God's Presence Reaches to the Pits

What do you do when life feels like you've been thrown into a pit?

Whether it's betrayal, loss, disappointment, or suffering, every believer eventually walks through seasons they never would have chosen. The good news is that God doesn't wait for you to climb out before He comes near.

In this message from Acts 7, Pastor Matt Shackelford continues the Dwell series by looking at the life of Joseph. Through betrayal, slavery, false accusations, and imprisonment, Joseph experienced God's faithful presence every step of the journey.

You'll discover:

•  Why every Christian experiences "pit" moments 
•  How Joseph's story points us to Jesus 
•  Why God's presence matters more than your circumstances 
•  How suffering can become part of God's greater purpose 
•  What God is producing in you through difficult seasons 
•  Why your deepest pit is never beyond God's reach 

No matter what pit you find yourself in today, God has not abandoned you. His presence reaches farther than your pain.

Scripture: Acts 7:9-16

Series: Dwell

If this message encouraged you, subscribe for more verse-by-verse Bible teaching from Central Church. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Let's open our Bibles. Let's go to Acts chapter 7 this morning. If you're a guest with us here at Central Church, this is our habit. We just go, we go through sections of Scripture, books of the Bible, verse by verse, word by word. Today we're in Acts chapter 7. As you're turning there, I want to tell you an event that happened in my life, goodness, probably 15 years ago. It was when I was a youth pastor in Texas. I remember taking a mission trip from uh Texas, from the Dallas area, south of Dallas, and driving uh to the inner city of Tulsa, Oklahoma. And we were we were going there, we were sleeping on the floors of churches and different places like that. And what we would do is we would invest in the inner city, and I had the joy of driving the church bus. Everybody say, Amen. And and it maybe you've been on one of these. Like this was not a glamorous experience. There was no air conditioning. It was the heat of August in Texas, which is what's it which is basically the worst experience you can have. All the windows are open. This tin can is basically an oven, and we are driving down the highway. And so as we're driving down uh, I think it was I-35, headed up uh through, headed up through Oklahoma, and and we got out of Dallas, I started feeling that we were entering into an emergency. Like every self-respecting youth pastor in Texas, I was the driver. Uh I had a CDL and a commercial driver's license, and I was driving this bus with a lot of precious cargo, about 50 students, 50 young people in the back of the bus. I was already stressed out. And every hour, on the hour, someone would would reach over and tap me on the shoulder and say, I've got to go to the bathroom. And so every time that happened, this vein in my forehead started popping out. And uh, but anyways, we're we just continue down the road, but I felt we were in an emergency. All of a sudden, the brakes kind of got a little spongy. And I was like, Well, that's not good. And a few seconds later, the backright brake locked up, and all of a sudden it started bouncing the whole vehicle, and I immediately pulled off the road, and there we were in the middle of nowhere on the hottest day of summer, cooking inside of this bus, and I realized we've got an emergency. Then I pull out my phone, no cell reception. And I was like, we're in trouble. And as we sat there on the side of the road, we just so happened to have a guy on the bus, his name is Noah. Noe goes and he's he's kind of mechanically inclined. He pulls the wheel off, starts looking at things. I know what the problem is. I'm on a hitchhike, I'm gonna go to a I'm gonna go to a shop and I'm gonna get the parts we need, and I'll be back. And he leaves, and we're all sitting there for five hours on the side of the road cooking. And right then, the unthinkable happened. I got a tap on the shoulder of a young person. You're not gonna guess what they said, Pastor Matt, I've really got to go. And it was at that moment, I was just about done with ministry altogether. That was the moment I almost threw in the towel. That was the moment where I said, you know what? I don't know that I want to be a youth pastor anymore. Uh it was very, very difficult, but uh, we eventually got off the side of the road. We had the mechanic come back and and uh he got us going again, and we we continued cooking down the road and we made it to Tulsa. But um I was reminded by that event that you know the pits of life, the difficulties of life, the trials of life, they come when you least expect it, don't they? In fact, some of you may feel that way this morning. We all go through the trials of life, we all go through the troubles of life. It takes many forms. It can take uh relational trouble, um, it can be a physical health trouble, it can be a career trouble. You're shocked when they come, you don't know what to do when they come, and those are the moments you feel like throwing in the towel and giving up. It's the pits of life, and we all have them. Some of you are going through it right now, some of you are some of you are in the midst of a sick bed, some of you are maybe even watching the sermon online today because you can't be here, you're sick. For others of you, it's the trauma, the trouble of a waiting room. And the question is, how will I endure in the midst of such difficulty? Now, here's my my thoughts as we get started this morning. A lot of times in the pits of life, we tend to miss how God is working. We tend to miss God's presence. Sometimes we only see it in reverse after it's over. I mean, I'll I'll admit to you, while we were on the side of the road, I was missing what God was doing. I mean, God was actually working in that moment. I just couldn't see it. I mean, when did the brakes go out? It wasn't in downtown Dallas, it was in the middle of nowhere where it was relatively safe to stop. We miss God's provision. I mean, for crying out loud, I missed it. There was a mechanic on the bus. There just so happened to be someone, just so happened to be someone who could actually help with the problem. Amazing. See, we we tend to fall to pieces instead of falling on Jesus, and we've got to learn a different route when our trials come. It's not a matter of if you will suffer, it's a matter of when you will suffer. And this is preparation. And this morning we're in Acts chapter 7 in a series I've entitled Dwell, and we're looking at the pits of life in the character of Joseph. You see, pits come to us in many forms, many kinds, and for some of you, it's a season of fear, depression. It can happen at home, it can happen at work, and Stephen is the character that is introducing us a new pit, a new character. Last week we looked at Abraham, and Stephen himself is finding himself in trouble. He is surrounded, he is uh in the trial of his life. I mean, he's eventually going to be martyred out of this event. It's a very troublesome situation, and he is now going to show us the presence of God in the pits of life by looking at the character of Joseph. Now, let me just give my preamble on Joseph for just a second. This whole sermon is about how God's presence reaches to the pits of life. Now, Joseph had a lot of trouble. Now, you think you've got some family drama going on in your family right now. Joseph had serious family drama. Like some of you may have fights in your home, but I'll almost guarantee none of you have sold a relative into slavery. Amen. This is one of the most difficult things that I can imagine. The brothers, the people that he trusted, sold him to Egypt. In fact, what we're going to see in our passage is that repetition of the word Egypt in six verses. We're going to see the word Egypt six times. It's almost like this hammer and anvil. Stephen is just hitting this over and over and over. He's in Egypt! He's in Egypt! He's in Egypt, and he's he's constantly finding himself in a place he doesn't want to be. Pagan land, no resources, no family, no temple, no promised land. He is far from his people, and yet he experiences nearness to his God. And today you can have the same experience. God's presence reaches to the pits. Let's let's stand in honor of God's word. Let's discover that. Acts chapter 7, verse 9 says, And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt. But God was with him and rescued him out of all of his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him ruler over Egypt and over all his household. Now there came a famine throughout all of Egypt and Canaan and great affliction, and our fathers could find no food. But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers on their first visit. And on the second visit, Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph's family became known to Pharaoh, and Joseph sent and summoned Jacob, his father, and all his kindreds, seventy-five persons in all. And Jacob went down to Egypt, and he died. He and our fathers. And they were carried back to Shechem and laid at the tomb, and Abraham had at the tomb that that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hammer and Shechem. Today what we're discovering is that your deepest pit is repurposed by a deeper God. There are deep pits in life, but for the Christian, what we can discover is that God is deeper still. That God is repurposing our pits. And whatever the pit is in your life, whether it's the pit of anxiety or loneliness, maybe for the young man and the desire to be married, maybe for the father with a prodigal son, for that son to come home. This is a story of God's presence reaching to you in the pits of life. And God is going to give us really four ways that his presence, four ways that his comfort goes to work, even in the pits of life. We're going to see his presence. We're going to see perseverance, the need of it. We're going to see preservation. God will actually use your trial to help teach and instruct others. You're to be a preservative in this culture. And then lastly, we're going to talk about the pause. That even in the pauses of life, even when it's a waiting season, nothing is wasted. And so today, through the story of Joseph, may God strengthen and empower all of us in the troubles of life. God bless you. You may be seated. First of all, let's talk about his presence over comfort. We need to prefer God's presence over comfort. Write that down. It's about his presence. You see, following Jesus is going to cause no shortage of discomfort in your life. When you choose to follow Jesus, this is just a true truth. This is a truism. You are going to experience trouble. In fact, we see that with Stephen, that's for sure. And he's going to bring up Joseph. Remember Joseph? Joseph got the coat of many colors. He put that thing on. He started having dreams. He started sharing those dreams, that revelation from God with his family. And his family rejected him. Joseph, Joseph was rejected for that revelation, and this is the pattern in Scripture. Every time someone speaks for God, they're going to suffer for it. Same for Jesus, same for Stephen. It's the same for Joseph. He's sold into slavery. He's abused. Why? Well, there's a couple of reasons. You might just even write these down. For one, it's normal, it's a problem of nature. The prophetic role brings the prophet's reward. You might write that down. The prophetic role brings the prophet's reward. When you hold up Jesus Christ, when you hold up anything that the Bible speaks to, things like absolute truth, things like Jesus being the only savior of humanity. When you hold up things like gender roles or sexual ethics, things that the Bible speaks to, get ready for the attack. It's coming. You can't avoid it. It's going to come. You're going to be hurt. They're going to attack you. And the issue is one of nature. Write down 1 Corinthians 2.12. It tells us that we did not receive the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God. There's two different spirits at work. There's one spirit at work in the world, there's one spirit at work in those who believe. You see, there's a difference here. Those who hold up truth are going to be attacked by those who have embraced the lie. In Acts chapter 7, verse 52, someone came up to me this morning, and this was what Stephen said, and they asked the same question about has there ever been, right? Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? He's asking that question, and he's essentially saying, most of the prophets got persecution. He's posing it to them. The norm is that a prophet will be persecuted. This is the prophet's reward. And as you evangelize, as you speak the truth to a coworker or a family member, what's going to happen is there's going to be conflict. I mean, you can't avoid that. Why? Well, Ephesians 2 continues with that thought. We saw this last week, it's an issue of the nature. The dead in Christ, or the dead who are apart from Christ, they cannot see, they cannot understand the things of God. What are they doing? They're carrying out the desires of the flesh. They're by nature, children of wrath. That's the issue. They are dead. It's one of nature. Whenever we see the Apostle Paul become a Christian, I was thinking about this this week. There was almost a physical reaction that happened to Paul whenever he became a Christian. When he finally believed the gospel, do you remember what happened? Do you remember what fell from his eyes? It was physical scales fell out of his eyes. He was blind. And the scales fell out of his eyes, almost as if to say, this blind man has now received sight. He now understands the gospel and has embraced the gospel. But the dead world, the lost world, they reject the gospel. Therefore, they're not going to reject those who hold up truth, absolute truth, Jesus Christ, all the different instructions of the Word of God. So here Stephen is basically saying the heart behind persecution is a nature issue. There's a second heart behind it. Write this one down. It's a nature of, it's a heart motive of jealousy. And we see that straight in the text in verse 9. Notice in verse 9 it says the patriarchs, what? Jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt. Why did they sell him into Egypt? There was a jealousy at work. Now I do want to just keep highlighting this. The word Egypt is constantly on repetition. He's in a hard place. He's in a hard place. He's in a hard place. Think of his pain. Far from home. No injustice. And he's being pulled down. He's being rejected. And the question is, why is this happening? Jealousy. Jealousy is where many people live their lives. It's why many people attack. And we see this in the animal kingdom, don't we? In fact, I came across a story this week, and uh the story is of uh uh crabbers. It's really interesting. Whenever people go out uh deep sea diving and get those crabs, they they put them in these large buckets, and they never put a lid on the bucket. You don't need to. I was fascinated by that. Why don't you put a lid on there? Well, what whoever's the top crab, the rest of them always get jealous and pull him down. There's no escape. And the reason there's no escape is because all the other crabs won't let him out. No, no lid needed. That's what's happening in the life of Joseph. He's being pulled down because of jealousy, and the human nature element is predictable. This is going to happen in our lives too. We need to expect those pits, we need to expect those rejections, we need to expect the deadness and the pride of this culture. Don't be surprised by it. But here's the truth that our first point is showing us. Stephen knows, and Stephen shows us, that God's presence is more preferable than our comfort. You might even write that down. The presence of God is more preferable. It's more preferable than our comfort. Notice in verse 9, but God was with him. When God is missing, nothing makes up for that absence. But but if God is with you, it doesn't matter what is absent. You can lose it all. You can be attacked, you can be hurt, but if God is with you, nothing can make up for that absence, and nothing is better than that presence. It's about the presence of God. Sat with them, had long conversations about the past few years of their life. And one of them shared with us that this has been a difficult season because of cancer. It's been surgeries after surgeries. Both of them have had surgeries, this couple. He had surgeries, she had surgeries, they both had a lot of health issues. But it was so interesting to talk to her because someone, she shared the story. Someone came up to me and she said this. She said, You know, um, this person came up to me and said, Wow, cancer. Operations. This must have been one of the difficult most difficult things you've ever gone through, one of the heaviest trials you've ever experienced. And her response was was I like it, made the hair on my arm stand up when she said it. It was such a good response. She said, No, not true. The greatest trial that you'll ever go through is the one that you're not trusting Christ. And I thought that's a great line. The greatest trial is the one where you're not trusting Christ. She had experienced the peace of God in the trials of life. In the midst of cancer. Your greatest trial is whenever you're not fellowshipping with Christ. When you're on the side of the road stewing in the heat, but you're not resting in Christ. You're not thanking Christ for his provision. You're not enjoying the presence of Christ. See, our first goal in pain is not comfort, it's actually camaraderie with Christ. It's that nearness with Christ. If you're going through separation, if you're going through attack, if you're going through trouble in life, you need to make it your goal to experience a nearness to Christ, a camaraderie with Christ, a love and fellowship with Christ. Look at Hebrews 13, 10. This is a really helpful passage for us to think about that. It says, the author of Hebrews writes and says, We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. For the bodies of the ant of those animals, those whose blood is brought in into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. What is this a picture of? And why am I quoting this? This is really important. The author of Hebrews is picturing the Yom Kippur sacrifice, the Day of Atonement sacrifice. And what they would do is, in order to sanctify the holy places and the holy instruments, they would essentially sacrifice a lamb and they would take its blood with the branch, the hyssop branch, and they would sprinkle the blood on things, and it would it would sort of sanctify things, and then the carcass of the animal would be thrown outside the city and burned. It was treated as unclean. And the author of Hebrews is going to connect that to Jesus. So Jesus, he also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify, to purify the people through his own blood. Therefore, let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. This is essentially saying, you would think that inside the camp is where we would find our fellowship, our peace. I could be around other people, I could have protection, I could have community inside the camp. But this is saying it's actually the opposite is true. The way that we find our peace is actually in camaraderie, in fellowship with Christ. Let us go to him. Let's go outside the camp and let's have camaraderie in this mission. He was reproached, he was persecuted. Let's have nearness to Christ, and that will be our peace. Your primary goal in suffering, your primary goal in tribulation is not to experience escape, it's not to get out of your trial, it's to get nearness to Christ. That's where your peace will be found. The greatest trial is going to be the one where you're not trusting in Christ, not fellowshipping with Christ, not praying, not being in community with Christ. So are you in a dreadful pit? Are you desperate? Are you lonely? Are you not praying? What we're seeing here is that you need to pursue Christ and pursue his nearness above all. I like the story of the two guys robbing the man's shed. I've told you this before, it's a great story. The guy was walking through his house and he saw the light on his shed out back. Kind of looked in there and he saw the two thieves pillaging his tools and taking all his stuff. He called the police and he said, I'm being robbed. There's guys in my shed taking my tools. And the guy on the uh other end of the phone wasn't too helpful. In fact, the guy ended up saying, Um, well, listen, we're actually really busy right now at the police department. Here's just do this. Lock your door, stay inside. We'll send someone when we have the resources to send someone. And the guy said, Okay. And he hung up and he waited 30 seconds and he picks up the phone again and he says to the operator, Hey, I just called you about the guys in my backyard. Uh, tell the police to take their time. I I just I went up back and I shot the two guys, all right? And uh the operator said, You did what? You shot them! I told you to stay inside the house. And within about three minutes, uh they had a SWAT team, a helicopter, and an ambulance and a fire truck. Uh, and the news reporters, everyone showed up all at once, descended on the scene. And uh, you know, I'm sure that the police were surprised to find those guys still alive in the shed, but no one was more surprised by all the people who showed up to this robbery than the two robbers who were caught. And uh the police officer eventually got to the homeowner and said, I thought you said you shot him. And he said, I thought you said you had no one available to help me. And I love that story because it makes us think about the presence of God, the resources of God. God is not like that apathetic uh uh 911 answering service, right? God has resources and he's willing to use. Those resources for you. The question is: are you willing to draw near to him? Whether you are a stressed-out mom, whether you are a Marine going on deployment, whether you are a rookie cop headed into a dangerous neighborhood, whether you're a college student who's grown up in a good church and you're going to a secular university for the first time and having your faith challenged. We need to know something of the nearness of God. We need to draw near to his presence. We need to be willing to have camaraderie over comfort. We need to pursue his presence over our comfort. That's what we need. Psalm 46 reminds us that God is a present help. He's a found help in trouble. We need to pursue his presence. Point number two, if you're taking notes, point number two, we need to practice perseverance through pain. We need to prefer his presence, but we need to learn perseverance. That's one of the things that we struggle with as a culture. I hate waiting on things. I hate persevering through things. I don't even let the microwave finish before I open it and I want to eat my food. Amen? It's like I hate waiting on things and I hate persevering till the last second. Our society wants the quick and easy. We've lost. I mean, this is just one of the troubles. I don't mean to be that guy up here saying, kids these days, you know? It's the idea that our society really has no value of persevering through trouble or having endurance through trial. We've lost that as a culture. We need to reclaim that. Spurgeon said it this way: he said, Through perseverance, the snail made it on the ark. I like that. How did the snail make it? Inch by inch. Just this rugged path, and it eventually got on. Winston Churchill said this line, and I love it. He said, When you're going through hell, keep going. Now he said that in the context of the Great War. But when you're going through trial, when you're going through trouble, when you're going through hell, one of the things that you have to learn is God's call to keep going. Don't give up. What does Joseph have to keep going in spite of? Look at verse 10. Notice all the evil. Notice he needs rescue from what? All his afflictions. And I love how this is put. It's not just his affliction, it's all his afflictions. That's plural. Joseph faced a lot of different afflictions. And just a quick survey of his life. Think about how he is wronged. He's kidnapped, he's placed in a pit, he's sold as a slave. His dad is told that he's been killed. There's not even closure there. He's been betrayed. He's a slave in Potiphar's house. No freedom, no status. He's sexually harassed by his boss's wife. You want to talk about being uncomfortable. He's imprisoned. In fact, we get an interesting thing in Psalm 105. You might write that down. Psalm 105, verse 18, it says that his feet were hurt with fetters, and his neck, what did it get? A collar of iron. He lived that way. In fact, he lived this way, and this was a long-term pain. In fact, if Joseph, if Joseph was sold as a teenager, let's say 17, he's sold into slavery and he walks to Egypt. He's he's imagine him tied up, going to Egypt as a slave, and he stands before Pharaoh at around age 30. This is long-term suffering. This is 13 years, at least 13 years of pain. 13 years of trouble, 13 years of heartache. And so this is a great, this is a great difficulty that he's entered into. And this is chronic pain. How does he persevere in a pain that just won't end? One word. The way the secret to Joseph's perseverance is one word. It's the word grace. It's grace. God gives him grace to persevere. In fact, that's literally out of the text. You may not see it in your English translation, but in verse 10, it says that God gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh. Favor here is literally grace. It's the Old Testament term for God's grace. It was God that was working in the background. He had all kinds of experiences, and some of them were just feeling like this constant step backwards. But it was God that was working the whole time. He didn't succeed because he was smarter than everybody else. He didn't succeed because he had a winning personality. He didn't succeed because he knew how to run the Egyptian country. That's not what made him successful. This is like that illustration of the turtle on a fence post. If you see a turtle on a fence post, you know one thing is true. It didn't get there on its own. It was put there, right? It had help. This is the idea with Joseph. He didn't succeed. The Semitic shepherd in an Egyptian court, he didn't succeed because he was better or more wise than everybody else. It was God who gave him that wisdom. It was God who gave him that favor. In fact, in verse 10, notice it was God who made him ruler of Egypt. God was behind it all. Proverbs 21, verse 1 says, The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord. It's the Lord who can work, even in your boss, who can work, even in the authority over your life. He turns it wherever he will. It's God who does this work. It's God who gives grace. And if God is for you, who can be against you? We have to start interpreting our whole life in line with God's grace. How do you get the job? How do you get the house? How do you get the income? How do you get the retirement? How do you get anything good that comes to you? It's the grace of God. So when you go through something hard, you've got to preach this to yourself. When you are attacked, when you are slandered, when you are betrayed, when you are lied about, when you are putting your, when you are found in a pit, you've got to preach this way to yourself that God's grace is constantly working in the background. R.C. Sproul said this line, I love. He said, When I think that I'm unfairly hated, I remember that I'm unfairly loved. When I start thinking about all the people who hate me, when I start thinking about all the trials, all the hate that comes my way, the persecution, I also have to remember that what? I am unfairly loved. God has loved me. God has loved me with a love I do not deserve. He has favored me. And that allows the pain to be lessened significantly. You've got to think about your life that way. You're unfairly loved. God's grace is on your life, and if God can be for you, who can be against you? Write this down. We've got to stop looking for the exit. And we've got to start depending, focusing on the rescuer. So often we try to fix the problems ourselves. There are problems in this life that you cannot fix that you are going to have to be dependent for. All the money in the world can't bring your child back. All the money in the world can't take your sickness away, your autoimmune disease away. All the money in the world can't fix most problems. The biggest problems can't be fixed by your own resources. You've got to become dependent on the Lord's grace working in the background. I love this illustration. Years ago, the world watched as these Chilean miners were trapped about half a mile underground. They had dug their tunnel in a spiral formation, and I guess whenever they were digging their mine, uh they did it again in a spiral, but the spirals were too close together. They were supposed to be further apart. And what happened is all those spirals compacted, and they were trapped about half a mile underground. And uh they were trapped there for I think something like 46 days. It was a long-term uh problem. And they only had just a few cans of tuna in the supplies down there, and there was a leader down there, and he was like rationing the cans of tuna. He was like giving them every couple days two spoonfuls of tuna to survive. And this was a very dark situation, a very dark path, a very dark season. They didn't think they'd ever get out. In fact, if they spent the rest of their life, if they spent the rest of all of their lives combined tunneling up, they would never make it to the surface. They knew one thing was true. Their only hope was help from above. And that's exactly what happened. The scientists, the engineers, they built a tube. They drilled a tunnel and built a tube, and they lowered this contraption down, and every single miner was rescued one at a time. They were brought up half a mile from the depth of the earth, and they were brought up in this tube, and they were rescued. It's a pretty powerful story. What's the point? Well, the point is that these guys found their hope, not in themselves, but they looked at the divine rescue from above. They saw rescue from outside of their self. You've got to start living your life that way. You can't fix the biggest problems of life. You've got to seek the one who has power over hearts. Seek the one who has power over health. Seek the one who has power above all other power. Now, this doesn't mean that you do nothing. I like to say it this way, you still need to have active faith. Please write those two words down. Active faith. You see, it doesn't mean you sit back and you just wait on the Lord. You need to be active. In fact, I think I can prove that from Genesis 39, verse 23. Whatever Joseph did, the Lord made it to prosper. Whatever Joseph did, there's activity, there's deeds, there's action in Joseph's life. He's doing some things. Like you can't just sit back. If you're a young man and you want to be married, I know we'll have some young adults in the next service. They usually sit right over here. If you want to be married, you can't sit at home playing video games and expect a wife to drop through the sheetrock into your lap. Amen? It doesn't work that way. Like you gotta get up, you gotta comb your hair, and you gotta go to young adults, and you gotta, you gotta like engage and you gotta be brave and ask her out, young men. You know, you gotta you gotta actually you actually have to do some action. Joseph does some stuff here. He's active. He gets busy. And yet, in the background, he's trusting the Lord to give the success. See, more often than not, the way out of a trial is through a trial. It's making progress in that trial. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego weren't rescued from the fiery furnace. They were rescued through the fiery furnace. Daniel wasn't rescued from the lion's den, it was through the lion's den. And you will be rescued through your trial as you trust in Christ, as you do your part, you work, you like the snail, you go inch by inch, trusting the Lord to give the results. So it's a both hand. And we have to believe that every backwards motion is actually sovereignly used by God. I'll tell you, years ago, I gave, I went on a mission trip, and I always think about what I can buy my littles uh as like a souvenir on a mission trip. Um Caleb went to Africa and he got a sword, like this short sword on this last one. But years ago, we I went to Oaxaca. Now, this is as far south as you can go to in um in Mexico. It's jungle, and uh we went we went down there, and on the last day I was looking for something for my little my little boy Caleb. He's a big boy now, but he was a little guy back then. And I I got him uh I got him a slingshot. I was really laboring over this. I kind of had the Christmas story thing going on in my head. You'll shoot your eye out, you know? And and I I had a leader that was with me, and I was going back and forth, do I buy him a slingshot or not? And uh they said, you know, look, he's probably gonna break a window or he's probably gonna hurt himself. But at least he'll be a man. Amen. You know, it's it's it's like he'll he'll be a man, and and there's a little danger required for life. And so I ended up buying the slingshot, but I think there's a lot of lessons you can learn from a slingshot. Think about that. Think about the backward motion. That there's no propelled forward without steps backward, without this straining, without this stretching. I mean, that's how life is. And God sovereignly uses those steps backwards in order to sovereignly propel you forward. And some of you have been in a backward season. Some of you have experienced loss this year, some of you have experienced bad decisions, sickness, painful seasons, and it just feels like stretching. But but in faith, what we see in the life of Joseph is that he will soon be propelled forward to rule in Egypt. God uses those backward seasons sovereignly for advancement. And so you get laid off with your job, and they give you three months' pay. And then God turns it around. And it's like within four weeks you get the new job and you get to double dip, you get two pay checks for a season. It's like it's amazing how that works. How many times have I heard that story? Grace works in the backward motion. And so we need to live acknowledging that God's grace is working for us, sometimes in the backward motion, sometimes in the hard seasons, but he's moving us forward and he's preparing us to launch. Number three, we've seen God's presence. We need to prefer his presence over comfort. We need to practice perseverance. This is a lost art, but the thing that makes perseverance possible is the grace of God. Number three, we need to offer preservation for others' affliction. This is the gift that you are to the world. This is what you have to offer to the world. You see, after experiencing all this trouble, now Joseph is prepared. He's ready to help others. Notice in verse 11 a famine doesn't come just to him, it comes to the whole world throughout all Egypt and Canaan. And now the student has become the master. He has lived 13 years in the school of suffering, and now he doesn't waste what God has taught him. He's now going to teach it to the whole world. Now, this is a biblical norm. Write these two words down: salt, light. What are you? What are Christians? God has called you to be salt and light. You are to instruct, you are to teach. In fact, salt was used as a preservative. You take, you take salt and you'd take your meat and you'd rub salt deep into the fibers of the meat, and you'd cake it on, and it would, it would preserve in a time when there was no refrigerator, right? And so you would preserve the meat, it could last long seasons, and that's what God calls us to be. We are a preservative. Joseph is now going to be a preservative for the whole world. And notice this: this is a theme throughout the whole scriptures. In fact, in 2 Thessalonians, I actually believe whenever 2 Thessalonians starts talking about Antichrist and the tribulation, this dark season where all hell breaks loose on earth, one of the things that kicks all that off is that the restrainer is removed. There is this restrainer at work in this present culture. Now, there's at least four views on what the restrainer is. I don't have time to go into that. Some view it as the Holy Spirit, some view it as the church, some view it as the Holy Spirit within the church. That's probably the view I take. That eventually there will come this time where the restrainer is removed, and what happens on earth is all hell breaks loose. There's a tribulation period, there's antichrist who rises up. I mean, like, think about this. Like, what would happen tomorrow if every Christian on the face of the earth was removed? Think about how we serve society as a restrainer. You and I, we're we're restrainers in this world, restrainers against the evil of this world. Consider that. God has called you to be that restrainer of evil. We see this not only in the world and in society, we also see this, we see this within the family. In fact, Paul will talk about husbands and wives and mixed households in the sense of faith. 1 Corinthians 7, he says, in the home, if you have a believing wife and an unbelieving husband, or a believing husband and an unbelieving wife, one of those it actually sanctifies, it preserves the whole family. It's amazing. That's what that's the role that we're called to take on. You and I are restrainers. You and I are preservatives for this culture. And now Stephen's going to pivot from Joseph to Jesus. He's going to teach that Jesus is the preservation for the world. Years ago, I again, my friend with cancer, I was at their house, and we had several couples there just praying over her. And the surgery was the next week. As we prayed over her, I saw that room become a classroom. I watched her say these words. I just want God to be glorified in my life or in my death. But that was the driving ambition. And I've thought back to that moment pretty often. Thought to myself, I want to have that kind of attitude. It was infectious. When I go through my next trial, I just want God to be glorified. You see, you have an opportunity in the midst of your trial to teach others, to preserve others, to be salt and light. Joseph didn't waste his moment. And Stephen isn't wasting his moment. Stephen's going to pivot from Joseph to Jesus. Look here. Look at verse 13. On the second visit, Joseph made himself known to his brothers. And Joseph's brothers came to know the Pharaoh. Verse 12, what did they get? They got grain, right? And so there is something going on. Go back to that previous slide, Jennifer. I want you to see this. There's this first visit, second visit pattern we're going to see in this passage. We'll see it next week. First visit with Joseph, he's rejected. Second visit, he's accepted. And he's they're given grain. With Moses, first visit, he's rejected by his countrymen. Second visit? Moses is accepted. And they live. Jesus rejected on the first visit. Second visit. All who come to him will have life. It says in John 1.11, he came to his own, but his own people did not receive him. Now the very brother that has been rejected becomes their bread. And that's the lesson we teach out of the pit. The lesson you and I have to give out of the pits of life is that Jesus is the bread of life, and that all who receive him will not only have a friend through suffering, we will have the grace of God working for us in the midst of every trial we face. Jesus said in verse, in John 6, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger. Jesus becomes more satisfying in our trials. Jesus becomes more beautiful. In fact, in every trial I've ever had, what happens to Christians is Jesus becomes more satisfying than this world. This world can pass away, but give me Jesus. He is my hope. And so Stephen is holding up Joseph, but he's also holding up Jesus. When you accept Jesus, what happens is he becomes all satisfying in an unsatisfying world. Stephen and Joseph, they're teaching, so don't waste your chance in your trial to hold up the promises of God, to hold up the teaching of Jesus Christ. Let it become a classroom. Let your trial become a classroom. Last point, we're done. Number four. We need to trust the pause in the waiting. I'm out of time. We don't have time to flesh this out. But there's a pause. Notice in verse 15, there's death. Jacob goes down to Egypt, he dies. Others die, the other patriarchs died. They put these bodies in the ground. And now we're waiting on the resurrection. There is a pause. How many of you know I hate waiting on things? Is that true of you? I have transitioned in my adult life to the form of being a park dweller to a beach dweller. I don't want to go to an amusement park. I don't want to go to Disneyland. I know some of you love it, that's fine. I don't want to go to Six Flags because you wait in line for an hour. I want to go to the beach. I don't want to wait. Here, we experience a wait. There's this pause. Our friends, our family, our relatives, they've died, and now we're waiting on the final fulfillment and the promises of victory to be real. You and I will have to learn the pause, and that's what we're going to talk about next week. In the life of Moses, Moses, again, he was rejected that first time, but that second time, he's ready, and he's having to live 40 years in the wilderness. What does he do in the wilderness? What does he do in the wait? We're going to try and answer that next week. So I want to challenge you. Come back next week and keep coming to these.