DEVELOPED IN THE DARK

Romans 8:28–29 KJV

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. 29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

.When I was born in 1974, the world moved a little slower.

There were no cell phones buzzing in our pockets,

no emails stacking up,

No Wi-Fi

No Google

No social media

No GPS navigation

No streaming television

No Netflix or YouTube

No personal computers in the average home

No laptops or tablets

No smartwatches

No Amazon ordering

No online banking

No ATMs on every corner … if you needed cash you had to go to a bank, in person during buisness hours

No self-checkout

no microwaves humming in the kitchen…. dinner took time, we didnt eat out

no delivery service,

no 24 hour news, we had 2 tv station,

local news was a newspaper that came a couple times a week

no caller ID, no call waiting

No Bluetooth

No remote controls everywhere

Things took time. And when you wanted to capture a moment, you didn’t just pull out a phone and snap a hundred pictures, you loaded a roll of film.

And if you really wanted to see the image, you had to go through the darkroom. That darkroom was a hidden place. Chemicals, waiting, nothing glamorous. Just quiet obscurity. But it was in that hidden space that the image was slowly developing.

And sometimes that’s how God works with us.

.And here's what interests me:

The darkness in a darkroom didn't mean there wasn't a picture.

The darkness was part of the process necessary to reveal the picture.

There are times in our lives when God allows us to walk through places we don't understand.

We pray, but don't have an answer.

We believe, but don't see anything happening.

We know God has promised to work, but everything around us seems dark.

And we wonder: “God, what are You doing?”

Maybe God's answer is:

“I'm developing you.”

Philippians 1:6 “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:”  

God isn't finished with you.

The picture isn't complete.

You're still being developed.

Joseph's life was like an undeveloped photograph.

God showed Joseph something when he was about 17 years old in Genesis 37. He gave him dreams.

Joseph saw the dream….. He didn't see the development process.

He saw people bowing.

He didn't see a pit.

He didn't see slavery.

He didn't see Potiphar's house.

He didn't see a lying woman.

He didn't see a prison.

He didn't see 2-3 forgotten years.

He didn't see a famine.

He didn't see Pharaoh.

And he certainly couldn't see how all those disconnected events would eventually fit together.

Romans 8:28“And we know that all things work together for good…”

Joseph would eventually say essentially the same thing:

Genesis 50:20 — “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good…”

Joseph lived Romans 8:28 before Paul ever wrote Romans 8:28.

I. THE PICTURE — GOD SAW JOSEPH'S FINISHED LIFE

Genesis 37:5–11

The first stage is the picture.

Before Joseph ever entered Egypt, God already knew what He was developing.

Joseph's brothers saw a dreamer.

Potiphar saw a slave.

Potiphar's wife saw a servant.

The keeper of the prison saw a prisoner.

The butler saw an interpreter.

Pharaoh saw a wise man.

But God saw a deliverer.

That's your Romans 8:28 truth:

We see individual moments. God sees the finished picture.

When Joseph was in the pit, God could see the palace.

When Joseph was chained to a caravan, God could see Pharaoh's court.

When Joseph was falsely accused, God could see his vindication.

When Joseph was forgotten in prison, God could see seven years of famine coming.

Joseph couldn't see any of that.

God could.

 “Joseph could only see the moment. God could see the finished picture.”

There are probably people sitting in church today who are judging God's work by one frame.

They're saying:

“Why did this happen?”

“Why did God allow this?”

“Why hasn't this prayer been answered?”

Romans 8:28 doesn't say everything is good.

It says God makes “all things work together for good.”

Don't judge the picture while it's still being developed.

II. THE PLACE — JOSEPH WAS DEVELOPED IN THE DARK

Genesis 37:23–24

“And they took him, and cast him into a pit: and the pit was empty…”

Film was developed in darkness.

And look at the darkrooms God allowed Joseph to enter.

The Pit — Genesis 37

Rejected by his own brothers.

Potiphar's House — Genesis 39

Taken into a foreign country as a slave.

The Prison — Genesis 39–40

Falsely accused of something he refused to do.

And perhaps the darkest part:

Genesis 40:23 — “Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgat him.”

Then Genesis 41:1 tells us:

“And it came to pass at the end of two full years…”

Two more years.

Joseph did the right thing.

And nothing happened.

Joseph interpreted the dream.

And nothing happened.

Joseph asked the butler to remember him.

And nothing happened.

But here's the sermon:

Something was happening!

God was developing Joseph.

The darkness wasn't evidence that God had abandoned Joseph.

Your manuscript puts this wonderfully: “Don't confuse darkness with abandonment… It may be dark to you. It isn't dark to God.”

And Genesis 39 keeps repeating

“And the LORD was with Joseph…”

Not just in the palace.

In slavery.

In false accusation.

In prison.

The Lord was with Joseph in the darkroom.

Don't mistake God's darkness for God's absence.

Sometimes the place where you can see God the least is the place where God is developing you the most.

III. THE PROCESS — GOD USED EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED TO JOSEPH

This is where Romans 8:28 really comes alive.

“All things work together…”

Consider everything God had to put together.

Joseph's brothers had to hate him.

The Ishmaelites had to come by at the right moment.

Joseph had to end up in Potiphar's house.

Potiphar's wife had to falsely accuse him.

Joseph had to be placed in the particular prison where Pharaoh's servants would eventually be incarcerated.

The butler had to have a dream.

Joseph had to interpret it.

The butler had to forget Joseph.

Pharaoh had to have a dream.

And suddenly the forgotten Hebrew prisoner was exactly where God's providence had been taking him all along.

What looked random wasn't random.

What looked disconnected wasn't disconnected.

What looked like delay wasn't delay.

It was development.

“We want God to do in five minutes what He sometimes chooses to accomplish over five years. But God is not merely interested in getting you out of something. God is interested in getting something into you.”

💡 Do You Want to Be a Mushroom or an Oak Tree?

A mushroom can appear almost overnight. Give it darkness, moisture, and the right conditions, and suddenly it is there.

But you don’t build a house out of mushrooms.

An oak tree is different. An oak does not grow overnight. It takes years. Before it ever becomes impressive above the ground, it is establishing strength below the ground. It endures hot summers, cold winters, violent winds, and pounding rain.

The mushroom grows quickly.

The oak grows deeply.

And sometimes we look at our lives and say, “God, why is this taking so long? Why haven’t You changed my circumstances? Why am I still going through this?”

Maybe God says, “Because I’m not growing mushrooms. I’m growing oaks.”

Joseph wanted the dream of Genesis 37, but between the dream and the destiny were years of development.

There was the pit. There was Potiphar’s house. There was the prison. There were the years when Joseph could not see what God was doing.

But God wasn’t wasting those years.

The pit put roots in him. Potiphar’s house put responsibility in him. The prison put patience in him. And when the palace finally came, Joseph had become strong enough to handle what God had shown him years before.

You can raise a mushroom in a matter of days.

But if God is building an oak, you’d better give Him some time.

Then I’d land it with:

“Don’t despise the years when nothing seems to be happening above ground. God may be doing His greatest work where nobody can see it.”

And that connects beautifully to Romans 8:28–29: verse 28 says God is working all things together, and verse 29 tells us what He is ultimately working toward — conforming us to the image of His Son.

Sermon line: “God is not merely trying to change what is happening around you; He is using what is happening around you to change what is happening inside you.”

Because Joseph wasn't ready at 17 for what God gave him at 30.

Genesis 41:46 says Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh.

That's approximately 13 years of development.

God gave Joseph the dream at 17, but He didn't give him the position until 30.

Why?

Because sometimes God gives you the vision before He develops you for the responsibility.

Great line:

God had to develop the man before He could display the picture.

IV. THE PORTRAIT — GOD WAS DEVELOPING SOMETHING IN JOSEPH

Now go from Romans 8:28 to 8:29.

What is God's ultimate purpose?

“…to be conformed to the image of his Son…”

There's your photographic language:

IMAGE.

God isn't merely developing our circumstances.

God is developing us.

And look at the Joseph of Genesis 37 compared with the Joseph of Genesis 50.

The young Joseph talks about his dreams.

The mature Joseph talks about God's providence.

The young Joseph sees his brothers bowing.

The mature Joseph sees an opportunity to forgive his brothers.

The young Joseph is wearing his father's special coat.

The mature Joseph is using his position to save other people's lives.

Something happened to Joseph.

He had been developed.

God developed in Joseph qualities that beautifully foreshadowed Jesus.

And Romans 8:29 says that is God's objective for us:

“…conformed to the image of his Son.”

V. THE PURPOSE — JOSEPH FINALLY SAW WHAT GOD HAD BEEN DOING

Genesis 50:20 KJV

But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.

Joseph is now looking backward over his life.

The picture has developed.

Now he can see it.

“But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good…”

Notice Joseph doesn't say:

“What you did wasn't evil.”

He says:

“Ye thought evil against me.”

Romans 8:28 doesn't mean

cancer is good.

Death is good.

Betrayal is good.

Heartbreak is good.

Abuse is good.

Loss is good.

Some things really are bad and evil.

But Joseph discovered something:

God is so sovereign that He can take what others mean for evil , all the trials, suffering and weave it into His purpose for good.

The brothers were working against him.

Potiphar's wife was working against him.

The butler was working.

Pharaoh was working.

Circumstances were working.

But behind all of them—

GOD WAS WORKING.

And Joseph finally looked at the finished photograph and said:

“Now I see it.”

Conclusion — DON'T WALK OUT OF THE DARKROOM

imagen someone looking at an unfinished photograph and the photographer answering, “Of course you can't. It isn't finished,” is an excellent closing picture. 

At 17, Joseph couldn't see it.

Pit — “I don't understand.”

Potiphar — “I don't understand.”

Prison — “I don't understand.”

Forgotten — “I don't understand.”

Then one day Joseph stood in Egypt, looked into the faces of the very brothers who had thrown him into that pit, and suddenly—

the picture came into focus…… God meant it all for our good.”

You may be in the darkroom right now.

Don't throw the film away.

You may not understand the picture.

You may not understand the darkness.

You may not understand the trials.

You may not understand the waiting.

But you can trust the Photographer.

Because:

“And we know that ALL THINGS work together for good…”