Message Highlights

• You can be in God’s will and still grow bitter—if you don’t guard your heart in the waiting.
• God’s presence isn’t tied to your circumstances. Joseph was in prison, but the Lord was with him there.
• Don’t let what’s happening to you corrupt what God is doing in you.

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Conversation Starter

• Think of a time you did the right thing and it didn’t pay off the way you hoped. What happened?
• When you’re stuck waiting on something—a job, an answer, a relationship to heal—how do you usually handle it? What does waiting reveal about you?

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Core Discussion Questions

Connection Question What stood out to you from this week’s message about how Joseph guarded his heart in prison?

Context Question Before this week, how would you have answered the question, “What does it mean to be in God’s will?” Did you tend to think of it more as a place you arrive at or something else?

Clarity Question Robby said, “God’s will is not a geographical location but rather a relational connection.” How does that shift the way you think about seasons when life isn’t going the way you expected?

Application Question Where in your life right now are you most tempted to let what’s happening to you corrupt what God is doing in you? What would guarding your heart look like this week?

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Additional Questions

• Robby gave four anchors for guarding your heart: God’s presence, your integrity, your perspective, and your focus on God over people. Which one do you most need to lean into right now, and why?
• “The same sun that melts wax hardens clay.” Looking back at a hard season you’ve already walked through, did it soften you toward God or harden you against Him? What made the difference?
• Joseph was forgotten by the cupbearer for two years with no apology, no explanation, no justice. Is there a hurt or betrayal you’re allowing to become central to your story? What would it look like to acknowledge it without letting it define you?

**Anthony:**

My friend Robby Greene is here and I think it's just of the Lord that you're already on the platform. This is perfect.

You're going to hear a preacher today that loves you. Now that shouldn't be new for you guys. Okay. All right. Good. I'm just, just making sure. All right.

He said, but he doesn't know who I am. That's okay. He loves people. So it's kind of disingenuous to say that somebody loves me without knowing me.

Let me tell you a story. If you've been around our church for a while, I've, I can tell you years ago, I went through burnout. You already know the story, but it was probably the worst part of my journey through burnout. I went to a small pastor's gathering. There was supposed to be, it was a mastermind. It was supposed to be on leadership and I was just going looking for answers. I knew one or two people that were there. The first night we went out to dinner and we gathered around in a circle and we just started telling our story and I don't know why, but I started out with my story saying, Hey, I'm going through burnout. It's the first time I ever said it out loud. Some people prayed over me and we prayed around in the circle and everybody told their story and then at the end of the night we did what pastors do and we get together. We all tell our favorite stories.

One by one, each of the pastors went to sleep and Robby stayed up all night. It was about three, 34 o'clock in the morning, which is probably given the time zone changed six o'clock in the morning and the rest of the civilized world. And he stayed up until everyone was gone until it was just him and I and he looked at me and he said, Hey, you need help. And he said, I can help. I'll do whatever I can and he spent the next two hours or so just talking with me, but it didn't stop there.

I couldn't express to my wife and my daughter what I was going through. And so he got on a plane and talked to my wife and daughter who he had never met. He didn't know me. He didn't know my wife. He didn't know my daughter. He didn't know my church and he lovingly shepherded us through that time in our life. I'm going to tell you why because he loves people.

So if you're here right now and you're hurting, this is what his message is going to be about. If you're hurting, if you're a little confused, would you let a stranger to our church, maybe to you, love you and lead you with the word of God today? I know he's going to be a help to you. Would you lean in? Would you listen? Robby, come preach to us, my friend.

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**Robby:**

Well, good morning, Northwest. It's so good to be here. How are you today? Are you excited to be in God's house today? Well, that's very convincing. Let's try that again. Are you excited to be in God's house today? All right, I am too.

We are in Genesis and we are looking still at the life of Joseph. I've gotta tell you, I am so thankful to be here with you this morning, be here. My wife and daughter and I came in earlier this week. My son graduated Cedarville University yesterday and that way, yeah. So that was an exciting day for us.

We got here Tuesday and I was so excited to come up here to Ohio and experience cooler weather and we got up here and it was hot. And then we had a tornado and we had hail storm and then 38 degrees and that was what you guys call Tuesday. Which, I mean, I'm not used to that. I'm from Dallas, okay? I mean, we've already hit 96 degrees in Dallas, literally this year. So when I come out and it's 33 this morning and I can see my breath, I'm like, it's time to go home. So I love it for you folks, but I'm glad that you can keep your cold weather and your snow. I was here in January mentoring the staff and there was snow everywhere. I love you, I love people, but I love Texas. So I'm gonna go back to my country tonight and everything's gonna be great.

Hey, I gotta tell you a story. Now, I wish, man, pastor, I looked for a story that I could tell that would be humorous and tell about you. But we're in church and so there was nothing that I, no, I'm kidding. I was gonna spare you this morning. So I'm gonna have to tell them myself today.

You ever have a moment that you just are embarrassed? I had one here recently, a week ago Friday, I was working out in my yard. I love my landscape. I love working in my yard. And so I'm out in the yard and I have bird feeders because I enjoy nature and wildlife and all that. But I don't care for the squirrels taking my birdseed. So I buy the hot birdseed. Anybody know what I'm talking about? The squirrels can't bother, this is great.

I take the bird feeder and I put it on the back tailgate of the truck and I am filling this hot birdseed. And I'm down to the end of the bag, which means there's a lot of dust and everything down in the bag. And I'm pouring it in and pastor, this wind just came out of nowhere. And I'm out on the street and it blows into my eyes, my face, I'm telling you the truth. My eyes locked down. I am slobbering, snotting, crying. I mean, if I were Pentecostal, it would have been a really good moment, but I'm Baptist so I don't know what to do with this. And I'm standing there, I can't see, I can't open my eyes.

I am embarrassed because I saw right before all this happened, I saw a man walking down the sidewalk toward me. And I thought, this is really embarrassing to have this happen right here in front of me or in front of him. And so I'm there and sure enough, I mean, all this is going on and the man comes up to me and goes, you need help. Well, thanks. I said, if you could just get me to the front door. So he guides me, I mean, literally, I had to go back and look at this on the doorbell camera. I'm like, this is absolutely ridiculous. I have no idea who this guy is. He has no idea who I am.

So here's what I learned, pepper seed or pepper bird seed keeps the squirrels away, but apparently it keeps pastors away too. And so here was the problem. I could not see because of my circumstances. My circumstances had temporarily blinded me and I could not see what was going on.

In Genesis chapter 39, we're gonna see right here in the life of Joseph, we're going to see that his circumstances, if we're really honest from a human perspective, are blinding him. He cannot fully understand what is happening. And many here today would be like Joseph, maybe you're going through something right now. And you cannot see what God is doing because of your circumstances. If that's you this morning, friend, this is a God moment that God wants to help you.

So I wanna ask you this question. How do you keep your heart right in the middle of a crisis, in the middle of circumstances that you don't understand? When you're going through a trial and you can't see what's going on, how do you keep your heart right so that you're even capable of forgiving later? Pastor's gonna deal next week with forgiveness, but today we're gonna stop and look at how do we guard our heart when we're right in the middle of the circumstances of life? When the horrible hour comes, when that moment comes that you've dreaded, when that moment comes that you are unsure of how to respond, how do you guard your heart?

Because here is the truth. You can be in the will of God. It is totally 100% possible to be in the will of God and get this, still become bitter if you do not guard your heart.

Joseph was betrayed. He was lied about. He was forgotten. Yet he did not become bitter. He didn't shut down. He didn't stop serving God. He didn't stop serving others. Honestly, that's the miracle before the miracle in this story.

Let's be honest. Many of you have had that happen in the past, or perhaps you're going through it right now. You honor God in a relationship, only for it to what? Fall apart. You choose integrity at work and it ends up costing you rather than rewarding you. You do what's right and life gets harder, not easier. And suddenly you're asking, what do you do when obedience makes your life worse than it's been? This is where Joseph is. Joseph resisted sin. He didn't fall into temptation. And where does it land him? In the moment in prison.

And this is where we pick up our message today. In Genesis 39, we see in verse number 20. So what did Potiphar do? Remember, Potiphar's wife has falsely accused Joseph and Potiphar takes Joseph in verse 20 and threw him into the prison where the king's prisoners were held and there he remained.

Joseph is not here because he failed. Joseph is in prison at the moment because he obeyed. And so why do we need to guard our heart? Why is this so important? So that when we go through situations like this in life, that we do not allow what's happening to us to corrupt what God is attempting to do in us.

And this morning, I wanna give you four principles very quickly from God's word, lifted directly out of this story that are applicable for every single one of us that are in the room. Jerry Falwell used to say, there's only three types of people, those that were in trouble, those that are in trouble and those that are about to be in trouble. That would pretty much sum up every one of us, would it not?

So this morning, wherever you may find yourself, I hope that you will make note of these four principles because if God will use his word, if you will allow him to use his word this morning, it will transform your heart, it will transform your life, and it will help each of us here to guard our heart.

Principle number one is found in verse 21. We see this story, we see that Joseph is now in prison, but follow with me in verse 21, it says, but the Lord was with Joseph. Can we just say those phrases again, those words right there, but the Lord was with Joseph. Would you say it one more time? But the Lord was with Joseph.

This phrase appears four different times in chapter 21, or excuse me, in chapter 39, beginning in verse two, the Lord was with Joseph. In verse three, we see again, the Lord was with Joseph. In verse 21, the Lord was with Joseph. Verse 23, the Lord was with him. We see this repetition over and over again, and it says the Lord was with Joseph, but then notice in verse 20, he's in the darkest hour, he's going through his worst moment of crisis, he is in prison, and then what does scripture tell us? But the Lord was with Joseph.

Principle number one, it's not the place, it's his presence. It's not the place, but it's his presence. Even when he is in prison, the Lord is with Joseph. He's lost everything, stop and think about it. He has lost everything at this point. He's in a foreign country, he gets promoted, falsely accused, then demoted, and finally now in prison, but the Lord was with Joseph.

All through scripture, we see this principle over and over again in Deuteronomy 31:6, it says he will not fail you, or forsake you. In Exodus 33, God assures Moses that he would personally go with them and that Moses would have rest. In Matthew 28, Jesus is ascending, he's going up into heaven, he's leaving his followers here, and what does he say? He says, "Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world."

If we're honest, I think most of us would say this this morning, we tend to believe if I am in God's will, then I will be in the right place. Hang on to this. Joseph proves that you can be in the worst place and still in God's will.

Church family, we have a tendency in our American history and a tendency in our Americanized culture, we think, well, if I'm right with God, and if everything is where I'm supposed to be with God, if my relationship is right with him, then that means everything's gonna be going great in my life, but this story of Joseph proves that God's will is not a geographical location, but rather a relational connection.

That means some of you this morning right now, you're looking at your circumstances and you may be tempted to question whether or not, am I really in the will of God? Can I ask you to step back this morning and really evaluate whether or not you have a relational connection with your heavenly Father? Because if that is true, then regardless of our circumstances, regardless of what we're going through, then we can have that peace that passes understanding.

I love Psalm 139, in verse seven it says, "I can never escape from your spirit. I can never get away from your presence. If I go up to heaven, you are there. And if I go down to the grave, you are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me and your strength will support me. I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around to become night, but even in darkness, I cannot hide from you. To you, the night shines as bright as the day. Darkness and light are the same to you."

When we think about God's will in our life, we need to remember it's not the place, but it's his presence.

I want you to think this morning of the difference between a thermometer and a thermostat. What does a thermometer do? It reflects the environment that is in the room. But what does a thermostat do? A thermostat changes the temperature. Joseph wasn't controlled by his environment because God's presence was controlling him.

And so if you think that God's will is a place, prison will shake you. But if you know it's his presence, then nothing can shake you. Some of the loneliest seasons of your life may actually be the places where God is closest to you.

I don't know about you, but I have done very little spiritual growth on the mountain top. But I have learned in the valley. I have learned in the moment of difficulty. I have learned in the moment of trial and tribulation, a sweetness and a fellowship with Jesus, and a growth in my spiritual life that only comes through the trials and the difficulties.

So we must guard our heart because it's not the place, it's his presence. So if it's not about where you are, then what is God actually watching? Here's the second principle that I want you to see this morning.

It's not your ability, but rather your integrity. It's not your ability, but your integrity. Look at verse 22. So Joseph is thrown into prison. And then in verse 22, "The warden put Joseph in charge of all the other prisoners and over everything that happened in the prison."

You've heard the phrase, the inmates running the asylum. This is literally happening here in scripture. Joseph is running the prison under the prison warden, which tells me that character is always more important than talent.

We live in a culture today that rewards talent, but almost ignores character. You see, we have little to no control over our giftings and our abilities, but we have total control over our integrity. Joseph rose to prominence, not because he was impressive, but because he was trustworthy.

I love to read leadership and study leadership and teach leadership. I've been blessed to mentor your staff here and the team a number of times, even your board. And I'm always grateful for that. But there's a book that was written that talks about talent is never enough. And I was thinking about this week in preparing for this message today and thinking about talking to you. Talent is never enough. It takes more than talent, it takes character. Talent may get you in the room, but character is what keeps you in the room.

You see, passion will energize your talent and preparation positions your talent, but here's the thing, character protects your talent. Joseph had all three. And so God doesn't promote gifted people. He promotes trustworthy people. How do I know that? Because the gospel of Luke says, one who is faithful in little things will be faithful, what, in much.

How many times have you and I seen someone, they get an opportunity because of talent, but they do not keep the opportunity. They lose that privilege, they lose that opportunity. Why? Because of character or the lack thereof.

So what does that mean for us practically today? It's not our ability, it's our integrity. So how do we apply that to our lives in 2026? That means integrity when no one sees. It means faithfulness when it doesn't pay. Consistency even when it's inconvenient.

But let's be real. Even with God's presence and even with strong character, you're still sitting in a prison just like Joseph is. At this moment, Joseph has not been promoted. Joseph has not been restored to position. He's still sitting in a prison. Yes, he may have gained a certain level of prominence within the prison, but make no mistake, he's still in prison. So how do you guard your heart while you're waiting?

I think we need to remember the third principle, which is this, it's not your circumstances, it's your perspective. If we look over in chapter 40, just a few verses away, in chapter 40, in verses six and seven, Joseph is looking at the other prisoners and he's asking this question. He says, why do you look so worried? What is wrong? Why are you so down?

Again, here's Joseph, he's in prison and he is ministering. I don't know about you, but if I'm in prison, I'm gonna be ministering to one person and one person only. Anybody wanna guess what that is? It's me, not Joseph.

Joseph is in a horrible set of circumstances and yet he is aware that there is something far greater than his circumstances. His perspective on those circumstances, pain didn't turn Joseph inward, it turned him outward.

Most people, when we hurt, what happens? We turn inward, we shut down and we focus on ourselves, do we not? But yet, when Joseph is going through all these circumstances, what happens? He stays engaged, he's serving and aware of others.

That tells me there's a choice that we can become bitter or better. Can we say those words today, church? Bitter or better? Let me hear you say it one more time. Bitter or better? We have a choice.

Is it not interesting that two people can walk through the exact same set of circumstances and have two totally different outcomes? Why is this? It's because it's not about the circumstances. It's about your perspective.

Romans 8:28 does not say that all things are good. Sometimes you will hear, I think your pastor preached a series last year on bad theology. This would be a great one to add to it. All things are good, pastor. No, the Bible does not say all things are good. It says all things work together for good. I may not like the ingredients that my wife uses for a recipe by itself, but when it's all put together, it makes something that is pleasant.

What you're going through right now in your life, you may not find it to be good, but God says that all things work together for good.

Sometimes people will say, well, you don't question God. No one should question God. Anytime I hear that, by the way, how many have heard that before? Well, you just don't question God. Have you heard that statement? Yeah, I've heard that. There's one problem with that. Jesus, when he was hanging on the cross, said, my God, my God, why?

So we know it's okay to question God about his ways, but church family, here's what I want to be very clear about this morning. While we may question God about his ways, we do not question the wisdom of God.

You see, if your perspective is wrong, your pain will control you. But if your perspective is right, your pain will grow you.

This means that what hurts you, get this church, doesn't have to define you. Well, we live in a world that doesn't like to hear that. By the way, I'm not minimizing the hurt that you may be going through right now. I'm not minimizing what you may be going through as a church individually or as a church family.

What wounded you does not have to harden you. What happened to you does not have to get the final word. Is it not interesting? The same sun that melts the wax is the same sun that hardens the clay. And so hard seasons do one of two things in our life. They either soften our heart toward God or they harden our heart against him. Joseph's pain did not make him perfect, but it did make him dependent.

I sometimes think that we are guilty in our culture of thinking that we are living in unprecedented times. And I don't wanna make light of what's happening on the world stage and the world front. And by the way, it sure excites me because when I see things happening, it just reminds me that Jesus is coming again one day soon. And that excites me.

But sometimes I think that we go through life and we look at our circumstances and we look at the situation that we find ourself in and church family, if we're not careful, we begin to allow circumstances to drive our life and fear to move in and fear to control us rather than letting us have the proper perspective on things.

I don't know how many of you read or have read C.S. Lewis, but I love reading him. And when he wrote an article years ago entitled, "Living in an Atomic Age," I wanna share part of it with you this morning. He said this in answering people that were fearful of living in an atomic age with an atomic bomb, which was new in this time. He says in my book, "The Living in an Atomic Age," he says in one way we think a great deal too much about the atomic bomb. How are we to live in an atomic age? I am tempted to reply why, as you would have lived in the 16th century when the plague visited London almost every year or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat at night. Or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.

In other words, he says, "Do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation." Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all but a certainty. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things, praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts, not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies, a microbe can do that, but they need not dominate our minds.

Some of you right now, you are in the midst of difficult circumstances. You're going through it. You're in the midst of difficulty. I want to encourage you today, do not put your focus on your circumstances. Keep your perspective on him.

I want to give you fourth principle very quickly. My time's almost up. If you've not got anything else, this may be the most important principle for you this morning. How do we guard our hearts? I mean, you've got to guard your heart. I was so blessed by what Corby was teaching us and reminding us. Everybody, every one of us, we have something that rules in our life.

And here's the fourth principle, and if you don't get this, you're gonna miss a real opportunity for growth. Don't let people distract you from God.

Verse 23 of chapter 40, let's fast forward in the story. Joseph has given the story, he's given, predicted what's going to happen. He's interpreted the dream. And it says that the cupbearer forgot all about Joseph, literally never even giving him another moment's thought.

Get this, if Joseph builds his life around what other people have done, he never moves forward. If you fixate on people, church, you will never move forward. Some of you right now, you're stuck in your spiritual life, not because of where you are, but because of what someone else did.

Yes, the betrayal was real. Yes, the hurt was real. Yes, the injustice was absolutely real. But if that becomes your focus, it's gonna become your prison. And so what they did may be real, but it doesn't have to be central. Your future is too important to be controlled by somebody else's failure.

I love what the writer of Hebrews says. He says, "We're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, and then what are we to do? We're to run this race with patience, and how do we do that? By keeping our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith." Jesus is the one we look at this morning. Jesus is the one that we follow.

And friend, if you're going through it right now, and you're starting to put your eyes on people, and you're putting your eyes on circumstances, you're gonna miss the most important thing, and that is keeping your eyes on Jesus Christ.

You see, Joseph is in prison. And nothing's been resolved yet. No apology, no explanation, no justice. But something is happening. God is working not just around Joseph, but in Joseph.

So here's the statement that I wanna leave you with this morning. Don't let what's happening around you corrupt what God is doing in you.

I wanna share this final story this morning. Yesterday, I sat on the campus of Cedarville University and watched my son walk across the platform. Brooke, you and I were talking about this this morning before the service. It is hard for me to believe that I have a son graduated from college. I don't feel old enough for that yet. I mean, I sat there yesterday and thought, I cannot believe it was 29 years ago next week that I walked across the platform. I don't even feel 29. I know I don't look 29. I know you didn't laugh. That's not good. I sit here and think, how could that be?

And then I thought about 29 years ago right now, what I was going through, I was in prison and didn't even realize what was going on. Pastor Heather and I were engaged to be married. We were gonna get married in August of 1997. We had already purchased wedding invitations. We had already made deposit on honeymoon. I mean, we were all ready because I had been offered a position on a church staff in Florida where I was in college. I had been working there for two years part time and they offered me a full-time position. It was great because Heather had a year left on her master's degree. We were gonna get married and work there. And as far as I was concerned, we were gonna serve God there forever.

And about six weeks before graduation, a set of circumstances happened in the church that I had nothing to do with, not an accusation against me, not wrongdoing on my part, nothing that I had done that was wrong. But I found myself having to take Heather out to eat one night and saying, I know you're the one, but I'm gonna have to postpone the wedding because I can't go on staff here.

And I struggled. God, why are you doing this to me? God, why are you allowing this to happen to me?

29 years ago, I graduated college on Thursday morning. And I got on a plane the next day to go interview in Garland, Texas, pastor where I was not going to be a pastoral staff member like I was gonna be in Florida. I was going to be an intern. You know what an intern is? There's one word for it, broke. That's what an intern is, especially in ministry. And I said, God, I don't wanna be an intern, but I needed someplace to go for a year. And so it was for a year. I'm gonna be separated from my wife.

Man, I grew up in North Carolina. Everything I knew was in North Carolina. My whole world was North Carolina. And God had already moved me to Florida to go to Bible college. And now God, you're gonna take me a thousand, 1100 miles away from North Carolina to Dallas. I'm like, I'm a missionary to Texas. God, what are you doing? I didn't understand what God was doing.

I sure didn't understand the first Sunday that I stood in our church in Garland, that I would one day be the pastor of that church. Lord, if I had known that, I would have fainted right there in the pew. Had no idea what God was doing.

Church family, I don't know what God is doing in your life right now. You may be going through it right now and really struggling.

Here's what I wanna leave you with. Trust him. His way is the best way. His way is the perfect way.

I think about my life 29 years later. I'm not a perfect person. I've not lived a perfect life, but God has been good to me. And I believe one of the reasons that he's been good to me is I decided to guard my heart and not become bitter because of circumstances, not get upset with a staff member at a church in Florida that made my life fall apart, not become bitter, but God, by your grace, I'm going to become better.

Church family, do you receive that this morning? Do you believe God's word is true? Do you believe that with God's help we can do this? Do you believe that this morning?

I wanna lead us in prayer right now. Father, thank you for what you've done in the life of Joseph, and thank you for what you're doing in our hearts and lives right now. Lord, I want to specifically pray for my friends in the room this morning that may be going through a real trial, a real issue, a real problem. And God, they don't understand why. God, I pray that you would help them to focus on you, not their circumstances, becoming better, not bitter. Lord, if we could all learn how to guard our hearts, how much better our life would be, we give you this time now in Jesus' name, amen.