Message Highlights

• Most of us don’t fall at the end of our story—we fall in the middle, when the hurt, waiting, and confusion make us want to give up before God finishes what He started.
• Joseph didn’t live knowing the ending. What sustained him was recognizing God’s work, God’s presence, and God’s power in moments that didn’t make sense yet.
• God is often more concerned with changing you than changing your circumstances. The thing you want out of may be the very thing He’s using to shape you.

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Conversation Starter

• When you were a kid, what was the longest you ever had to wait for something you really wanted? What did the waiting feel like?
• Think of a time when something made sense to you only in hindsight. What did you learn about yourself in the middle of it?

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Core Discussion Questions

Connection Question What stood out to you from today’s message about trusting God in the middle of your story?

Context Question Before this week, how would you have described what it looks like to “trust God” when life is hard? Where did that understanding come from?

Clarity Question Anthony said that sometimes we don’t notice God’s work in our lives because He isn’t working where we want Him to—so we assume He isn’t working at all. How does that reframe the way you’ve been thinking about a current situation?

Application Question What’s one area of your life right now where you’re waiting for the ending to make sense? What would it look like this week to trust God before it does?

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Additional Questions

• Joseph kept serving others—even interpreting their dreams—while his own dreams remained unfulfilled. What makes it hard to keep serving when you’re the one who feels overlooked?
• Anthony pointed out that obedience sometimes complicates your life before it clarifies it. Have you ever experienced that? What happened?
• When you see God answering someone else’s prayer while yours stays unanswered, what’s your honest first reaction—and what would it look like to bring that reaction to God rather than bury it?

I know we just walked through the story of Joseph last week, but if you're not careful, it's easy for us to hear what's familiar. And for most of us in the room, we know the story of Joseph. We can describe in detail the story of Joseph, who he was, what he did, what God did in him, through him, all around him. But if you and I aren't careful, we'll trust that we know the story, assume that we already know where it's going, and we'll tune out and miss something vitally important.

So today, I may say some things that you already know, but I promise you, this is going somewhere you're not going to want to miss it.

Today is not about how Joseph's story ended, because that's what we think of when we think of the story of Joseph. I mean, I already walked through the entire thing last week, and you go, “Yes, I know the ending. I mean, what more could be said?” A lot, because we have two more weeks of Joseph after this.

Today's message is not how Joseph's story ends. Today's message is how Joseph survived his story.

So let me give you a little bit of a brief review, just in case you weren't here, just in case you don't know the story of Joseph. Joseph was loved by his father, hated by his brothers, favored by God.

Joseph has two dreams. In the first dream, his bundle of grain stands up, and the other brother's bundles bow down before his. In the second dream, the sun, the moon, eleven stars, they all bow down before him.

These dreams, these dreams meant something special to Joseph. Perhaps that he was going to be the next patriarchal leader of his family. But the part that he couldn't understand. In fact, the part that his father couldn't understand is why everybody was bowing down to him. But we'll get to that in just a little while.

Joseph was misunderstood by his brothers, hated, beaten, sold into slavery in Genesis chapter 37. He's then taken to Egypt and sold to Potiphar.

And it's in Potiphar's house that Joseph was promoted. I'm going to read this to you. It's not going to be on the screen, but it says, “Joseph found favor with his master and became his personal attendant.” Potiphar put him in charge of everything that was in his household.

Then Potiphar's wife attempted to seduce Joseph. And Joseph says to her, “How could I do this immense evil?” He said, “Oh, because Potiphar gave him privilege and opportunity and because he was brought up in Potiphar's house and he was second in command of Potiphar's house.” That's why Joseph said that, no, the rest of the verse. “And how could I sin against God?”

He was faithful. Even though he was faithful, he was falsely accused, thrown into prison.

And while he's in prison, Pharaoh becomes angry with two of his officials, the cupbearer and the baker. He has them thrown into prison and while they were there, they both dream dreams. And Joseph interprets both of the dreams for them.

The interpretation of the one dream is the cupbearer would be restored and in his place of service within three days. That the baker, that the baker would be executed in three days. You see, well that's really good news. Not so much for the baker.

But Joseph asked the cupbearer to remember him. “Hey listen, when all this goes well for you, remember me, tell the Pharaoh you have the Pharaoh's ear. Tell the Pharaoh, ‘I didn't do anything wrong. I'm here. I'm innocent.’” Cupbearer says, “I'll take care of you. When I get back, I'll tell the Pharaoh.” And the cupbearer forgets him for two years.

Until Pharaoh has a dream. Nobody can interpret the meaning of Pharaoh's dream. And so the cupbearer all of a sudden remembers, “I've left this guy there for two years.” Joseph is brought before the Pharaoh. Joseph interprets Pharaoh's dream and he says, “Seven years of great abundance are coming and after them seven years of famine will take place.”

Joseph is elevated to the second in command over all of Egypt. He answers only to the Pharaoh himself. And so for seven years he prepares the nation for the seven years of famine. And when the famine comes, the Bible says this, this phrase, “It hit every land.” This wasn't just an Egypt thing. This hit everywhere, but Egypt had food.

So word travels to all of these different nations, all of these different places and people groups that Egypt has food and they're selling it. Egypt has grain, they're selling it. You can go there and buy food to sustain your life. And so Joseph's brothers pack up and make the journey and make their way to Egypt. To buy grain. They bow before the second in command of Egypt without realizing it was Joseph. And 22 years after God gave Joseph the dreams, they were fulfilled.

And here's the premise of the message today. We look at Joseph's life and we say, “See? It all makes sense.” The end of Joseph's story, it all makes sense. So whatever I'm going through, whatever pain I have, whatever difficulty I'm walking through, whatever God put in my path, if I can just sustain it and I can just get through it, if I can just get to the end of my story, it will all make sense.

And I see this all the time. The people in their lives, they absorb hurt and they absorb pain and betrayal. They absorb disappointment, rejection and confusion. And they chalk it up to this theory that in the end it will just all make sense.

Sometimes the end of your story is a long time away. Sometimes the end of your story, for everything all making sense, might not ever happen in this life.

And so many times I see God's people set themselves up for failure, set themselves up to fall because they say, “If I can just keep going until I understand it, everything will be okay.” And I've watched countless believers fall and fail and give up, not because God wasn't faithful, but because they couldn't endure the middle. They tried so hard to wait to the end of their story. When God never told us to wait to the end of the story for everything to make sense.

That's our conclusion. God never said to us, “Hey, if you can just grit and bear it, if you can just push through, if you can just make it happen until you can logically and emotionally understand what I've been doing, then you'll be a successful Christian.” He never said that. But too many times we look at Joseph's story and say, “Well, if I can just endure, if I can just push through, if I can just get to the other side of my scenario, then I'll see God's faithfulness.”

And maybe what I'm describing, maybe that's where you're at right now. You're trying to hold everything together. You're just trying to keep going. Trying to hang on until the end of the story for everything to make sense. Let me help you today. God desires more for you than to just hang on to the end. God desires more for you than to just grit and bear it. But hear me, just because he desires more doesn't mean he's going to change your story.

When we read Joseph's life carefully, it's clear. He went years without explanations. He went years without answers, without understanding why.

Why the dreams? And if he had the dreams and God gave him the dreams, then why the hatred from his brothers? I mean, why slavery? God, couldn't you pick anything else in my life? That for me to be sold as a slave to this other country? Hey God, it's bad enough for me to be a slave? Why prison?

And in none of these scenarios, do we read Joseph receiving an answer, getting some information that lets him know that everything's okay. But I want you to catch this. This is so important. But there are moments in Joseph's life. Small moments that we move past too quickly when we read his life story. And those moments show us that Joseph trusted God when nothing made sense.

And I want to study some of those moments of Joseph's, some of his God moments that we see in scripture. Because what sustains us when we don't have answers, isn't holding on tighter. What sustains us when we don't have answers? Is it knowing that there is going to be an end of the story? What sustains us when we don't have answers is recognizing the moments that God is in our life. Clear, present, working.

I want to study a couple of these moments of Joseph's life. I think there's four of them. The first one's this.

We see God's work in Joseph's life. Look at Genesis 37 verse number four and five. “When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him.” Look at what it says. “Then Joseph had a dream, and they hated him even more.” You say, “Well, we already know this verse. I mean, we read it last week.”

The dreams weren't Joseph's imagination. See, the dreams themselves were the work of God in Joseph's life. I want you to catch this. The dreams at this time in Scripture were a mode for God to reveal his divine will and a foreshadowing of future events. That's not how God necessarily works today because we have his complete word inerrant, inspired, preserved for us. But at this time, God would give a dream and show how he was going to work in someone's life, what he was going to do in someone's life.

He said, “Well, did Joseph know that?” Absolutely he did. See, the reason why Joseph would have known this was because of how God used dreams in his father's life. There were only four other dreams that we see in Scripture up until Joseph receives these dreams. I'm going to list them out for you real quick. The first one is Abimelech, received a dream from God about Joseph's grandfather, Abraham. Then Jacob, Joseph's father, dreamed a dream about a ladder reaching heaven and God spoke to him. Then God spoke to Jacob, Joseph's father, again, through dreams to direct his step. Then God spoke to Laban and he received a dream concerning Joseph's father, Jacob.

And here's what I want you to see that Joseph saw. Joseph didn't receive these dreams in a vacuum. His dreams were already part of his family's story with God. His father, his uncle, people connected to his family. God had spoken to them this way before. Now, if you remember last week, I told you Joseph's father rebuked him about part of the dream where he was going to bow down to Joseph, but he still pondered. He still observed what Joseph said. I told you I'd explain that. Here it is.

Jacob might not have liked everything that Joseph said in the dream, but Jacob, God spoke to him significantly through dreams. There was a part of Jacob that I'm going to look at this thing, but God's doing something in your life.

And so when Joseph has these dreams, he would have recognized this. He would have understood that God was doing something in his life. And I want you to catch this statement. God's work in Joseph's life made his life harder, but Joseph still recognized the work of God.

Joseph recognized God's work in his life. And he said, “Listen, I might not understand it. I might have some questions about it. Hey, it may cause me some pain. It may cause me some difficulty, some hatred, some broken relationships. It's costing me something, but I'm going to trust God anyway, even though I can't understand him.”

And I want you to catch this also. Sometimes obedience doesn't simplify your life. Sometimes it complicates your life, but Joseph didn't abandon God's work just because others rejected it. See, how did Joseph make it through all of those years? He recognized God's work in his life and trusted God.

Here's the second one. We see God's presence in Joseph's life. Genesis 39, verses 1 and 2 says this, “Now Joseph had been taken to Egypt.” There's this phrase I love right here. “The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man.”

And Joseph was hated, sold into slavery, far from home, presumed dead by his father, by every human measurement. Joseph was alone. And when we read Joseph's story, we say, “Joseph, you were alone. You had nobody else. There wasn't anyone there to comfort you. There wasn't anyone there to walk you through what was going on. There wasn't anyone there to listen to your story.”

But in Scripture throughout Joseph's life, you keep seeing this phrase repeated again and again and again, and the Lord was with Joseph. So much so that Potiphar recognized it. Recognized it and said, “I'm going to promote you because everything you do, it just keeps working out. Everything that you do, there's some kind of a blessing on you, and if I let you prosper, you will prosper me.”

I want you to catch this. Joseph didn't determine God's presence by his circumstances. He trusted God's presence because of his character.

This is us sometimes. We look at our life's circumstances and we determine whether God is with us, blessing us, by our circumstances. And the way that you and I grade God's presence and his blessing, if we were in Joseph's shoes, we would have said, “God hasn't done anything for me lately.” And we read in Scripture, “And the Lord was with Joseph, and the Lord blessed Joseph.”

Sometimes we get so caught in our circumstances. Sometimes we get so caught in the details of our life, in everything that just keeps on overpowering us and mounding on top of us, that we carry all of this difficulty and all of this weight, and we seem to dismiss the presence of God and his work, because we're looking at all of the details of our life, rather than looking to the one who's in control of our life.

Even though Joseph felt abandoned, even though he might have felt alone, feeling alone is not the same thing as being alone. And Joseph recognized that he wasn't alone, that he had the presence of God.

I want you to catch this statement. God can be with you even when nothing feels right around you.

The third moment that we see, it's after Joseph refused Potiphar's wife, and he was falsely accused, he's thrown into prison, and again Scripture tells us in Genesis 39, 21, “But the Lord was with Joseph, and extended kindness to him.”

Hey, Joseph does the right thing. He suffers for it, but God recognizes him, and extends kindness to him. Joseph understands and sees God's presence.

Listen, he didn't grow bitter. He didn't withdraw. He didn't stop trusting God. And when sometimes things happen to us, and the smallest inconvenience in this world by people who don't know Jesus, who don't love Jesus, and we feel a little bit of difficulty at work, we feel a little bit of difficulty where we live, we feel a little bit of difficulty in our life, and we're ready to give up on God, give up on church, give up on his people. Joseph doesn't grow bitter. He doesn't withdraw. He keeps trusting God anyway, and he recognizes God and his presence, even in the circumstances that would make you and I question God's presence.

Joseph, in prison, though he doesn't belong there, still sees God's hand in his life.

Hey, here's the fourth one. We see God's work in Joseph's life again. The cupbearer and the baker have dreams. It says in Genesis 40 verse 8, “We had dreams,” and they said to him, “But there's no one to interpret them.” Then Joseph said to them, “Don't interpretations belong to God.”

But to be honest with you, if it was me, I'd struggle with these next four words. I wouldn't want to say them out loud if I was Joseph.

Hey, I don't understand my dreams. I don't understand what's going on. I'm in prison. I didn't do anything wrong. I don't deserve to be here. God gave me some dreams a long time ago, and where I'm at right now doesn't reflect the dreams that he gave me at all. Listen, I would not want to say, “Tell me your dreams.”

He said, “Well, that's kind of selfish of you.” This is what we do. We start walking through some problems, through some difficulties, and people want to talk to us about what they're going through, and what do we say? I have my own problems. I can't take on anybody else's problems. Oh, I can't take on anybody else's weight, anyone else's load. I've got my own things to bear.

I thought the spirit of Jesus Christ dwelled inside of us.

We see Joseph. He sets himself aside. He says, “Tell me your dreams.”

I'm going to tell you the second reason I wouldn't want to make that statement. Because if I was Joseph, I wouldn't have understood the first two dreams. How am I going to have you tell me some dreams, and all of a sudden understand those ones?

Here's something that's so powerful. God uses Joseph to understand their dreams, even when perhaps his own dream wasn't understood. So that's not that big of a deal.

Listen, Abimelech understood his dream concerning Abraham. Jacob understood his dream about the ladder. Jacob understood the dream about God directing his steps. Laban understood the dream concerning Jacob. Everybody else in Scripture understood their dreams. They understood what God was doing. Here's this one guy, and he's by himself. He's falsely accused, sold into slavery, hated by his brothers, loved by his father, favored by God, but none of it's really making sense. It says, “Hey, tell me your dreams.”

With all the recorded dreams in Scripture, everyone understood what God was saying to them except for Joseph. And here God uses Joseph to understand, to interpret someone else's dreams. The dream of the cupbearer, the dream of the baker, the dream of the pharaoh.

You see, he trusted God to keep serving others while waiting for God's timing in his own life.

And see, this is a hard place for you and I to live. When we see God giving others answers that we've been waiting for and we don't have answers. When we see God healing someone and we've been praying for healing, maybe for ourselves, but I'm going to tell you where it would hit me more if it was for my family.

I'm seeing God maybe heal someone. I'm seeing God answer somebody, and you and I are looking for answers, and we're looking for God to work, we're looking for God to heal.

When you see God saving souls and changing lives, and there are still people in your family you're praying for. And when serving God used to be a little bit easier, but the circumstances of your life have drastically changed.

Hear me, just because you have needs and you want answers and you need something from God doesn't mean that you and I are supposed to stop serving him. And that we're supposed to stop serving others.

See, sometimes we don't notice the work of God in our lives because God isn't working where we want him to. Sometimes we don't notice the work of God in our lives because God is working outside of our will.

Joseph recognized God's work, his presence, what he did. When perhaps you and I, we would have just wanted out of prison. We would have just wanted out of slavery. We would have just wanted our brothers to like us a little bit.

And even though God perhaps didn't work in the places where Joseph would have wanted him to work, he still recognized God's hand at work.

So many times because God isn't working where we want him to work, we assume he's not working at all. Listen to me clearly, you don't want to miss this. We're not called to understand God's plan. We're called to yield to his work in our lives.

And nine years later, Joseph's brothers bow before him. Joseph's story makes sense in the end, but Joseph didn't live knowing the ending. He trusted God in the middle.

I'm going to tell you what we need. We need to learn to be content with the presence of God in our lives and that being enough. Joseph learned that.

Joseph didn't just trust living through victories. He lived through moments that were complicated and painful. Listen, we think about him understanding the dream of the cupbearer and we go, wow, that's so incredible. And the cupbearer all of a sudden ends up back three days later with Pharaoh shame on him that he forgot Joseph. But look, he interpreted that. He also interpreted the baker's dream.

And he had to go to the baker and say some things that maybe he didn't want to say. And it wasn't the exciting part. I must say it wasn't rewarding. It was heavy. And then it gets forgotten and left in prison. That's a hard season.

And sometimes what happens to us is we get into hard seasons and difficult times. And we start feeling bad for ourselves. And if we're not careful, we get really spiritually self centered and we start wanting outcomes. We want God to fix things. We want God to do things. We want God to work in unbelievable ways more than we want God himself.

And too many times what happens is we walk through valleys. We walk through storms. We see God do things all around us. And we say, God, where are you in my life? And really what we're saying is, God, I don't want your presence. God, I just want your miracle working power that makes my life smooth.

And Joseph found contentment in the presence of God when everything in his life went sideways. And too many times we want the version of the story that makes us feel good. We want the result that ties everything together. But Joseph teaches us something deeper. That if the presence of God is with you, it's enough.

And if his presence is enough, we'll keep moving forward without answers, without clarity, without healing, without visible hope, without an end in sight, stuck in the middle, not knowing which way things are going to turn out. But if we hold on to the presence of God, we'll be able to keep moving forward.

So if you want to keep moving forward, here's what you can do. First off, learn to recognize God's work in your life.

Joseph recognized the dreams as God's work, even though they caused him hatred and pain and rejection. And the question is, are we willing to trust God at work, even when we don't like the outcome?

God's work in your life doesn't always feel good. God's work in your life can complicate things more than it clarifies things. The question isn't, is God at work? Can we recognize God's work and can we trust him?

Don't abandon what God is starting in your life, what God is doing in your life, just because it becomes uncomfortable. Because if it's truly God's work, trust him enough to stay faithful, even when it costs you.

So how do I keep going forward? How do I just keep knowing that everything is going to be okay? Because when you see God's work in your life, you know he's doing something and everything that he does is good. Everything that he starts, he finishes.

And the other thing that you can do is don't measure God's presence by your circumstances. Joseph is in slavery, later in prison, yet scripture repeats itself again and again, the Lord was with Joseph.

So I would just trust if God was with me, but it's just so hard because my life is so uncomfortable, my life is so hard right now. God's presence isn't proven by your comfort. God's presence isn't proven by the hardships that we walk through.

So many times we look for comfort and we look for peace to see that God is in control. When God's in control of everything. He says, I want you to trust me more than you trust your circumstances. I want you to find comfort in my presence more than you find comfort in your life without problems.

And sometimes we feel alone. We feel alone and we feel abandoned in our life and in our difficulties. But if we learn to recognize the presence of God, we may feel alone at times, but we will never be alone.

Sometimes hard circumstances are the things that teach you. Like it's your training ground. You say, teach me, teach me what? I mean, what do I need to learn if I'm going through difficulty? Tell me what I need to learn. Who God is. How he works in your life, how he's faithful. We can learn that we can see God's goodness in spite of circumstances.

And I know that we can pick up the word of God and we can read who God is and what he does and how he's faithful. And sometimes God wants to take all of that and he wants to do the exact same thing in your life. And he's given you his word so that you can see what he does and who he is.

Sometimes he also in his goodness and his mercy and in his grace wants you to feel it as you walk through life. That he's all that you need.

And sometimes you learn that God is all you need when God is all you have. Many times we don't experience that because we're too busy holding on to the things of this world, things of this life, our comforts. Sometimes God just strips all those things away and pull those things away because he wants you to see he's all you need.

Remember that God uses what we call as this life's circumstances, difficulties, pain, hardships. He uses all of that to help you. God's with you even when nothing around you feels right and the question isn't is God there? It's are you trusting what you feel or are you trusting what God said? Are you letting circumstances define your faith? Are you keeping your eyes fixed on the author and the finisher of your faith? There are two completely different scenarios.

Last one I want you to see is trust God. Trust God when you don't have answers.

Hey, Joseph helped others understand their dreams while his own remained unclear. The reality is is God may answer others before he answers you and God may give others clarity when you still feel like you're in the dark and God may heal others when you're the one praying for healing.

And God may be real in someone's story and he's working everything out for good and in your story all you see is nothing ahead. Because you feel alone, because you feel like you've been mistreated, like you've been used, because you feel like you've been hurt, like you're sold into slavery like you're hated by your brothers.

And the reality is is that God doesn't forget you. Just because you don't have the answers, just because you don't have the clarity, just because you're praying for things that other people are getting, God hasn't forgotten you. It just means that we're supposed to trust him even when we don't have answers.

Joseph could have easily assumed that God wasn't working because God wasn't working the way he expected. See, God's always working beneath the surface. God's always working on you. He's always working on me more than our circumstances, more than our situation.

I want you to catch this. God's not as concerned about changing you. He's not as concerned about changing your circumstances. God's not as concerned about changing my circumstances. As he is changing you and as he is changing me.

The thing that maybe you want out of, the thing that maybe you want God to change in your life, he's using to change you.

The thing that you're just praying, “God, would you take this thing out of my life?” Perhaps he's using that thing to mold you and to shape you and to change you for his glory.

And you might say, “Well, tell me where God does that in the Bible?” The apostle Paul, under the influence of the Holy Spirit said, “I prayed that God would take this thing away three different times and he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you.’”

And God may want to leave you right where you are walking, right what you're walking through.

He said, “Well, how do I trust him?” Just because you don't see the hand of God at work doesn't mean he isn't working. He's always working. He wants you to look to him in faith.

Hey, what if we trusted God enough to say, “Lord, I'm going to trust you without explanations. I'm going to trust you without clarity. I'm going to trust you when it doesn't make sense and I'm going to keep walking forward, not in my own strength and not because I'm waiting for an end of a story.” Because I may never see how that story ends in this life, but God, I'm going to trust you because of who you are.

I've got to see your work. I know your presence. God, I've seen your power and I'm going to trust you whether I have answers or not, whether I have clarity or not. Whether I understand it now or in the future, God, I'm going to trust you.

Heavenly Father, you're so good. Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you that we get to trust you. Lord, you work in us and through us in unbelievable ways. I'm sorry for so many times that I look to my circumstances to change, that I look for comfort, that I look for things to be easier or better rather than just looking to you. Lord, you have your will in your way and in our hearts, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Would you just keep your heads bowed? Your eyes closed for just a moment. I want to do something different and just a little bit different. Pastor Cory and I are the only ones looking around. Maybe you're here this morning and this series is exactly what you're walking through in life right now. Maybe this message in particular is what you're walking through. Hey, if that's you, no one's looking, just Pastor Cory and I, we want to pray for you. Would you slide your hand up so we can see it? I see that one. Yeah. Just leave it up for a minute. That's you. Just put your hand up. I see him.

I'm going to pray and then right after I'm done, Pastor Cory is going to pray. Heavenly Father, for these that have lifted their hands. Lord, I don't know what they're walking through. Lord, sometimes I don't understand what you're taking me through, so Lord, I'm not going to pretend to understand what they're going through.

But Lord, would you work in their life in such a way where they can see it? God, would you let them see your presence and feel your presence? Lord, would you take their eyes off of the circumstances, off of the stuff? Lord, would you redirect their eyes to you like you did for the disciples? Lord, like you do for me?

Lord, would they trust you without answers, without clarity, even when they feel alone? Lord, would they continue to trust you, not waiting for an end of a story, but trusting you because of who you are? I pray in Jesus' name.