When Everything Goes Wrong

I rushed to the bathroom, grabbed what I thought was my toothpaste and brushed my teeth. To only find out it was actually my sisters’ colour hair mousse. I looked in the mirror to see my teeth were dark brown.

No time to worry about it now, I needed to have breakfast I was late for school! I grabbed the milk and cereal and ate as quickly as I could. While eating I found the cereal to have an awful taste, I looked at the box and saw that I had eaten the dog food pellets. Oh I felt so sick!

I rushed upstairs to get dressed. I didn’t want to miss the bus! I grabbed my school bag and ran to the bus stop. I found it strange that I was the only one waiting for the bus. 10 minutes later and there was still no bus in sight. Well, no time to waste, I had to get to school. I started running as fast as I could. I looked behind me and saw that a dog started chasing me. I don’t need this now, and ran very fast. The dog grabbed my uniform, I looked down and saw I had put on the wrong shoes and was wearing my brothers’ uniform. Oh! How could this day get any worse?!

Along the way my bag became lighter and lighter. I stopped to see that my zip on my school bag was open and all my books had fallen out along the way...

Finally I got to school, the gates were closed and there was not a person around. Just ME!!!

Confused, I looked around and found Mr Gold the school caretaker. I asked him where everyone was and why the school gates were locked. His answer was not a good one...”lt’s Saturday”, he replied!

I sat on the school steps and laughed out loud!!!!!

We experience that in life. There are times in life where everything just goes wrong. Maybe, this year has not started out like you hoped it would. Everything is going wrong. Maybe, last year was one of the roughest years of your life. Everything that could go wrong last year went wrong. Whether it is now or last years or 10 years ago, we have all been there where everything goes wrong.

Today, we want to talk about a guy in the Bible named Joseph. If you don’t much about Joseph, Joseph was on the 12 sons of Jacob. Joseph was his father’s favorite. His father gave Joseph the coat of many colors. God literally gave Joseph visions of grandeur in which his father and brothers were bowing down to Joseph. It looked like Joseph was set up for a great life. But then everything went wrong for Joseph. His brothers were jealous and hated Joseph. They were planning to kill him but ended up selling him into slavery. Joseph became a slave in Egypt. Joseph was falsely accused and thrown into prison. Everything went wrong for Joseph. Things were bad for Joseph. It was a dark time in Joseph’s life.

But there are some powerful lessons that we can learn from Joseph’s life that can help us better handle when everything goes wrong in our lives.

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1. Don’t Demand to Understand

Theological: Look at verse 20. Let’s talk about the prison that Joseph was cast into.

And Bible scholars tell us that the prison that he was cast into was not just a normal prison. The word prison here is the word for “hole.” They cast him into the hole, into the dungeon, into the dark part, the slimy part, where the king’s prisoners were bound. That is, the innermost prison. That’s not just an ordinary prison. He’s in a very tight security. And there he is.

Adrian Rogers: Now, remember that he is there not for doing wrong; he is there for doing right. Had he been willing to commit adultery with Potiphar’s wife, he could have stayed out of prison; but because he dared to be different, because he purposed to be pure, he’s now in prison.

Read through the entire story of Joseph. He never demanded to understand. He never demanded that God give him insight into what he was going through.

Practical: When we go through tough times, do you know what our first question to God is? Why? God, why is this happening to me. We demand to understand. We want to know the why immediately.

(KJV) For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

God’s thoughts and techniques are different than ours.

Illustration: I heard about a college boy who came home from college. He was telling his dad—his dad was a farmer—he said, “You know, I’ve learned a lot of things in college.” He was a freshman. He said, “I studied biology. I found out the world is made wrong, and God just created everything wrong, if God created it.” His father said, “Oh, how is that?” They were talking, standing under an oak tree, and the son says, “Well, for example, Dad, look at this oak tree. Look how big, how strong, it is. It has those little acorns on it. And then look down here on the ground. There’s a little weak pumpkin vine, and it has those big pumpkins.” And he said, “Really, the pumpkins ought to be on the big oak tree and the little acorns on the weak vine.” About that time, an acorn fell off that tree and hit him on the head. He said, “Boy, I’m glad it wasn’t a pumpkin.” Amen?

Practical: When we don’t understand, God does. Sometimes, God gives us understanding. Joseph got understanding much later in the story. But sometimes, God never reveals the why. Take Job. Everything went wrong in Job’s life. His children died. He lost his cattle. Job developed painful boils all over his body. Job demanded understanding. Job wanted to know why all this bad was happening to him. God never explained the why to Job. As Biblical readers, God pulls back the curtain for us and shows us the purpose behind Job’s suffering.

When God doesn’t pull back the curtain and give us understanding on why tough times are happening, we have to trust that God has a purpose behind it.

2. Don’t Fail to be Faithful

Theological: Look at verse 21. This verse tells us that Joseph didn’t fail to be faithful. Joseph didn’t understand why his brothers sold him into slavery. Joseph didn’t understand why he was prison for doing the right thing. But the one thing that Joseph knew. He had to be faithful to God. No matter what, no matter where — Joseph was going to be faithful to serve the Lord.

Practical: Do we remain faithful to God even when things are falling apart in our lives?

Illustration: Snake on Porch

Difficult times stop a lot of Christians. During difficult times, Satan fills our minds with doubts with God. We stop trusting God. We stop praying. We stop worshipping the Lord. We stop attending church.

But the lesson from Joseph’s life is that we need to remain faithful to God through difficult circumstances. When things go bad in life, we need to keep praying. We need to keep trusting. When things go bad, we need to keep worshipping. We need keep serving. We need to keep attending church.

God honors faithfulness. God gives us encouragement. God gives us the word that we need to hear.

Illustration: Uncle Bob and Devotional Bible

God honors faithfulness. Don’t fail to be faithful during difficult times.

3. Don’t Bow to Bitterness

Illustration: Man Who Got Bit by a Dog with Rabies

Theological:

The one thing we don’t see in those verses is bitterness from Joseph. Joseph told the truth about what happened to him. But there’s no bitterness. Joseph didn’t say one bad thing about his brother. Joseph didn’t say one bad thing about Potiphar or his wife. Joseph stuck to the facts, but there was no spirit of bitterness in him.

If Joseph had been bitter, he would have said something like my rotten, lousy brothers sold me slavery. If Joseph had been bitter, he would have said something like that low down, lying wife of Potiphar got be thrown into prison.

But there is no bitterness in Joseph. Later when Joseph’s brothers showed up, he didn’t seek revenge. He wasn’t bitter. Joseph loved and cared for his brothers.

Practical: When things go wrong, it’s tempting to get bitter. It’s tempting to get bitter at God. It’s tempting to get bitter with other people. It’s tempting to get bitter with life in bitterness.

(CSB) Make sure that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no root of bitterness springs up, causing trouble and defiling many.

Bitterness starts as a root. It starts as a little tiny root; therefore, it is very hard to detect. The root of bitterness is not large or on the surface where it can be easily detected; rather it is like a cancer. Bitterness does its insidious work deep down in the marrow of your soul. Only after it has metastasized do symptoms surface in bitter words, bitter thoughts and bitter deeds.

Bitterness only makes things worse. Bitterness poisons our spirit. Bitterness steals what happiness we have left. Bitterness robs us of joy.

Some of us today are being eaten alive by bitterness. If you bowing bitterness, ask God to take bitterness from your heart and spirit.

4. Don’t Rush God

Theological: , .

Joseph was 30 years old when he stood before pharaoh. He was 17 years old when he came to Egypt. For 13 years, Joseph was a slave and prisoner in Egypt. Everyone had forgotten about Joseph except God. Joseph suffered for 13 long years that brought him to the moment when Joseph stood before Pharaoh to interpret his dream. God would use Joseph to save His people from family. For 13 years, God was orchestrating events, using bad things to accomplish his purpose. Don’t rush God.

Practical: Waiting is not the mentality of our culture. We hate waiting. Even free two day shipping from Amazon or Walmart takes to long to get to us.

We don’t want to wait on God. We want to rush God. We want to rush the work of God.

Illustration: College Bible Study

Conclusion

When everything goes wrong, I hope we can live out these teachings from Joseph’s life. Don’t rush God. Don’t demand to understand. Don’t fail to be faithful. Don’t bow to bitterness.

As we go through difficult times, I want to remind you of one more thing. God was with Joseph. God is with us. We are not alone when everything goes wrong. God is with us. God is with us.

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