I have a friend who can't trust God when things keep going wrong.

WE have this new dog, Moose. It’s pretty funny now, it’s quiet at home with no kids there. Just the two of us. In the evening, we will both be working on our computers or reading or watching TV then he hears something and he goes crazy. Barking like there is no tommorow. It is LOUD. I tell you. Many times have I spilled my coffee when he jumps up barking. Michelle fusses at him as he runs to the door at the first sound. You’d think he woudl be a great guard dog, but I don’t think so. Because every person who comes in - in spite of his barking - is greeted with a wagging tail and a ball to throw. He has never met a stranger. Of course until he meets you, he doesn’t trust you.

Can you trust people you don’t know?

Maybe....but it’s hard, especially when things are going wrong.

I can understand that for our friends who don’t know God, have a hard time trusting him…especially when things keep going wrong…it’s especially hard.

When the person you love promised they would never do that again…but they did again.

Dealing an abusive relationship.

When they find out the tests are positive…when they thought they had beaten cancer the last time.

Only a cancer survivor can really understand and help another suffering from cancer

When you just knew they had finally kicked that habit, but then they fell off off the wagon one more time

falling off the wagon one more time

when your child walks out again.

IT’s not that things go wrong, but they keep going wrong.

Hard times aren’t unique to any of us and sometimes when it rains, it pours.

Only a recovering addict can really understand and help another addict

Only a parent who has lost a child can understand and help another parent who has lost a child

Hard times aren’t unique to any of us.

There are dozens of characters we could look at in the bible to teach us how to trust God when things keep going wrong, but I just want to focus on one. The one who would be the root of the Israelites being in Egypt from our study in Exodus, which we are going back to next week by the way.

Genesis 37:12–20 NIV84

Now his brothers had gone to graze their father’s flocks near Shechem, and Israel said to Joseph, “As you know, your brothers are grazing the flocks near Shechem. Come, I am going to send you to them.” “Very well,” he replied. So he said to him, “Go and see if all is well with your brothers and with the flocks, and bring word back to me.” Then he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron. When Joseph arrived at Shechem, a man found him wandering around in the fields and asked him, “What are you looking for?” He replied, “I’m looking for my brothers. Can you tell me where they are grazing their flocks?” “They have moved on from here,” the man answered. “I heard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’ ” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan. But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him. “Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other. “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.”

Sold to slave traders

Purchased by Pharaoh’s Captain

Things are turning up??? No It gets worse.

Accused of attempted rape.

Thrown in prison.

Makes some friends by interpreting dreams

Waits for them to get him out....things getting better…NO It gets worse

They forget about him.

It’s not until God gives Pharaoh a dream that no can understand, that someone remembers Joseph.

Pharaoh has a dream to be interpretted

It’s hard to trust when I only see short term

But Joseph is a fantastic story of trusting God when things keep going wrong. Let’s look in .

JOseph…the baby brother. Dad’s favorite.

Always reporting his brothers

Dream 1 Wheat…rule over us?

Dream 2 Sun, Moon, Stars bow

Later he’s at home w/dad brothers are out grazing flocks

Dad sent him out to check on them

Genesis 37:19 NIV84

19 “Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other.

They had serious family problems. Have you ever had problems in your family that seemed like they wouldn’t work out? Feuds and squabbles among family members who should love each other? It seems like they will never end. Sometimes it looks things are going to fall apart, sometimes they do.

When they do, it’s hard to trust God when we only see the short term.

It’s hard to trust God when I only see short term.

But Joseph had a dream. Joseph saw there was more. This wasn’t the end, even though it looked like it.

Listen to the words of David, another who knew a thing or two about bad things happening.

Psalm 37:3–7 NIV84

3 Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. 4 Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. 5 Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: 6 He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. 7 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.

Look at vs 4, delight in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. It doesn’t say, delight in the Lord and he will make everything OK. It says delight in Him and he will give you.....himself.

Don't focus on the short term things that will just get you through the moment, look down the road, focus on Him.

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Illustration.

A great illustration of this is right in our story. Reuben - loved his father dearly, and thinking of him.....told his brothers don’t kill him, leave him in this well.....he was planning to come back and get Joseph and take him home.

What is it in your life that is telling you to take care of this right now? Have you tried to see it from God’s perspective or is the short term as far as you can see?

It’ll be easier to trust God when we start to look to the horizon. You may have thought, yea....Joseph and David. Life turned out pretty good for them. We don’t have lives like that where everything works out nice with a pretty little bow on it like in the movies. I would say, well along the way, Joseph didn’t know it would turn out. As he was living his life, he didn’t know how it would work out. But he kept looking ahead, because he knew God played the long game. That there was more.

God play’s the long game

But not everyone saw that way. Let’s go on in the story.

Plan was to throw him in the well and tell dad he had been killed. But then Judah got to thinking…why kill him. Let’s just sell him and get paid.

THat’s what they did, then went home and told their dad J had been attacked.

Genesis 37:33–35 NIV84

33 He recognized it and said, “It is my son’s robe! Some ferocious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces.” 34 Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days. 35 All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “No,” he said, “in mourning will I go down to the grave to my son.” So his father wept for him.

It seemed right to lie to their father…telling him his youngest son was dead.

That’s how our thinking is. When we get caught up in our plans, our wisdom, it’s hard to trust God’s.

Its hard to trust when I give my own wisdom too much credit.

But what a burden to carry.

What do you think this did to their relationship with their father? With each other? With God? They were too smart for their own good.

It seemed like the best way to handle things....but it wasn’t. They thought they were digging themselves out of their Joseph problem…but they were actually burying themselves in a truth problem.

Isaiah 55:8–9 NIV84

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

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If I’m “the Friend” my first step is to _______________

ILLUSTRATION:

Wrestling with tithing, thinking if we kept more of what we had, we would have more. It makes sense right. But what we found was that when we took what we had as a blessing, not an entitlement, we could be generous and still be thankful for having

Have you ever tried to dig yourself out only to find out you were actually burying yourself in a bigger problem?

We all fall into this don’t we. We know how things should work, we know how to solve the problems…all too often they don’t though. All we can do is make a mess. That's what happens when we rely on our own smarts…not the Lords.

Joseph though often saw things with a right perspective.

Egyptian official bought him.

The Lord was with Joseph…he succeeded.

The Lord blessed Potiphar b/c of J.

His wife…but J. refused

scorned…she finally cornered him grabbed him by his coat....and he ran out of it.

Genesis 39:19–20 NIV84

19 When his master heard the story his wife told him, saying, “This is how your slave treated me,” he burned with anger. 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,

Gen 39:

This is when it’s hard to trust God.

He didn’t do anything wrong we say. But he’s innocent we say.

Well if God let that happen to him, then that’s not a God I can trust. In fact,

It’s hard to trust when we believe God awards us (or judges us) according to our level of faith.

That’s what the Pharisee’s believed. IF I do all the right things…then God will love me more. And since they are really, really bad, God should really, really punish them.

But the truth is, we are awarded only by God’s grace. We don’t deserve God’s blessings, but he is generous.

Romans 11:6 NLT

And since it is through God’s kindness, then it is not by their good works. For in that case, God’s grace would not be what it really is—free and undeserved.

So what about the bad things in our lives? where do they come from? Sometimes it’s b/c of our poor choices, sometimes it’s because God wants to protect us from something much worse; sometimes bad things happen to us so that God can get our attention, to wake us up to the danger of living for ourselves only.

Fl…awful experience. God I did this for you…WHY?

Carrying a big rock - thrown in ocean - Who were you carrying the rock for?

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WHo were you carrying the rock forBLANK

ILLUSTRATION:

Fl…awful experience. God I did this for you…WHY?

But we aren’t judged according to the level of our faith. No, God is consistent, we are judged by what we do with the faith we are given, just like in the parable of the sower.

Genesis 40:23 NIV84

The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot him.

Really, Lord. They forgot me? I have been faithful all this time. I’ve been doing the right things…and now you let them forget me???

It’s hard to trust when we doubt God’s character.

Have you ever doubted God's character?

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ILLUSTRATION:

When our child was in the hospital, no one could tell us what was wrong…doubted God.

IT’s hard to trust God and doubt his character at the same time.

David again

Psalm 20:7 NIV84

Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

Genesis 37:12–20 NIV84

Sold to slave traders

Purchased by Pharaoh’s Captain

Things are turning up??? No It gets worse.

Accused of attempted rape.

Thrown in prison.

Makes some friends by interpreting dreams

Waits for them to get him out....things getting better…NO It gets worse

They forget about him.

It’s not until God gives Pharaoh a dream that no can understand, that someone remembers Joseph.

If I’m “the Friend” my first step is to get to know God.

2 Corinthians 12:9–10 NIV84

In my weakest, I have his strength. When I stop relying on me....and begin to trust Him…I”m at my strongest.

I have a friend who the doctors say is dying of cancer. She says that she is actually still waiting on him to heal her. She has been in this fight for 5 years now, all the while praising GOd for his love for her. She rejoices in the healing that He is going to do in her. As sick as she is, she is great ot be around…Because she knows God.

I want that faith, but this sort of faith only comes by knowing God.…

Before you can live this sort of faith out…

If I’m “the Friend” my first step is to get to know God-the Father.

we need to know the father, not only creator, but we are his children, chosen and adopted, who he loves

If I’m “the Friend” my first step is to get to know God-the Son.

we need to know Jesus, not only how he loved us and lived out his life perfectly, but how he died for us that we might live life to it’s fullest, fully surrendered to God.

If I’m “the Friend” my first step is to get to know God-the Spirit.

we need to know the spirit; the power to delight in hard times. The power to face the future unafraid when things are going wrong. The spirit that enables us to get up when depression is keeping us down.

Once we know Him, Once we have a relationship with Jesus and have an understanding of how our life fits into his, we can begin to trust God…even when things don’t make sense.

I can help my friend by killing Mr (or Mrs) Fix It.

WE want our friends to love Jesus and trust him…sure. We want to defend God and answer all their questions. But when our friends are going through it. It’s not the time to fix it. It’s the time to be with them and love them. Then when troubles come our way, we show them what it means to live out our faith.

God has a plan and a purpose for their life.

Our fixing more than likely will get in the way of them seeing what God wants them to see.

Our fixing more than likely will get in the way of them seeing what GOd wants them to see.

2 Corinthians 2:9–11 NIV84

The reason I wrote you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything. If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him. And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.

2 Corinthians 12:9–11 NIV84

9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 11 I have made a fool of myself, but you drove me to it. I ought to have been commended by you, for I am not in the least inferior to the “super-apostles,” even though I am nothing.

2 Corinthians 2:9-11

2 Corinthians 12:9–10 NIV84

2 Cor 12:

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