But God...

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

Well, good morning, Awakening Church.

Great to be with you.

Welcome, welcome, welcome.

Absolutely thrilled to have you join us today.

If you're new or we haven't met, my name's Ryan.

Um, and before we dive in today, I wanted to tell you why I love being a part of this church.

At least one reason I love being a part of this church.

Why I am so proud of you.

Uh, this last week, I want you to know this.

Your generosity enables us to meet tangible needs in real time.

Uh we recognize the impact of the government shutdown is acutely hitting the most vulnerable of those in our community.

We host a food pantry the first and third Thursday of the month, serving so many in this community, and um that's impacting how much food we're even able to uh serve, and we expect a greater need this upcoming Thursday.

And so our leadership council, the elders of our church, immediately approved$5,000 to buy$50 and$100 grocery gift cards to be given out because we're gonna run.

Well, last month we ran out, we unfortunately had to turn eight families away.

We don't want to do that, and so run out of food, we're gonna give you a gift card, and they recognize the need's gonna be greater, we're gonna be able to continue and give more as the need rises.

Secondly, we do a Thanksgiving thing, uh, frozen turkeys for families as well.

We didn't, the people who had resourced that, the organization no longer does that, so they said here$1,200 for frozen turkeys for Thanksgiving.

And then on top of that, why not another$5,000 to be given to World Relief just this week?

$11,000 and plus, just given away immediately.

Not because, like, oh, we have to raise or think about it.

We have those funds well stewarded and able to meet it need and then step in beyond that.

Thank you for your generosity, and that we have a church that says we want to unleash extravagant generosity to a hurting and broken world because we have an extravagantly generous God.

Amen?

Yeah.

All right, let me pray and we'll dive in.

Heavenly Father, thank you for this moment.

Thank you for your grace, thank you for uh bringing us together.

That you have a moment where you long to meet with your people here to speak to our hearts.

And so we invite you to have your way.

Would you clear the clutter, clear the distractions, all the things that keep coming up into our hearts and minds.

And may we hear from you, meet with you, and be changed by you.

In Jesus' name, and all God's people sin.

Amen.

Today we're finishing out our series, Dreaming Wide Awake.

We've been journeying through the life of Joseph.

In very first week, week one, uh, we said that, you know, we've wrestling with this question: how do you embrace a God-sized dream for your life?

Because if we're honest, most of us, many of us, feel like we're just existing, not really living, as if we're sleepwalking through life.

How do you embrace a purpose for your life?

A life filled and drenched with meaning.

We've been looking at uh this incredible character in the book of Genesis, his name's Joseph.

In week one, we said it this way: that God has a dream for your life.

Not just the person next to you, not the people that you deem important or they have it all together.

Like God has a dream for your life.

It doesn't matter whether you're 15 or 50 or 95.

My wife was just at uh her grandma's 95th birthday yesterday.

God has a dream for your life.

You are made on purpose and you are made for a purpose.

You are not an accident in any way.

And it gets better than that.

God's dream is actually better than your dream.

If we could just believe that, oh, life would be so much better because we take it back into our own hands, don't we?

I I know, I got it figured out.

Thank you very much.

You maybe created the universe.

Okay, gotcha.

Okay, you're all wise, all good, all knowing.

Yeah, fantastic.

But I, you know what?

I got it from here, God.

God says in the midst of that, my dream is so much better than your dream if you would just trust me.

Now, the problem with trust is simply this that God's not in a hurry and his timing's perfect.

That's, I think, why we take it back into our own hands.

Now, we're finishing out the series today, concluding.

Actually, you've been teaching through the book of Genesis for an entire year.

Today, right this moment, we're finishing Genesis.

Woo! 50 chapters.

You did it, you made it, you're here.

No, the the thing about it, is you're like, that's fantastic, Ryan.

God has a dream for my life, but you don't know the things that I've gone through in my life.

Like at the core, I'm wrestling with this.

How do you make sense of life?

How do you make sense of life in the hurting, in the painful, and the tragic parts of life?

Like, is God really in control?

Does everything happen for a reason?

You know, um, maybe you've seen this before.

You you met somebody, and you would have no idea the pain that they walked through, the trials that they had, somehow what would have crippled any normal human would have left just a shell of a person.

Somehow, that pain, that trial, that hardship, somehow, instead of making them bitter, it made them more beautiful.

Have you ever been around someone like that?

Seen someone, heard their story, we're like, how in the world?

In the face of unimaginable loss, chronic illness, death of a loved one or a child, how in the world are you not just eking your way, but there is something beautiful, winsome about you.

Today we want to look at what they know and what we need to know.

And so what Joseph tells us, in fact, this passage, um, Genesis 50, verse 20, I think is one of the most profound, powerful verses in all of the Bible.

Genesis 50:20

In fact, it it not only summarizes uh Joseph's life, it actually encapsulates the purpose of the entire book of Genesis.

And in it, we're gonna discover and learn like how do you begin to live life in such a way that the brokenness that God can transform in your life to bring meaning and purpose and hope and to give you, as Jeremiah would say, a future and hope.

You ready?

Yeah?

All right.

If you turn to your Bible, Genesis chapter 50, verse 15, we pick it up.

Genesis 50:15

It's at the end of Joseph's life.

When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did him?

Which is fair.

They sold him into slavery.

They wanted to kill him, but they sold him.

And now their father's dead, they're thinking, okay, now he's gonna get payback.

Now he's gonna, you know, get his revenge.

So they sent word to Joseph saying, your father left these instructions before he died.

Even the way it says it in here, you can hear it, uh, it feels like, but did he really, did dad really say that?

It's almost like I the text doesn't tell us whether he does or not, it just says they say this, it almost feels like they're making something up to try to get Joseph not to take revenge.

He says, This is what you're to say to Joseph.

I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they commit in treating you so badly.

Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father.

You can just feel the weight, the relational pain and heartache of Joseph.

When their message came to him, Joseph wept.

He's like, You don't get it.

You don't understand.

His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him.

We are your slaves, they said.

Verse 19.

But Joseph said to them, Do not be afraid.

Am I in the place of God?

I'm not one to take revenge.

That's God's dealing, by the way, not mine.

Verse 20, here we go.

This is the verse.

This is where we're sitting, this is where we're gonna say, stay.

You intended to harm me.

Can you read this next line?

That's pretty decent.

That's decent.

And there's a murmuring in the church.

Okay, okay, okay.

Just the next two words.

You intended to harm me, but God, those two words have the power to change your life, redeem your past, and reshape the trajectory of your future.

But God, you intended to harm me, you intended to hurt me, you planned for my demise and my destruction, but God, but God entered the story, but God showed up on the scene, but God had different plans than your plan.

What is now being done, the saving of many lives.

Sermon titled Today is simply two words, but God.

Let's say that again.

Two of the best words, I think, in the scripture we're going to see woven through.

But God, because your story on your own, how did somebody get to the end of life, walk through that incredible pain, walk through all those unimaginable stuff that should have left them a shell of a human, and yet they come out more beautiful than bitter?

But God.

But God showed up in the middle of their story.

How do you make sense of life, especially the hurting, the broken, the painful parts of life?

There's three redemptive truths we must get and embrace.

The first one is simply this God is willing your good.

This is different, by the way, than simply saying God is wanting your good.

I think we can go, I think maybe God wants my good.

God is willing your good.

In fact, uh that word you intended intended to harm me.

And then uh I love how the the text says, but God intended.

They use the same word for good.

That word intended means to plan, to plot, like you are plotting against me.

It can also be the picture of someone who's weaving like a thread to create, you know, a quilt or something like that.

You were weaving harm in my life.

You were sowing destruction in my life.

But God intended, God plotted, God planned, God purposes, God is not just wanting, but he is willing your very good.

And this has happened, by the way, from the very foundation of the universe.

Genesis 1, we started out this year talking about Genesis 1.

In the beginning, God created the heavens of the earth.

Uh, and then he says, after each moment of creation, it is help me out.

Good.

Yeah, it's fine, decent, okay, whatever.

And then he creates humanity and says, it is very good.

And in Genesis 2, we see the only not good in the garden is that man is alone, and he creates Eve.

Like God has been willing and working, and his heart and intent and design and desire for you is fundamentally for your good.

And he's not for your good when you are good.

That's what we think.

Isn't it?

That's what we think.

Like God is willing my good when I'm good.

As long as I'm a good little boy or girl, then God wants my good, but but actually when I'm not, when it that he's kind of out against me, he's down on me, he's mad at me.

Um, I think I maybe we'll do this in the new year, I don't know.

Uh, I've had so many conversations with people, and I sit across the table and so listen to their stories, and we're talking and hearing what they say.

Um, and and at the core of it, some of the things that they're struggling with so much comes down to really bad theology.

A.W.

Tozer would say, in the knowledge of the holy, what comes to our mind when we think about God is the most important thing about us.

What comes into your mind?

Let me give you just two erroneous views about God.

First is that God is good but not powerful.

God is good but not powerful.

He's like this kindly grandpa.

You know, you love to see him.

He comes in and he's like, oh, honey, you've had a hard day.

Oh, you're you're you're I'm so sorry.

Let me give you a word there's original and give you a hug, right?

I got some hard candy for you, but it doesn't really make anything better.

It's nice sentiment.

That God is good, but he's not powerful enough to change or move or affect my life.

Or the inverse of that, that God is powerful, but he's not really good.

He doesn't really care.

He's not active, he's not involved, he's not a part of my life.

Kind of like a cosmic boss.

He is powerful, but he is unpredictable.

Like, like he's got the power, but he doesn't really care.

He doesn't move, he's distant, he's aloof, and the only time he really takes notice is when I'm not doing well, and so I just simply go like I'm I'm I'm uncertain of who I am approaching and whether he cares or is kind or will move on my behalf.

The first truth, by the way, has a God that is caring but unable to impact anything in your life.

And the second one is a God you can't trust because you don't know if his heart towards you is good.

The truth is God is all powerful and all good, he's both.

In fact, I like how Dallas Willard says it in his divine conspiracy.

He says, it is the confidence in the invariably overriding intention of God for our good, which with respect to all the evil and suffering that may befell us on life's journey, that secures us in peace and joy, our confidence of God's intention of good, that secures us in peace on life's journey.

We must be sure of that intention if we are to be free and able, like Joseph, to simply do what we know to be right.

AW Tozer again, Knowledge of the Holy, he would say it this way.

The outlook, the whole outlook of mankind might be changed if we could all believe that we dwell under friendly skies.

And that the God of heaven, though exalted in power and majesty, is eager to be friends with us.

What would change in your life if you understood that God is both all-powerful and he is good?

He is presently, actively, willing, plotting, planning your goodness for you.

That you dwell under friendly skies.

Ryan, how do I know that I dwell under friendly skies?

That's a great question.

Romans 5, 6 says it this way.

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powers, when we were unable to affect or change our state, Christ died for perfect people.

Christ died for the right people.

Christ gave his life for good little boys and girls.

No, he died for ungodly.

Ungodly, just you don't want anything to do with God or the ways of God.

Very rarely when anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die, then we get another but God.

There you take.

Good job.

But God, but God entered the story, and God entered your story, but God demonstrates his love for us.

In this, while we're yet sinners, Christ died for you.

But God entered your story.

The goodness of God revealed in Jesus.

The goodness of God did not leave us in our mess, but stepped into the massiness of life.

The goodness of God came for us when we wanted nothing to do with Him.

His goodness pursued us.

The goodness of God, moved by love, laid down His life for us.

His power intervened where we were powerless.

How do I make sense of life first?

God is willing your good.

And so as a result, God will not waste your pain.

God is actively willing, plotting, and planning your good.

And in the midst of the hurting, the painful, the broken, the traumatic, the hard, the difficult, He will not waste your pain.

There's a scripture that I think we have to take back.

We're afraid to say it because some people have used it kind of cliche.

You know those cliche things that Christians say, and then it's like it's either ripped out of context, um, or it's just said so tritely in the midst of really hard times that it actually does some harm.

But if we're not able to sit with the truth of what God's actively doing, we miss out on how he's working in the midst of the heart.

Romans 8.28, by the way, Romans 8, read it.

It's not a fun uh section leading up to this.

This is talking about creation groaning, that we are groaning with labor pains, that like the world is broken and not as it should be.

This is in the midst of the dark chapter of the universe, is written this, 8.28.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him who've been called according to his purpose.

See, God is willing your good, and he is working.

He will not waste your pain.

He works through all things.

Now, what we have to be careful of is some people do this.

Well, you know, because you're going through all God works all things.

Why just listen to me.

Scripture tells us to mourn with those who mourn.

God will not waste your pain.

Now, this is different.

Because what sometimes what we do is we look at it, and since God is going to work all things for good, what scripture does not say is what happened was good.

Did you notice when Joseph says to his brothers, you intended this for harm?

He calls it out.

It's evil.

He doesn't dismiss it.

He doesn't go, like, oh, it's not that big a deal, guys.

It's okay.

No problem.

God's plan, right?

What he doesn't do that.

He says, You intended it for harm.

It was evil.

It was hurtful.

It was destructive.

It was bad.

That wasn't good.

And yet, my God is so big and so great and so powerful that all of your plotting and evil, he can still weave it for good.

See, this will cause us, if we do, if we rightly understand this, guard us from, I think, a serious um theological error that I hear people say, especially in the midst of hardships of life.

It's actually a fatalistic, deterministic outlook.

And it's simply this everything happens for a reason.

You've probably said that.

And like when you don't get your parking spot at the mall, everything happens for a reason.

Okay, yeah, everything happens for a reason.

They must have needed it more than me.

Okay, that's fantastic, you know.

You don't get that promotion at work.

Oh, everything happens for a reason, you know.

There's a bit of it that brings some surface level comfort, but at the core of it, have you ever sat, because I have, this is my job, have you ever sat with someone who's lost a child?

Everything happens for a reason.

See the question of how do you make sense of senseless violence and evil?

And the reality is, is when you look back on that, there's some things you go, I can't make sense of that.

That line is actually so violating in that moment.

Because what happens is then back to our belief about God, if everything happens for a reason, then that must have been God's fault.

If everything happens for a reason, I have no agency or responsibility.

See, scripture doesn't teach fatalism, it teaches this idea called providence.

The providence of God is no matter what happens, God can redeem it for good.

Providence is there is evil in this world.

We live in a broken, uh, unjust world that is not God's design or plan.

He intended good, we messed it up, and we have this outworking that's playing out in our lives.

And God says, because I'm so sovereign and because I'm so good, no matter what happens, no matter what comes into your life, I can still redeem it for good.

He can redeem what others have wrecked in your life, and he can redeem what you have wrecked in your life.

See, the life of Joseph looks something like this.

Right?

Birth of a dream, 17.

Betrayed by his brothers, thrown into the pit, then he's sold an enslavery in Potter's household, he's unjustly accused, he's thrown into prison, then he's in the palace, then there's family real restoration, we're coming down to the end of his life, and he recognizes that through all the ups and downs, he doesn't dismiss those ups and downs.

Oh, that's fine, that's fine, that's not a big deal.

No, he says that that was evil, that was wrong, and yet the dream was at work all along.

Because you cannot thwart God's plan for my life because he's bigger, he's greater, he's more powerful, and he's good.

Amen by myself.

There's this Japanese art form.

Um, it's called Kinsugi.

It's this, it's one of those beautiful pictures.

We did this as a staff.

We had somebody come in and teach us how to do all this.

Uh, Kinsugi uh literally means um, oh I gotta read it now.

I you know when you start to talk and then you forget.

Like golden joinery or golden repair.

It's ancient.

And it began with a broken pottery, and one person said, instead of tossing it aside, I'm gonna take some lacquer, mix it with gold dust, and then carefully put it back together.

And the broken parts, this is so cool, the broken parts and the cracks actually stand out distinct.

And what's once was worthless is now valuable art.

This is what God does with our lives.

This is how God meets you in your broken places.

Because I think for many of us, we walk into the room, we walk into a space, and you're like, yeah, I get it.

God is willing, you're good, and God's gonna, you know, work and but you don't know the mess I've made in my life.

And I feel broken beyond repair.

What's been done to me and or what I've done and the things that I'm struggling with, it's just a mess.

And God says, I specialize in bringing beauty from the broken.

And the reason you can have confidence is that God will always have the final sex.

He's willing, you're good.

He will not waste your pain if you entrust it into the hands of God.

If you take the brokenness and heartache of your life and trust it into the hands of God, that is often the place where your greatest ministry and purpose will emerge.

And you can be confident.

Death doesn't have the final say, disease doesn't have the final say, your boss doesn't have the final say.

What you've been walking through and the heartache and the loss doesn't have the final say.

The voices of your coach or your parents don't have the final say that's been on repeat.

The sense of anxiety and depression doesn't have the final say.

The anxiety of all that's going on doesn't have the final say.

God has the final say, period.

Here's why.

Another but God moment.

Peter's preaching the gospel in Acts to Jewish people.

He says this, you killed the author of life.

You killed the author of life.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Seriously, just do a little research on these places.

But God raised him from the dead.

He killed the author of life, but God.

Like how Frederick Bachner says it, he says that resurrection means the worst thing is never the last thing.

Resurrection means the worst thing is never the last thing.

Death does not have the final say in your life.

Your brokenness does not have the final say.

God is actively, moving, willingly, working good in your life.

He will not waste whatever you're walking through.

And you sit back with this confidence of like, I don't like it, I don't want it, and I know that it's not my, like, I don't, I don't want any of this.

But it does not get the final say.

Jesus gets the final say.

Because he defeated death and hell itself.

Because of who God is.

Not because of what we see.

Every fragment of our story will one day be made whole.

Because of who God is.

Because of what he has accomplished on the cross.

Not because of what we see.

Every fragment of our story will one day be made whole.

So let me ask you.

Where are you needing resurrection life at this point?

Where have you given up?

Or do you feel like it's too late?

Or does it feel too broken?

Too painful.

Too far gone.

But God.

Those two words have the power to change the trajectory of your life.

Redeem your past, reshape your future.

And I'm confident that for many in this room, this is a but God moment.

Where you stop trying to hold it all together and place the broken pieces into the hands of the one who holds you.

And so as we close, would you just do this with me?

Would you take the broken pieces, take the things that you brought in, the pain and the heartache and the hurt?

And you just begin to hold your hands out and go, God, I'm I give you, I trust those, I give those into your hands.

Heavenly Father, here are the broken pieces of my life.

Do you redeem what's been lost?

Do you restore what's been broken?

Bring resurrection where there's been death.

We hope you are blessed by this message.

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