroid picture and it came out and you shook it.

Some of y'all know what I'm talking about.

Like, you don't like my Nintendo people where the game wouldn't do you have to pop it out, blow it back in.

And so I'm looking through all these pictures and I'm just like, oh man, all these negatives.

Like, what do you do with all this?

And it just started hitting me.

How oftentimes when people would take pictures, they submit it to the store, and they might have it in a couple days, but if you pay the extra, maybe in an hour, I'm like, why can't they do that all the time?

And they would take the pictures you took on the camera, and they take the film and they take it to a dark room, and what they would do is they would slowly introduce it to light and chemicals, and finally, after time, that which was dark with the right exposure would bring a beautiful picture.

There is something about being developed in difficult moments.

Leaders don't waste their weight, they let God develop them until the image he designed becomes clear.

How is God developing you?

What is God trying to show you?

We can take pictures all day with our phones now, and we can microwave a moment, but listen, character isn't microwaved in comfort, it's developed in the dark room of difficulty.

And what feels like burial may actually be God's planting.

Remember this in those dark rooms, if the light was exposed on it too quickly, it could ruin the entire picture.

And it reminds us as people who follow after King Jesus, as God is sanctifying us and building up our character, allowing us to endure, if you will, the sufferings of this side of eternity.

Be reminded of this that if the light on you is brighter than the light in you, you will burn up.

James puts it this way for you now, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

For those of us in Christ, it is a guarantee that we will come across trials and tribulations and testings.

But as a result, it produces steadfastness.

And faithfulness precedes fruitfulness, and leaders don't waste the weight.

Joseph's character shone brightest in the darkest place, and though he didn't deserve prison, he responded with faith, and God's faithfulness was put on display through his life.

In Genesis chapter 40, beginning in verse 1, reads sometime after this, the cutbearer of the king of Egypt and his baker committed an offense against their lord, the king of Egypt.

Genesis 40 · chapter mention

And Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief cutbearer and the chief baker.

And he put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard in the prison where Joseph was confined.

Now, we need to note here that the cupbearer and the baker here oftentimes would would taste the wine, taste the food before it got to the Pharaoh or the king, so that if it was poisoned, it was like, oh well, well, you're the cupbearer, you're good.

Glad it wasn't him.

What a great job, right?

But in many ways, the cupbearer and the baker were some of the most trusted men in Pharaoh's court.

We don't know the specifics as to why these two were thrown into prison.

I don't know if they broke the five-second rule with the biscuits on the ground or something.

I don't know why they got put in prison, but they're in prison.

But have you ever noticed something?

Have you ever noticed how often God places people in our path who know exactly what we're going through?

See, Joseph and Pharaoh's officials were in prison for different reasons.

Different reasons.

But what did they share?

The same misery, the same prison walls, the same set of circumstances they found themselves in.

And because Joseph had allowed God to heal his heart from the past instead of letting the bitterness of the past take root, Joseph saw the opportunity to minister to those two who were right in front of them with their very own pain.

And likewise, when we let go of our resentment, we make room for God to use us as his instruments, even in the hardest and darkest of places.

Verse 4.

The captain of the guard appointed Joseph to be with them, and he attended them.

They continued for some time in custody, and one night they both dreamed.

The cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were confined in the prison, each his own dream, and each dream with its own interpretation.

When Joseph came to them in the morning, he saw that they were troubled.

So he asked Pharaoh's officers who were with him in custody in his master's house, Why are your faces downcast today?

Now I'm convicted when I read this.

I was convicted as I studied and prepared, and I'm convicted because if anybody ought to have a sad face, it should be Joseph.

And yet, in spite of his own circumstance, he noticed the dilemma of two other men.

And I'm convicted because I'm like, man, if I'm Joseph, I'm not looking at the other two men thinking about them.

I'm sitting there going, whoa is me.

And as I'm reading this, as I'm convicted in it, I'm kind of bringing a smile to my face because I began reminiscing on an old childhood favorite called Winnie the Pooh.

If you know, you know.

And as I'm thinking about Winnie the Pooh, I'm thinking about all the different casts and all the different characters that make up this classic.

Sometimes we respond to hardship a little like Winnie the Pooh's friends.

Eeyore.

He sinks into self-pity and bitterness.

I am an Eeyore.

So this is why I'm like, I'm so convicted.

I'm the worst.

Eeyore.

Self-pity and bitterness.

Rabbit tries to control and fix everything.

Piglet worries and has has anxiety about everything.

And Tigger, he just bounces around overconfident and reckless without a plan.

Which are you?

If put into a position like Joseph, what's your natural inclination?

And this is why I smile because even despite my own natural inclination, it's the supernatural worker of God that takes my flesh to the side and gives me his spirit, gives me an opportunity to see those around me as well.

So I don't have to sit as an Eeyore.

But I can walk as a victor.

I can walk in confidence.

I can walk in love.

I can ask the Holy Spirit to open my eyes to see people the way that He sees people.

That's the supernatural work of God's presence.

Now, Joseph, he's an example here to bloom where you're buried.

Because even in waiting, leaders look for opportunities to serve.

Leaders look for opportunities to speak truth.

And Joseph didn't waste his weight.

He bloomed by bringing God's presence into their pain.

Look at verse 8.

They said to him, We have had dreams, and there is no one to interpret them.

And Joseph said to them, Do not interpretations belong to God?

Please tell them to me.

Now you know Joseph is like biting his tongue here.

Like they're telling him his dreams, and he's like, They only knew.

I can tell them all about it.

At the same time, if you can recall what we studied last week, and if you're here for the first time this week, essentially going back into this whole story of Joseph, what happened to Joseph the last time he interpreted dreams?

He got thrown into a pit.

Don't you think Joseph knows that?

Seems like, oh man, do I really want to go down this road again?

But leaders, what do they do?

They do what's right.

They do what's right.

And Joseph here, he didn't run from the pain of the past, but leaned into the ministry opportunity right in front of him.

Verse 9.

So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph and said to him, In my dream there was a vine before me, and on the vine there were three branches.

As soon as it budded, his blossoms shot forth, and the clusters ripened into grapes.

Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup and placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand.

Then Joseph said to him, This is its interpretation.

The three branches are three days.

In three days, Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office, and you shall place Pharaoh's cup in his hand, as formerly when you were his cupbearer.

Only remember me when it is well with you, and please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this house.

I gotta admire Joseph.

He shot a shot here.

For I was indeed stolen out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also I have done nothing that they should put me into the pit.

When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was favorable, he said to Joseph, I also had a dream that there were three cake baskets on my head.

And in the uppermost basket there were all sorts of baked food for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating it out of the basket on my head.

And Joseph answered and said, This is its interpretation.

The three baskets are three days.

In three days, Pharaoh will lift your head from you and hang you on a tree, and the birds will eat the flesh from you.

Yikes.

Like, who wants to deliver that message?

You gotta respect Joseph's integrity, telling the truth, even when it was difficult.

The story continues like this on verse 20 on the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, he made a feast for all his servants and lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker amongst his servants.

He restored the chief cupbearer to his position, and he placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand.

But he hanged the chief baker as Joseph had interpreted to them.

Yet the chief cutbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.

Next week we'll pick up the story in Genesis chapter 41.

Genesis 41 · chapter mention

But can we just note, if you were to jump ahead a little bit and just get a sneak peek, you would see that Joseph remained in prison for two more years.

Hey man, will you do me a favor and will you tell Pharaoh I'm here?

Kind of come get me.

I got you.

Thanks, man.

Crickets.

Two years.

Talk about disappointment.

When you feel like you're you got all the hope.

And it comes crashing down.

We're walking into football season.

There's a lot of hope in this room.

Are some of y'all gonna walk into next Sunday the same way?

Or are you gonna be so let down because your team lost?

It's kind of that feeling.

Fresh slate, new beginning.

You're like, oh, we're there, we're there, we're there, and all of a sudden, boom, let down.

Disappointment.

And instead of being remembered and rewarded, he was forgotten for two more years.

It's easy to overlook that little fact, buried in the midst of all these dream sequences and their interpretations.

But for two years after the cutbearer left, Joseph remained buried in that dungeon.

I wonder, what did Joseph think about during that time?

What was he thinking?

Because the human tendency would be well, will I be on hold forever, Lord?

I I never asked.

I never deserved to be here to begin with, but I didn't complain or try to escape, Lord.

I I interpreted these dreams correctly and walked close to you month after month.

I did what you wanted me to do.

I served you faithfully.

What I said was true, and the man forgot me.

In fact, it seems like you have forgotten me.

Joseph could have played the victim.

He could have said, Lord, what have you done?

But he continued to wait.

Joseph continued to trust, continued to hope and to lean in on God.

Joseph didn't just survive in prison.

He learned to thrive.

He learned to lead, serve, and trust God in the kind of place where most people would give up.

But what if your prison season is the training ground for your new palace assignment?

I'm convicted here.

Because I want to have a faith like Joseph.

And I want to maximize my weight.

How can you maximize your weight?

In those moments and minutes, those seasons.

How can you maximize your weight?

First thing, do what Joseph did.

Point people to God.

Bad news and good news.

We all have a story to tell, but you are not the hero of your story.

God has given you a story.

And if you are in Christ, you have been bought, redeemed, and invited into his family.

But you didn't get there on your own or by your own doing.

It was through the finished work of Jesus.

But we have got to be careful that we don't make us the author, the hero, and the perfector of our stories.

No, no, no.

We tell other people about what King Jesus has done for us, despite our past, despite our shame, despite our circumstances, despite everything we're going through, we point people to him.

Joseph did.

Man, I'm convicted.

What else can we do?

Trust God's timing.

He's all knowing, all powerful.

Trust the Lord.

Trust his timing.

Some of us want to fix it.

Some of us we want to microwave it.

And we like the microwave because we can set timers.

We like alarm clocks because it has, oh, I know when it's gonna happen.

Trust the Lord's timing.

Even when others forget you, God is working behind the scenes to accomplish his plan, his way, and his time.

Pastor Chris has encouraged us to be taking notes.

I see many of you taking notes.

Well done.

Well done.

I'm gonna invite you over these next 30 seconds to wrestle with some of these questions, begin wrestling with.

I believe that perhaps God is already beginning to stir up your heart with some of the answers to these questions.

The first is this Who are you putting your trust in other than Jesus?

What are your opportunities to bloom right now?

And what is your worst pain?

And what is the message that God has or is giving you?

Again, God might just begin stirring something in you right now.

For others of you, you're like, I'm not sure.

This is why I want you to write it down so you can go back and take this to the Lord.

Take it to your spouse, take it to a friend.

Even so, take it into your life group discussions.

If you're not part of a group, let me remind you, you are not meant to do life alone, but to be in biblical community.

You can come and sit in a row and be a part of this room, or you can be known in a group where people want to help you in your dark moments of life, to encourage you and point you to Jesus and point you to the truth of God's word to pray for and encourage and to sharpen you.

You are not meant to do life alone.

This is why we value life groups.

This is why we value serving.

We can point people to Jesus.

But what's that thing that's holding you back?

Is it pride, selfishness, only thinking about you and what you get out of it?

Woe to me that I live in that world too, that I think more as a consumer than a contributor.

And I'm thankful for Joseph's faithfulness, is that he contributed to the kingdom of God, even despite being in prison.

Perhaps you're battling an undeserved treatment from family, friends, co-workers, or there's been an onset of unexpected restrictions and difficulties that have confined you emotionally or physically.

Maybe you're dealing with untrue accusations or unfair abandonment.

Look, if you've lived for a matter of minutes on this earth, you know that people will lie and tell false things about you.

Perhaps you've stood with and supported a spouse, a friend, or a co-worker to achieve, to build, or conquer a dream only to see them reach it and then leave you behind.

That might be difficult for you to accept, but you need to understand that it is in that kind of pain that God gives even his best messages.

It's what C.S.

Lewis calls God's megaphone.

And in the problem of pain, he writes this God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain.

Praise God that he is near to the brokenhearted.

Praise God for the faith of Forrest Frank, who, despite having a broken back, could pen and author the faithfulness of God, that God's got his back.

And praise God that we have an opportunity to have a church family to wrestle and grapple with the circumstances that we're given sometimes and have people encourage us to fix our eyes on Jesus because I'm convicted here.

I don't know about you.

Because we got two choices.

Two choices.

We can become disappointed and embittered, or we can use that difficulty as a platform for putting our hope and trust in the living God.

I love what Chuck Swindle says.

Disappointment is a dangerous, slippery slope.

First, we become disappointed about people.

Then we move on to cynicism.

Before long, we trust to no one, not even God.

We've been burned, we've been taken advantage of, we've been mistreated.

The two go together.

And the cause of disappointment is putting one's complete hope and trust in people.

Putting people on a pedestal, focusing on them, finding our security in them, being so horizontally locked in that the person takes the place of God, even becomes God.

Your complete hope can rest in one person.

It can be your child, it can be your parent, it can be a business partner, a friend, a pastor, a coach, a mate.

And when the feet of clay crumble, as they surely will, total disappointment sets in.

What's the cure?

Putting our complete hope and trust in the living Lord.

When we do that, the simplest messages from God calm our spirits.

Christian Rager is a man who did exactly that.

Christian spent four years in the infamous Dachau imprisoned by the Nazis from 1941 to 1945.

What was his crime?

He was a member of the Confessing Church, one of the German state churches that took a stance against the Nazis in the 30s and 40s.

Martin Nie Moller and Dietrich Bonhoeffer both ministered at that church.

As a whole, the church stood for the truth of the gospel.

But Christian was turned over to the Nazis by none other than their very own organist in their church.

Someone he thought he could trust.

As a result, Christian was shipped hundreds of miles away to a confinement camp.

Philip Yancey tells Christian's story in his book, Where is God when it hurts?

He says Christian would tell you all the horror stories, but he wouldn't stop there.

He would always share his faith.

He would always share that how at Dachau he met the God who loves.

Rager said that Nietzsche said a man can undergo torture if he knows the why of his life.

But I here at Dachau learned something far greater.

I learned to know the who of my life.

He was enough to sustain me then and is enough to sustain me still.

I'm convicted because God helped me.

I don't know if I would have this kind of faith when put into a dark situation.

I can say it, I can talk about it.

But Lord, would you even right now move in such a way, Lord, that would I be found faithful even when pressed?

Search my heart, O God, and know anything in there that's not of you, anything that brings you glory, anything, Lord, that is of self and not of you.

God, see it, take it, remove it.

And I'm thankful that my God hears my cry.

I'm thankful that even when I mess it up, He's faithful.

I'm thankful that Jesus willingly chose the cross.

He chose darkness so that you and I could be called children of the light.

I'm thankful that he took in consideration your sin and my sin and your folly and my folly, even on the cross.

He said, They're still gonna mess it up and I'm still gonna do it.

They're still gonna struggle, but I'm not gonna let them live in their shame.

I'm gonna call them out of the darkness and into the light.

Oh, death, where is your victory?

Death, where is your sting?

Paul says, Lord, create in me that kind of faith.

The faith of Joseph and the faith of Paul.

Dark times, you might be in one.

And I pray that you hear that God is near to you.

If you're not in one right now, you will be.

You will be.

You're either coming out of one or preparing to go into one.

So as we walk into various situations and as we look at Joseph and how he was he was prisoned, that we would look at it as further preparation.

Because the same God who was with him in the pit was with him in the palace, and the same God who walked with him walks with you.

So if you feel stuck, if you feel overlooked, if you feel buried, remember this God's presence is your anchor, God's faithfulness is your testimony, and his power is your source.

This is our God.

This is the one who is with us, who helps us bloom where we're buried, and the one who helps us not waste our weight.

Do you know him as your personal Lord and Savior?

And are you trusting him with everything that you are?

Thank you so much for joining us this morning.

We can't wait to see you next week for any of our services at 8 30, 10, 11 30, or essential at 1 o'clock.