Message Highlights

• God’s favor doesn’t mean an easy path—sometimes it puts you on a harder road. Joseph was faithful, favored by God, and still ended up betrayed, enslaved, and forgotten for twenty-two years.
• Joseph’s dreams looked dead at every turn, but they weren’t—they were working out according to God’s plan. Delay is not denial, and silence is not absence.
• We’re not called to understand God’s plan—we’re called to yield to it. Faith is not knowing how; it’s trusting Who.

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Conversation Starter

Think about a time you were waiting on something important and had no idea how it would turn out. What made that season difficult—the waiting itself, or not understanding why you were waiting?

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Core Discussion Questions

Connection Question What stood out to you from today’s message about Joseph’s story and how God works through long, difficult seasons?

Context Question Where have you encountered Joseph’s story before, and how did today’s message change or deepen your understanding of what he went through?

‍Clarity Question Anthony made the distinction that God’s favor sustained Joseph through suffering rather than protecting him from it. How does that reframe the way you think about hard seasons in your own life?

Application Question Joseph was faithful in obscurity long before anything made sense. What does faithfulness look like for you right now—in the specific place God has you—even if it doesn’t feel like it’s leading anywhere?

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Additional Questions

• Anthony said, “Stop measuring God’s favor by how easy life feels.” Why do you think we default to that measurement, and what would it look like to measure it differently?
• Joseph could interpret other people’s dreams but couldn’t understand his own. Have you ever been in a season where you could see God working in someone else’s life clearly but couldn’t make sense of what He was doing in yours?
• Read Genesis 50:20 together. How does knowing the end of Joseph’s story help you trust God with a chapter of your own story that doesn’t make sense yet?

Have you ever been stuck in something you didn’t choose? I mean, it’s one thing to be stuck in something that you didn’t choose, and then be stuck in something that you can’t change. Maybe it’s a situation at home, maybe it’s something going on at school, maybe it’s some pressure, some anxiety, some disappointment, just maybe a season in life that feels heavier than it should.

And it’s in those moments that we just want a way out. You say, “Oh no, I trust God in everything.” Sure you do. So I’m going to tell you, there’s some moments where I just want a way out. Like if there is a quick fix, if there is like the James Bond eject button, like get me out of that scenario.

And so then we want out, we want God to fix it, we want God to change it, we want God to completely redirect everything, to remove the pressure, to change the circumstances. In reality, just to make it easier. And we pray things like, “God, get me out of this, if it be your will.” Because we’re Christians, we know we have to tack that on the end of it. Like, “God, get me out of this.” Oh yeah, that’s right. “If it be your will.” And then we try and take that verse out of context. Like we get two or three people gathered together, and we’re like, “Can we all agree on this?” And we all agree, and then we’re like, “God, we all agree, so you should do this.” That’s not how God works.

And some of that speaks to our view of God, but a lot of that, it speaks to how bad we want to get out of the scenario that we’re in. Where we’re so desperate for things to change, so desperate for things to get better, that we try and get God to do what we want Him to do the way we want Him to do it. Even though we know that’s not who He is, and that’s not how He works.

And what ends up happening is when God doesn’t do what we want. Doesn’t move in the way that we want Him to move, doesn’t work in the way that we want Him to work. When there’s no real quick exit, no quick fix, no immediate rescue. We start to worry. We start to give up. Because if we’re honest, some of the hardest moments in life, they’re not just painful, they’re confusing. And they make us wonder, “Hey, God, where are You in all of this?” You don’t have to respond, you don’t have to say anything, but, I mean, have you ever said that? “God, where are You in all of this?”

Because we know the devil doesn’t win, but sometimes, there have been moments in my life where I’ve looked at my life and I’m like, “I know the devil’s not going to win, but I’m kind of wondering if he’s winning right now.” “Hey, I know the enemy isn’t going to win. I know that truth prevails, but right now in this moment, I’m going to be honest with you. I kind of wonder, I have been there. I know you’ve been there.”

And we just want it all to change and we say, “God, where are You in all of this?” And that’s exactly where this series begins. Because what if God’s plan isn’t to pull you out? What if God’s plan isn’t to change the circumstances, to rewrite the narrative? What if His plan is to lead you through? What if the freedom that you’re looking for isn’t found in escape? But it’s becoming stronger, deeper, more anchored in who He is in the middle of what you want to get out of. That’s what this series Forward is all about.

Generally, I write my sermons, write my sermon calendar about a year in advance. Right now, I’m writing for 2027, just planning out a year in advance. You say, “How does the Holy Spirit work that far ahead?” Well, number one, time isn’t very much to God. It doesn’t matter to Him. Number two, the further I am ahead, the easier it is to hear His voice. I think it’s somewhere around February God put this series on my heart. And I know we’re supposed to do it right after Easter, so pulled some things that we were going to do, and wrote this in the last few months. It’s very clear this is what God has for our church. So would you follow with me?

Genesis chapter number 37 introduces us to a young man whose life doesn’t unfold the way we would expect, doesn’t unfold the way he would expect. Joseph is 17 years old. Joseph is young. He’s faithful. He’s loved by his fathers and at the same time hated by his brothers. And I want you to catch this. Favored, loved by his father. Hated by his brothers. Favored by God. That’s got to be a confusing place to be. Everybody around you hates you, but you’re really loved by your father, favored by God.

You would think things would go the right way, but I want you to see this. Right here we learned something important, that God’s favor doesn’t always mean that a path is going to be easy. In fact, sometimes God’s favor puts you on a harder road. And Joseph’s story teaches us how God works his plan bigger than our understanding.

It’s Genesis 37 verse number two. 17 years of age, Joseph tended sheep with his brothers. Here Joseph’s a faithful son. He wasn’t lazy. He wasn’t rebellious. He's a lot like David. A lot like Moses. I mean, he is where he’s supposed to be doing what he’s supposed to do.

But I want you to see verse number two. The rest of verse number two. The young man was working with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah. He said, well, what does that mean? He said, well, his father’s wives, and he brought a bad report about them to their father. See, Joseph wasn’t welcome among the sons of Leah. See, these would have been the legitimate sons of his father. He wasn’t welcome among those sons. So he’s with the sons of the slaves, slave women. He said, well, slavery isn’t right. This isn’t saying that slavery is right, but it’s telling us what happened in history. He’s with the sons of these slave women, these servants. That’s where he’s welcome. And so Joseph takes this bad report to his father.

And his brothers aren’t happy with him because of it. And Joseph knew isolation early in age. And so he brings this evil report about his brothers to his father, and this isn’t presented as gossip. It’s presented as integrity. He was just being honest.

Look at verse number three. Now, Israel loved Joseph more than his other sons because Joseph was a son born to him in his old age. You say, well, that’s not fair. Well, if you’re a sibling at all, you know life isn’t fair. If you’re the oldest, I mean, your parents learned how to parent because of you. And if you’re the youngest, they were trying to make up in your life what they didn’t get right in the first kid’s life. And so, you know, it’s not fair, but here’s what I want to say to you. Listen, it wasn’t fair. It’s factual. This happened. And favor isn’t earned. Favor is given.

Look at the rest of verse number three. And so his father, he made him a long-sleeved robe for him. Now, depending on what translation you read, you can read it’s a coat of many colors. It’s a tunic. It’s a long-sleeved robe. You say, which one’s right? All of them. Because this was describing this favor from a father that leadership would skip past some other sons and end up on this one. This is a sign of authority. And it’s a visible favor. Perhaps what Joseph’s brothers suspected all along, they now have proof of.

And here’s what scripture says in verse number four. When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not bring themselves to speak peaceably to him. Joseph was hated not because of wickedness, but because of favor. And it’s in this context where Joseph is loved by his father, favored by God, hated by his brothers to where they can’t speak peaceably to him. He can’t even be around them. He’s with some other brothers. It’s in this context that God speaks to Joseph. And God gives Joseph a dream. As we’re going to find out, he gives him two dreams.

So in verse number five that we see this, “Then Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers, they hated him even more. And he said to them, listen to this dream I had. There were binding sheaves of grain in the field. And suddenly my sheaf stood up and your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.” And here’s their response. “Are you really going to reign over us?” His brothers asked him. “Are you really going to rule us?” So they hated him even more because of his dream and what he had said.

And if it couldn’t get worse, look at verse number nine. “Then he had another dream. And he told it to his brothers, look, he said, I had another dream. And this time the sun, moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me. He told his father and brothers, and his father rebuked him, 'What kind of dream is this that you have had?’
He said, 'Am I and your mother and your brothers really going to come and bow down to the ground before you?'” Verse eleven says his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.

Joseph didn’t create the dream. God did. And yet the dreams made everything in Joseph’s life worse. But Jacob, and I want you to see this phrase in scripture right here, Jacob kept everything in mind. He’s considering this. He’s looking at it. You say, why? If he rebuked him, then why did he keep this in mind? You’re going to have to come back next week to find out. Not going to tell you this week. You’re going to have to come back next week. It’s really awesome when we pull this out in scripture.

A little while later, Joseph’s father, he says to him, “Go and see how your brothers and your flocks are doing, and bring word back to me.” So he sent him from the Hebron Valley, and he went to Shechem. And while Joseph is traveling, his brothers see him a long way off. And here’s the conversation that happens in verse number eighteen. “They saw him in the distance, and before he had reached them, they plotted to kill him.”

Now, I love my brother. He’s younger. He’s thirteen years younger than me. And just in case you’re wondering, yes, I bled him his whole life. He has his own family now, and so I stopped more recently because I’m a good brother. But we have a super close relationship. But there have been times where my brother has gotten on my last nerve. I think I was in my late thirties, and my brother would just do this thing. And he would say, “Hey, I’m not touching you.” And he’s like this far away from me. “I’m not touching you. I’m not touching you.” And I just said, “Dude, I’m going to hit you.” He’s like, “No, you’re not.” In my late thirties, I should have been mature. And so I hit him. He deserved it. And we’re playing and laughing, and all of a sudden, when I really start getting a hold of him, he cries for Mom. I said, “All right, I got you. I got you.” So the next time, he has his little girlfriend over, and he went to go cry for Mom. And before I hit him, I put my hand over his mouth. And I got him pinned, and I didn’t hit him. I matured at this point. I rocked him backwards, and I just spanked him just a little bit, like a little child. And then I heard his girlfriend giggle, and the life just went out of him. Now, if you don’t have a brother, if you’re not two brothers, two guys, that’s just life. Some of you are like, “You are so mean.” No, that’s just life. That’s what we do. That’s the greatest moments at a family reunion.

“Hey, but I never hated my brother. I never wanted to kill him.” See, if we just read right past this, we get to a spot where we just go, “Oh, yeah, they hated him, and they wanted to kill him, and that’s just how it went in Joseph’s life.” No, no. Pause. Pump the brakes for a second. “I love my brother, whether he is right or whether he is wrong, I am there for him.” These brothers wanted to kill their brother. And they see him, and they go, “All right, we’re not just going to talk about it. We’re actually going to plan this out. Hey, we’re going to plot to kill him as he’s coming our way.”

That’s the context of what’s taking place. Look at verse number 19. “They said to one another, 'Oh, look, here comes that dream expert.'” “Hey, we’re going to kill him?” “Hey, here’s the guy with all the dreams. They’re not going to last for long.” “And Joseph did nothing new to provoke his brothers. Still, they conspired to kill him.” Look at verse number 20. So now, come on. “Let’s kill him, throw him in one of the pits. We can say that a vicious animal ate him, and we’ll see what becomes of his dreams.”

Verse number 23, “When Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped off Joseph’s robe, the long-sleeve robe that he had on. They took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty without water.” They’re ready to kill him in this moment, but Judah and Reuben, they didn’t want Joseph to die. But they also didn’t want Joseph around. So they came up with a plan. Here’s their plan in verse number 26. “Judah said to his brothers, 'What do we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? Come on. Let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay a hand on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh,’
and his brothers agreed.” And they take Joseph and they sell him into slavery.

I want you to get this. This is so important, the narrative of Joseph. The dream that he had, it wasn’t that he couldn’t fully understand it. I mean, his father, his brothers understood it. His brothers understood it enough to hate him that he was going to be the leader of the family. He was going to be the patriarchal leader. And now the people that he is supposed to lead, they’re selling him into slavery. And his dream at this point looks dead. So why is it dead? Because you can’t lead people who hate you to the point where they want to kill you. And then out of some mercy, they just sell you into slavery. I don’t care what kind of a leader you are, that’s not going to work.

And in slavery, the dream, the dreams look dead. Joseph now gets to Egypt and he’s sold again this time. He’s sold to Potiphar. This is a rich, influential man in the land of Egypt and officer of the Pharaoh, a captain of the guards. While Joseph is a slave in Potiphar’s house, God blesses Joseph in everything he does. And over time, Joseph is then promoted several times to the point where he’s in charge of everything in Potiphar’s house. To the point where Potiphar doesn’t even know what he has. He had given all authority to Joseph. He didn’t know what he had except for the food that he ate, Scripture says.

And everything is looking good for Joseph. Everything is kind of looking better. He said, well, he’s still a slave. Yeah, but he’s a slave with so much authority, maybe he could buy back his freedom. Scripture doesn’t say that’s what his thought was, but I wonder if that was his thought. Hey, I can buy back my freedom. I can get out of this somehow. Everything can change just a little bit. Everything’s finally looking better and then this happens in verse number 37. And after some time, his master’s wife, Potiphar’s wife, looked longingly at Joseph and said, “Sleep with me.”

And Joseph says, this isn’t right. You’re my master’s wife. In fact, Joseph says this, how could I do this immense evil? And how could I sin against God? And Joseph, he refuses her day after day until she tried again and Joseph ran away and she falsely accuses Joseph. That he was trying to attack her and push himself on her. And so she tells Potiphar this story and in verse number 19, when his master heard the story, his wife told him, these things, these are the things your slave did to me. He was furious and had him thrown into prison where the king’s prisoners were confined and Joseph was there in prison.

I want you to catch this in his life. And yet again, it seems like the dreams that God gave Joseph were just dead. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never been able to lead really, really, really well while behind bars. Not that I’ve been behind bars, just to clarify that, okay? You can’t lead well behind bars. He’s a prisoner, falsely accused. And it seems like everything in Joseph’s life just keeps taking him further and further and further and further away from what he thought God told him.

And it’s in verse number 21. “But the Lord was with Joseph and extended kindness to him, granted him favor with the prison warden. And the warden put all the prisoners who were in the prison under Joseph’s authority and he was responsible for everything that was done there.”

And after this, the king of Egypt, the Pharaoh, was angry with two of his officers, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker. And so Pharaoh had them thrown into prison and the warden assigns them to Joseph. There’s a conversation and a moment that takes place between Joseph and these two prisoners. It’s in chapter number 40, verse number 5, the Bible says this, “The king of Egypt’s cupbearer and baker were confined in the prison. Each had a dream. Both had a dream on the same night and each dream had its own meaning.”

Joseph sees them the next morning and he sees that they’re distraught and he says, “What’s wrong with you guys?” Verse number 8, “We had dreams,” they said to him, “but there is no one to interpret them.” Catch this, “Then Joseph said to them, 'Don’t interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams.'”

Hey, listen guys, isn’t God the only one that knows what a dream means? Now before you get caught up in dreams, okay, this is the Old Testament dreams where how God communicated to people, today we have his word, we’ll dial into more of that next week. Joseph’s saying, “Listen, only God knows.” Scripture doesn’t say this, I wonder if the tone, I wonder if his facial expression kind of gave this thought that like, “Hey, I thought at one point I knew my dreams but you know, I don’t understand the dreams that were given to me.” “I thought I knew what they meant but maybe I don’t have any idea what they meant.”

Joseph says, “Hey, tell me the dreams.” The cupbearer started telling Joseph his dream and you can read it in chapter number 40 verses 9 through 11 and Joseph interprets it. It’s in verse number 13 — in just three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your position. This is the cupbearer. Hey, you’re going to go right back to your position. You will put Pharaoh’s cup in his hand the way you used to when you were his cupbearer.

Joseph asks him, “Listen, when all goes well for you, when everything turns out for you and everything your life just gets right back on track, would you remember me?” “Hey, I’m here in prison. I haven’t done anything wrong. Just remember me.” Imagine Joseph’s frustration, “Hey, God’s allowing me to interpret this man’s dreams but I don’t understand my life at all right now.” “I thought I knew what it meant but here, this guy’s being told in three days.” “In three days you’re going to be right back where you were before, in three days.” “What am I getting out?” “Three days he’s going to be back doing what he loves to do, being exactly where he wants to be.”

There’s a lesson here for us. Let me just pause. We’ll get to application in just a minute. We’re not called to understand God’s plan. We’re called to yield to his work.

When the baker sees the interpretation went well, he goes, “Listen, let me tell you my dream.” You’ll find that in verses 16 through 19 but the interpretation for the baker’s dream was a little different. Joseph said, “In three days Pharaoh is going to hang you and the birds are going to eat your dead body.” And here’s the thing, three days later everything happened for the cupbearer and for the baker just like Joseph said.

I want you to see this next verse with me. It’s verse number 23. “Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph.” He forgot him. Joseph is again forgotten. Two years later the Pharaoh has a dream and no one can interpret it. All of Egypt’s magicians and wise men, they’re all speechless. They don’t know what to say to the Pharaoh. And it’s in that moment that the cupbearer remembers exactly who Joseph was, exactly what Joseph did. And he remembers how he interpreted his dream two years earlier.

So Joseph is brought out of prison. He’s brought before Pharaoh and he interprets Pharaoh’s dream. I’ll read it to you. It’s not going to be on the screen. “But seven years of great abundance are coming throughout the land of Egypt and after them seven years of famine will take place. And all the abundance in the land of Egypt will be forgotten. The famine will devastate the land.” And so Pharaoh promotes Joseph and Joseph becomes second in command of all Egypt. He’s controlling everything. And for seven years, Joseph prepares and stores food so that Egypt would not starve during the famine. God put him there.

Then when the famine came and it hit every land, the land of Egypt had food and in fact Egypt had so much food in storage, they’re selling it to other nations and they’re making a profit. And it’s during that time that Joseph’s brothers come to Egypt. They come to Egypt to buy food. Because the famine hit every land. And they end up bowing down to the second in command of Egypt. Not knowing that it was their brother Joseph. And here’s what I want you to catch. And 22 years later, from the time Joseph received the dreams, God fulfills them.

See, none of that was out of God’s control. So we got this way of looking at our lives and going like, “I know God’s in control of everything, but I feel like my life is out of control right now.” Listen, if anyone could have said that, it would have been Joseph. If anyone had the most reason to say that, it could have been Joseph. But God was in control of all of it. Every moment. Did you ever think all the times that we’re praying, “God, would you just change this? God, would you just fix this? Lord, would you do whatever you want to do or whatever needs to be done just to get me out of this because I can’t take it anymore?” What if we just trusted God was in control of our lives the same way he was in control of Joseph’s life? It’s the same God.

Not too often what happens to us. As we look at our lives and what we want and what we think, what we wish for, what we feel we deserve. And when we don’t see that happen the way that we want, we want out. We want God to fix it. We want everything to be different. Hey, maybe your life right now feels like Joseph’s life. And maybe you’re praying right in this moment, “God, get me out of this. Whatever you’ve got to do, Lord, just get me out. Take it away. Change the situation. Rewrite the narrative. Part the sea. Make the sun stand still. Lead me by a cloud. Lead me by fire. God, do something visibly that I can see to know that you’re in control and changing everything around me,” and we don’t see that Joseph had that. No, Joseph just kept moving forward.

So maybe in your life right now you just need to keep moving forward. You just need to keep going. Can I give you some things that as you’re going to keep moving forward, you’re going to keep your eyes fixed on the Lord. Here are some things that are going to be vitally important for you.

The first one’s this. Faithfulness matters. All throughout Joseph’s life, we see him faithful. When he was hated by his brothers, he was faithful and he gave the evil report. When he was still a slave, and he could have just done the easy thing and sinned, he was faithful. Before he was in the palace, he was faithful. Before he was promoted, he was faithful. Before the promise God ever gave him made sense, Joseph was faithful. Hey, can I tell you this morning? Be faithful where you are right now, not just where you want to be. We’ve got this idea all too often. God, when you just remove all the blindness from me and I see your plan and I see it all working together, God, I promise you in that moment I will be faithful. God wants your faithfulness now when nothing makes sense. God wants your faithfulness now when you can’t see forward. He wants you to walk forward even though you can’t see forward, and he wants you to trust him and remain faithful.

So many times God prepares us in places that we would never choose for ourselves. He prepares us in places that are confusing, that feel heavy, that bring anxiety, that bring fear, that bring uncertainty. And it’s in those moments where we want to get out, we want the escape, we want the eject button, we want God to rewrite the narrative. What if God is preparing you in that moment for what he has for you in your future? And what ends up happening to us is because we don’t see what we want. We’re not getting what we want. We’re not seeing how the narrative just works out. We stop being faithful because we don’t see the point. And what if our eyes were just fixed on the Lord instead? What if we trusted him by faith even when we can’t see forward?

I think sometimes we feel when God isn’t making a way of escape that God is punishing us. Can I tell you obscurity is not punishment, it’s oftentimes preparation.

Here’s something else that matters. God’s favor does not exempt you from pain. God’s favor in your life does not exempt you from pain. Joseph was hated, he was betrayed, he was falsely accused, he was forgotten multiple times. God’s favor doesn’t mean life is going to be easy. Someone once said, “Well, when you have God’s favor on your life, you have good health, you have wealth, you have everything you could have ever hoped for.” Yeah, tell me how the life of the disciples went. Hey, specifically Paul or Peter, the ones that Jesus loved, just like he loves you, just like he loves me, just like Joseph was loved. We buy into this false teaching that everything should be better if we have God’s favor. Sometimes God’s favor means that you’re still going to deal with pain, you’re still going to deal with heartache, you’re still going to suffer as it says in 1 Peter. That favor doesn’t protect us from suffering, favor sustains us through suffering.

And so many times we assume that God’s favor means that everything should be easy. I’m going to tell you, stop measuring God’s favor by how easy life is. Sometimes the hardest seasons are proof that God is at work and that he isn’t absent. And just because you’ve got some difficult times, just because there’s uncertainty, just because there’s fear, doesn’t mean that God is absent. Sometimes the road that God chooses for you is harder because the calling that he has for you ahead of you is greater.

Something else to remember is that God can be working even when your dreams look dead. Hey, the dreams looked impossible. They looked impossible because he’s sold as a slave, he’s locked in prison, he’s forgotten about for two years, but the dreams weren’t dead. They were working out according to the will and the plan of God. I want you to catch this statement. God’s fulfillment of his plan is more important than your dream, is more important than my dream.

So don’t forget what God promised, just because it hasn’t happened yet. And sometimes what happens to us is things in our life get a little bit dark, they get a little bit heavy, they get a little bit confusing. And we stop seeing the crystal clear plan that’s ahead of us, and in that moment we start to doubt. An older, wiser preacher than me once said, don’t doubt in the darkness what God has shown you in the light. And too many times we think the fulfillment of what we want is far more valuable and far more important. But understand God’s the one that gave the dream. He’s the one that’s going to fulfill it, he’s the one that’s going to work it, he’s the one that’s going to do it.

Let me say this because I think it’s fitting for us, if God called and God promised, then he’s going to do it. And just because you don’t see the hand of God at work doesn’t mean he’s not at work. He’s always working. So don’t demand clarity before you decide to obey. No, obey in confusion. Don’t say God when it all makes sense to me, I’m going to listen to you and I’m going to obey. That’s not faith. Faith is looking to the Lord and stepping out when there is no reason to step out, but stepping out because he said step out. Faith is not knowing how. Faith is trusting who.

Last thing for you this morning is God’s timing. It’s always perfect. How you’re struggling to go forward. You really want out, but you feel like God is just leading you forward. I trust that his timing, it’s always perfect. Even when it feels like you’re forgotten, even when it feels like everything is against you, even when it feels like everyone hates you. Even when his timing feels late. And it looks like it’s never going to happen. A 22 years passed from the promise to fulfillment. And I want you to catch this for a minute. Not one year was wasted. Not one tear was unnoticed. Not one moment was outside of the plan of Almighty God for Joseph’s life.

And so right now, if everything just seems sideways for you, there’s no time that’s wasted. There’s no tear that’s unnoticed. God’s in control and this means that we’ve got to trust the long process. This means that God is more concerned with molding and shaping you than how fast you arrive at his destination. What feels late to you is right on time for God. And you can see this throughout all of the passage of Scripture across multiple chapters here in Joseph’s life. Sometimes God’s path looks like it takes us further from what God has for us. When in actuality it’s shaping us for something greater.

And some of you right now, you’re saying this, you’re saying, I need God to do for me what God did for Joseph. I need God to do for me what he did for Joseph. In fact, I’m going to be honest, I just need Joseph’s God. Hey, it’s the same God. We have this convenient way of looking at Scripture and somehow thinking that God, his faithfulness and his power and his sovereignty was different than it is today. No, the difference is it’s our life and we’re actually living the fears and the doubts and the worry and the anxiety. But what if we just set all of that aside? What if we cast that all at the feet of Jesus and we fixed our eyes on the Lord? And instead of praying, God, get me out of this. God, take this away from me. God, change my situation and make it all better. What if we just looked at God instead? And said, I’m going to trust you. I’m going to trust you. Because you’re good, because you’re faithful. I’m going to trust you because you are God. You have an impeccable history of faithfulness to your people again and again and again and again and again.