God is Always With You
God is Always with You
- God loves me, is always with me, and has great plans for me.
- Often times we allow circumstances to shape our belief in God rather than our belief in God to shape the circumstances that we’re going through.
Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him. 4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him. 5 Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. 6 He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: 7 We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.” 8 His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said. 9 Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” 10 When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?” 11 His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind. Genesis 37:3-11
THREE BARRIERS THAT MADE JOSEPH QUESTION IF GOD LOVED HIM, WAS ALWAYS WITH HIM AND HAD GREATER PLANS FOR HIM:
- The pit barrier
- Tragedy doesn’t make an appointment
- Sometimes we wind up in a pit in life because of things that happened to us, and sometimes we wind up in a pit because of choices that we make.
- Some pits are circumstances… some pits are choices.
“Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other. 20 “Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.” 21 When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. “Let’s not take his life,” he said. 22 “Don’t shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him.” Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father. 23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the ornate robe he was wearing— 24 and they took him and threw him into the cistern. The cistern was empty; there was no water in it. Genesis 37:19-23
IN THE PIT WE TEND TO EXPERIENCE 2 DIFFERENT TYPES OF EMOTIONS:
- Loneliness
- Victims never walk in victory
- Doubt
- In the pit, we shouldn’t ask for explanation, we should ask God for revelation
- Don’t ever doubt in the dark what God declared to you in the light
- The problems barrier
Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there.2 The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. 3 When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, 4 Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. 5 From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the Lord was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field. 6 So Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph’s care; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate. Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, 7 and after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me!”
Genesis 39:1-7
- Joseph refused to give up what he wanted the most for what he could have in the moment
- The prison barrier
- Sometimes God puts us in a place that we call prison not to punish us, but to protect us from things
20 Joseph’s master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined.But while Joseph was there in the prison, 21 the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. 22 So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. 23 The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did. Genesis 39:20-23
Some time later, the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt offended their master, the king of Egypt. 2 Pharaoh was angry with his two officials, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, 3 and put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the same prison where Joseph was confined. Genesis 40:1-3
The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot him. Genesis 40:23
Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has made all this known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you. Genesis 41:39
- God will never give us more until we are responsible for what we have…right now
You shall be in charge of my palace, and all my people are to submit to your orders. Only with respect to the throne will I be greater than you.” So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt.” 42 Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his finger and put it on Joseph’s finger. He dressed him in robes of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck. 43 He had him rid e in a chariot as his second-in-command, and people shouted before him, “Make way!” Thus he put him in charge of the whole land of Egypt. Genesis 41:40-43
- What you lost in the pit, God will restore in His presence and He always gives us more than what we lost before we went into the pit