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[0:00] Amen. What an incredible privilege it is to sing with this congregation and to have such incredible musicians.! We are just incredibly thankful for each of you and the choir. Always an incredible job.

[0:11] ! This morning we're going to be in the book of Genesis and I want us to consider a question that I believe to be a little bit of a difficult one to work through. Have you ever questioned God's goodness?

[0:23] Have you ever thought to yourself, is God really good? Maybe we sing songs like count your blessings and thank you Lord and you see others close their eyes, lift up their hands, say thank you Lord and have gratitude on their hearts.

[0:37] But you quietly think to yourself, I just can't right now. This morning I asked the question, is God good? Out of a personal dilemma that I've had to walk through through various seasons of life.

[0:49] The dilemma that I know God to be good up here, but I start to question it down here in my heart through various seasons of suffering and trials. There's something about the struggles and suffering that we face in life that calls us to ask the question at times, is God really good?

[1:08] Again, there have been seasons in my life where I've had to wrestle through that question and even felt bad for asking it. The church isn't always a place where doubt and questions can be expressed in certain ways.

[1:20] So we push the question often to the side, suppress it down and continue to struggle in silence. But friends, the scriptures are filled with people who ask that very question.

[1:33] And the Bible does a good job at answering it. Al Mohler, the president of Southern Seminary, he writes that the Bible is strikingly candid about human suffering, including the vexing or confusing reality that God's own people suffer and often suffer excruciatingly and lastingly.

[1:53] So this morning I want us to earnestly seek an answer to this question. Because to me, even what may be a solid biblical truth may seem nothing more than a cheap platitude outside of its context when suffering lands in your lap.

[2:09] And I would argue that some of you perhaps have asked the same question. So this morning we're going to be looking at the life of a man named Joseph who experienced great suffering in his lifetime. And we're going to be answering this question, is God good?

[2:21] And my prayer is that if you've been suffering silently or ever found yourself wrestling with this great question, that today we can examine the scriptures together and see the goodness of God in even the most broken parts of our lives.

[2:34] So if you have your Bibles, we're going to be starting in Genesis chapter 37 where we're introduced to a young man named Joseph. His story spans about the last 14 chapters of the book of Genesis. And throughout these chapters we read a great deal about the trials that are thrown Joseph's way.

[2:50] He experiences family drama as his brothers plot his death and throw him in a pit. He experiences social trauma as he is sold into slavery by his brothers and stripped away from his family and his homeland.

[3:04] He experiences wrongful termination at work as he is accused of a sex scandal and tossed in prison. He experiences suffering and isolation due to the sins and decisions of others.

[3:17] He experiences the loss of his father after being robbed of many years that he could have had with him. I believe that if there is someone that can relate to your struggles, any amount of suffering that you may have experienced, it would be this guy named Joseph.

[3:30] He is a real person in a real story that has experienced real suffering. So if you have God's word in Genesis chapter 37, let's read from God's word and see what Joseph's story has for us.

[3:41] Genesis chapter 37, starting in verse 3. Now Israel, or Jacob, loved Joseph more than any other of his sons because he was a son of his old age.

[3:53] And he made him a robe of many colors. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him.

[4:06] You see, Joseph was the son of his father's favorite wife. Now that's a story in and of itself. Joseph is the son of his father's favorite wife. There's already, what we can see, some family dynamics that are going to cause somewhat of a conflict here.

[4:22] Because Joseph was so clearly his father's favorite, his brothers have grown to resent him. And years have passed by, years and years, and that hatred towards him has grown, it has festered, and the bitterness that is present between Joseph and his brothers, it's not a good start.

[4:41] But the story continues. Chapter 37, verse 5. Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more.

[4:51] So in this dream that Joseph had, he tells his brothers essentially that they will bow down before him. As you might imagine, that doesn't bode well.

[5:02] And it says in verse 8, they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words. Joseph dreams again. He dreams another dream. And this time, not only are his brothers bowing down before him, but even his father and his mother.

[5:19] In Genesis 37, verse 11, we read what happens. And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind. So we are introduced to this man named Joseph, and we very quickly see some family dynamics that are causing some issues.

[5:35] Joseph is favored by his father and seemingly favored by God. And his brothers cannot handle it. So when Joseph is sent by their father to come and check on them as they labored in the fields, they hatch a plan and their inside thoughts begin to be said aloud.

[5:53] Verse 18, they saw him from afar, and before he came to them, they conspired against him to kill him. They said to one another, here comes this dreamer.

[6:06] Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. Then we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him, and we will see what becomes of his dreams.

[6:17] Now again, these words are not being said in a vacuum. Years have gone by. Their hatred and their anger and their jealousy towards their brother have grown and grown, and they have reached their boiling point in this passage, to the point where they make plans to murder their brother Joseph.

[6:37] Now the firstborn brother, his name is Reuben. Reuben has another idea altogether. Reuben, in previous chapters, had sinned against their father in a pretty spectacular manner, to where Reuben sees this as an opportunity.

[6:50] So Reuben tells his brothers, instead of killing him and tossing him in a pit, let's just throw him in the pit and let him die. That way the blood is off of our hands, and secretly Reuben planned to come back later and rescue him, so that maybe through rescuing his brother, his father might love him once again.

[7:10] Reuben thinks that's a great idea, and it says that the others listened to him. We see the story continue in verse 23. So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colors that he wore, and they took him and threw him into a pit.

[7:27] The pit was empty. There was no water in it. Then they sat down to eat. Now, I'm not sure what types of problems your family may have, but I would argue that the fact that they can so easily throw their brother in a pit after conspiring to murder him, strip him of his robes, and still have an appetite to sit down for lunch, that should show you a little bit of the chaos that we are reading here.

[7:59] At that point, a caravan of travelers passes by, and in verse 25, another brother named Judah, that we'll come back to later, Judah again says the private thoughts out loud. He says in verse 25, What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood?

[8:15] Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh, and it says that his brothers listened. So while the narrator of this story is focusing in on the brothers, conspiring up top, I cannot help but imagine what is going through the mind of Joseph in the pit.

[8:35] I would have to think that he is sitting there asking a couple of questions. Why me? This does not seem like the life that I was promised what I think I deserve.

[8:48] So Joseph sits in the pit when his life seems to have been flipped, turned upside down, and his life, whatever might be left of it at this point, will never be the same.

[8:59] Well, the story continues from the pit to the prison. We pick up Joseph's story in chapter 39. We'll come back to chapter 38, but chapter 39, verse 1, we continue with Joseph's story.

[9:10] Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, had bought him from the Ishmaelites, who had brought him down there.

[9:24] So whereas God is not mentioned at all in chapter 37, the narrator makes all the effort and goes above and beyond to remind us during this season of Joseph's life that God is present in it.

[9:37] In chapter 39, verse 2, he writes, the Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man. And he was in the house of an Egyptian master, his Egyptian master.

[9:48] His master saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord caused all that he did to succeed in his hands. So Joseph found favor in his sight and attended him.

[9:58] And he made him overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had. From that time, from the time that he made him an overseer in his house and over all that he had, the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake.

[10:13] The blessing of the Lord was on all that he had in house and field. So despite his hardship during this season, everything at this point seems to be coming up Joseph.

[10:24] He's being blessed. God's presence is clearly with him. He's favored by Potiphar, and everything seems to be going well. Until verse 7, where Potiphar's wife starts to set her eyes on Joseph, and she says to him, lie with me.

[10:42] Joseph refuses, and day after day, she continues to pursue him. Until one day, Potiphar's wife finds an opportunity to make her move. She pulls him close, grabs his garment, and Joseph pulls away, escapes her grasp, and runs from the house with his garments still in Potiphar's wife's grasp.

[11:03] Now, the last time Joseph was disrobed, it resulted in him being thrown in a pit. And this part of his story, the same occurs. Potiphar's wife then claims to her husband and the guards that Joseph sought to take advantage of her.

[11:16] And Potiphar, filled with anger, threw him into the pit, the prison. A cycle seems to be happening in Joseph's life where blessing leads to brokenness.

[11:27] Blessing to brokenness. And again, Joseph finds himself at the bottom of a pit in prison through the anger and decisions of someone else.

[11:38] Now, I would have to think that Joseph asked a question. Why me? This doesn't quite seem like the life I think I deserve, but I think I was promised.

[11:51] In all of this, Joseph, whether he was aware of it or not at the time, the narrator makes it abundantly clear. Chapter 39, verse 21, he writes, But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.

[12:10] So just as before, God continues to bless Joseph. In what seems to be a harrowing moment, one of deep anguish, in one of no sense of blessing, God is present with him.

[12:24] He allows all that Joseph does to be a blessing to the ones around him. And the keeper of the prison specifically places Joseph above all the other prisoners, which would come to be and include the chief cupbearer and the chief baker of the pharaoh himself.

[12:42] One night, the chief cupbearer and baker both have dreams that troubled them. The morning comes, Joseph walks up to them, and they are discussing their dreams.

[12:53] And Joseph, who just so happens to have some experience with dreams and interpreting them, offers them an interpretation from the Lord. He interprets that the cupbearer in three days' time will be restored to his position, whereas the baker will be hanged and put to death.

[13:11] Because he believes this to be true for the cupbearer, Joseph makes a request of him in Genesis chapter 40, verse 14. Joseph says, Yet despite all of these events coming to happen, everything just as the Lord interpreted it to be, despite all of these things coming to happen, the chapter still ends with these haunting words in verse 23 of chapter 40.

[13:57] It writes, Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him. Two more years pass. Joseph forgotten in the pit, seemingly alone.

[14:10] His story continues this time from the prison to the palace. For at that moment, the Pharaoh has a dream. And no one else in the kingdom, none of the magicians, none of the court help, can seem to make sense of it.

[14:24] And it's at that point when the chief cupbearer remembers a man that he met in prison, a Hebrew man named Joseph. We see written in chapter 41, verse 14. Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they quickly brought him out of the pit.

[14:42] Love that imagery. They quickly brought him out of the pit. And when he had shaved himself and changed his clothes, he came in before Pharaoh. And Joseph again trusts God for an interpretation of a dream.

[14:56] He trusts God for interpretation of the Pharaoh's dream. The Pharaoh had dreamed, and the interpretation went like this. There will be seven years of good harvest, seven years of bounty, that will be followed by seven years of famine.

[15:10] And out of the divine wisdom and interpretation, Joseph offers advice to the Pharaoh. He says if they manage the seven years of good harvest well, they can not only survive the famine, but thrive.

[15:23] Well, the Pharaoh liked this interpretation. Chapter 41, verse 37, he makes a plan. Chapter 41, verse 37. This proposal pleased Pharaoh and all his servants.

[15:37] And Pharaoh said to his servants, Can we find a man like this, in whom is the Spirit of God? Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are.

[15:50] You shall be over my house, and all my people shall order themselves as you command. Only as regards to the throne will I be greater than you. So Pharaoh takes Joseph, places him over all of his kingdom, all of the storehouses, all of the harvest.

[16:07] He places Joseph in charge. And not only does he show favor on Joseph in this way, he also gives Joseph a wife. To that wife he has two children. And the names of these children bear incredible significance for this part of Joseph's story.

[16:22] Chapter 41, verse 51. Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh. For, he said, God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father's house.

[16:36] The name of the second he called Ephraim. For God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction. You see, during those seven years of good harvests, not only does God seem to provide for the Pharaoh in his kingdom, it seems as though Joseph starts to heal.

[16:57] He starts to move past the trauma of his past. He starts to move forward and make roots for himself and create a new life. But during the time of famine that would come, two years would pass.

[17:09] And at that point, with the famine ravaging all the surrounding lands, people from all over began to come to Egypt for food, including ten brothers from the land of Canaan.

[17:23] Ten brothers from the land of Canaan. Over 20 years had passed since Joseph had been tossed in a pit by his brothers and sold into slavery. Yet now they bow before him, asking for food, begging for food for their lives.

[17:41] Now, because his brothers did not recognize him after all these years, they thought that he was dead. Joseph would take the next few chapters of the story to put them through various tests.

[17:52] And while I do not believe the tests that Joseph puts them through are necessarily sinful, I would interpret and I would argue that they likely show that Joseph hasn't quite moved beyond the trauma of his past.

[18:04] He hasn't fully forgotten what his brothers made him go through. All that to say, chapter 45 comes around when he's finally reunited with all of his brothers, including his younger brother, Benjamin.

[18:17] And he finally admits with tears flooding down his face, chapter 45, verse 3. He tells them, I am Joseph. Is my father still alive? He continues in verse 4.

[18:28] I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here. For God sent me before you to preserve life.

[18:40] For the famine has been in the lands these two years, and there are still five years in which there will neither be plowing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth.

[18:52] And to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and ruler over all the land of Egypt.

[19:09] Moving forward, Joseph's father, Jacob, Israel, he and all of his household moved to Egypt. Pharaoh blesses them and gives them land in which they can provide a place for themselves.

[19:20] They live and they survive the famine. They grow and their household enlarges. Fourteen years pass. Until one night, Jacob, Joseph's father, calls him into his bedside.

[19:35] Jacob, I mean, calls Joseph and his two sons, and he blesses them. Not only that, he brings the rest of his brothers in, and he prophesies over all of them. And chapter 49 ends with Jacob, Joseph's father, breathing his last breath and dying.

[19:53] Now, if you've held with me, we've gone through about 14 chapters of the book of Genesis. You may be thinking to yourself at this point, well, now I see why Pastor Brett will take three weeks to go through a single chapter. Evan, that was probably too much for you to go through in one sermon.

[20:06] But honestly, looking at this, this story is not just 14 chapters. Honestly, this morning, I want us to hone in on one single verse. Because Joseph's story is crescendoing to this point, where after all that he has gone through, after all that he has endured, he turns to his brothers, and he says this in Genesis chapter 50, verse 20.

[20:29] As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today.

[20:46] You see, this statement by Joseph is not the statement of a man who hasn't endured through suffering. This is the statement of a 60-year-old man who has endured much affliction and much suffering in his lifetime.

[21:00] And he can look back over all that he has endured, over all that he has endured and gone through, after all that he has suffered, he can look back and say, God was good even in the most broken parts of my life.

[21:13] God has been good even in the most broken parts. Pastor Sinclair Ferguson compares the story of Joseph to that of a jigsaw puzzle, stating this, after a long meditation, Joseph is able to say, these things that you brought upon me, along with others, were meant, humanly speaking, to harm me, even to destroy me.

[21:38] But I see now, looking back, putting together the jigsaw puzzle pieces, that there is a single word written over all of these hardships, all of these disappointments, all of my confusions and perplexities, and it is the divine word, good.

[21:57] It has all been good. So perhaps this morning, if you've ever found yourself asking this question, is God really good? If you've ever found yourself silently suffering, questioning the goodness of God, then I want to spend the time that we have together this morning, the last few moments here, with a few encouragements, encouragements specifically for you.

[22:18] That's a lot of S's. I want to specifically encourage you from this verse today. And the first thing that I think Joseph makes abundantly clear in this verse is that God is not absent from your story.

[22:32] God is not absent from your story. In the midst of all the evil that was thrown Joseph's way, he confidently claims that God was present in the thick of it all.

[22:43] We see hints of this throughout Joseph's story. When he would be in Potiphar's house or the prison, it would say very clearly that the Lord was with him and blessed him. But Joseph reminds us in verse 20 that it's not just in the times of good that God was present with him.

[22:59] In all of the bad times and all of the brokenness and all the darkness, God was present there as well. In all the things that he has endured, God has been there.

[23:11] When Joseph sat alone in the pit, God was still there. When Joseph was forgotten by his brothers and sold into slavery, God was still there. When Joseph was forgotten in the prison and wrongfully accused, God was still there.

[23:28] Perhaps you've had moments in your life where you've questioned and wondered, is God still there for me? Does he still love me? I want to encourage you today that even in those moments, God is still there.

[23:41] He's present. God is still a part of your story. He hasn't forgotten you. He has not abandoned you. And if perhaps you think to yourself that I am forgotten by God, I am alone in this, that is a work of the enemy.

[23:53] That is a work of Satan himself. God is not absent from your story. God is present in it all. A powerful reminder of this can be found just by looking around the church.

[24:04] Pastor Brett shared with me a quote from one of his favorite books, Gentleman Lowley, where the author writes this. He said, When you look at the glorious older saints in your church, how do you think they got there?

[24:17] Sound doctrine? Yes. Resolute obedience without a doubt. Suffering without becoming cynical? Sure. But maybe another reason, maybe the deepest reason, is that they have over time been won over in their deepest affections to a gentle Savior.

[24:37] Perhaps they have simply tasted over many years the surprise of a Christ for whom their very sin draws them away. And note this, maybe, just maybe, they have not only known that Jesus loved them, but they felt it.

[24:53] God is not absent from your story. Secondly, this morning, I want to remind us that your life, as disastrous and damaged as it may seem, is no mistake.

[25:04] Your life, as disastrous and damaged as it may seem, is no mistake. Now, this truth is abundantly clear through the life of Joseph. Had any part of Joseph's story not happened just as it did, Genesis 50 would end with a famine going on and God's people dead.

[25:22] But God worked in the midst of all of this story. While I cannot theologically claim, nor would I argue, that God would necessarily cause evil, pain, or suffering, I do believe in the fullness of my heart and from the experience that I've gone through, that God can and will work it out for good.

[25:45] He can work it out for good. Looking at this, we live in a broken and fallen world. None of us escape unscathed nor unscarred. Pain is real.

[25:56] Hardship is real. Trials and suffering is real. Yet God, through his absolute sovereign grace, can take even the most broken part of our life and he can work it out for good.

[26:08] He can ensure that we do not senselessly suffer or experience pain without purpose. And this isn't just true in Joseph's story. There's another individual in this story that reminds us here that God is still good even in the brokenness.

[26:26] Judah is an interesting character. He's the brother that says, you know, let's not just kill him, let's sell him into slavery. Next week as we transition to Advent, you won't find Joseph in the genealogy of Jesus.

[26:40] It's Judah. Judah's story is fascinating. I skipped chapter 38 earlier, but in chapter 38 of Genesis, Judah's chaos and wickedness is on full display.

[26:51] In chapter 38, Judah marries a Canaanite woman and has three sons. To that first son, Judah gives a wife named Tamar and Judah, it is written, his son is so evil, so wicked, that firstborn, God puts him to death.

[27:07] Well, Judah then takes Tamar and gives her as a wife to his secondborn son. That son, just in the same way, out of his wickedness, it says that God put him to death. Judah then promises Tamar, I will provide for you, I will protect you, you are part of our family, and I will give you as a wife to our third son.

[27:26] Yet he has no intentions of following through that. In fact, as you read throughout Genesis 38, Judah's wickedness is on full display. And as you read throughout the story through even more terrible circumstances in chapter 38, Judah, after the loss of his wife, he seeks comfort from a prostitute who is disguised, who is Tamar in disguise.

[27:47] Tamar lies with Judah, and Judah has two sons to his daughter-in-law Tamar. It is a wicked and messed up chapter of God's word.

[27:59] After trying to shift the blame back on Tamar, Judah, at the end of that chapter, it's remarkable. He actually shows some sign of redemption. He shows some sign of change, some sign of reconciliation that God is doing on work in his heart.

[28:15] Now you're probably wondering, Evan, what in the world does this have to do with any of this stuff? Well, why is this important? Because while some of you may have been sinned against, while some of you may have experienced suffering through the hands of others, perhaps some of you have made your own mistakes, and it's cost you dearly.

[28:33] To you specifically, I want to say very clearly, God's grace is sufficient for you. Even in your most broken chapters of your life, even in the most desperate of hardship, God's grace is still sufficient for you.

[28:49] Your life, as disastrous and damaged as it may be, is no mistake. Finally, we see in this chapter, this verse specifically, that God, in all his goodness, is still worthy of our praise.

[29:06] After all that he has endured, Joseph, at the end of his life, he is able to recognize that God, in all of his goodness, is worthy of his praise. The apostle Paul makes a very similar claim in Romans 8.28 to that of Joseph.

[29:19] Paul writes in Romans 8.28, and we know, have confidence, we know, that for those who love God, all things, all things work together for good.

[29:31] For those who are called according to his purpose. One writer remarks of Paul's writings, saying he doesn't tell his readers to grin and bear it.

[29:43] Paul tells them to recognize that even the evil and wicked parts of the story do not fall outside of the plans of God. God will ultimately use every circumstance to accomplish his plans and help conform his people into the image of Christ.

[30:01] Christ. You see, God's plans are much bigger than ours. I saw a quote by Pastor John Piper this past week where he said that at any moment of our life, at any moment of time, God is doing at least 10,000 things in our life, and we may realize or be aware of three of them.

[30:18] God's plans are much bigger than ours. From the moment sin entered the world, God had a plan to redeem it. While we may experience real suffering, genuine loss, very real hardship, Jesus Christ took that suffering upon himself.

[30:36] He bore it on Calvary where he was beaten, afflicted, and crucified so that through his suffering we may have life abundant. So that through his sacrifice and resurrection we may experience true peace, hope, joy, and love that could only be found in Jesus Christ.

[30:57] Christ. He is worthy of our worship. He's worthy of our praise. At this time I'm going to ask Clay and Grant to come.

[31:08] As we think of Joseph's life we're reminded that God is good even in the most broken parts of our lives. He never leaves us. He can redeem even the darkest moments of our lives. And he is forever worthy of our praise.

[31:21] We're going to pray and then we're going to have a moment of invitation. I want to invite you to respond as you see fit. As God may be prompting your heart. If there's brokenness in your life I invite you to pray, to sing, to find the goodness of God in every aspect of life.

[31:40] Because he is good and he is worthy of our worship. Let's pray. Father I want to thank you. Thank you for this day and this opportunity to sing your praises. Father I pray this morning that each of us may look back on the jigsaw puzzle that is our life and as we start to see how each piece is put together that we may see that God you are good.

[32:04] God you use even the most broken parts of our lives and you redeem it. God you give us hope everlasting. And Lord I pray that moving forward today we may be able in all the suffering of life to suffer as those that have hope.

[32:17]  Lord we love you. It's in your holy name we pray. Amen.