Well, please take your Bibles this morning and open them up to Genesis chapter 37.
!
Their story last week in chapter 36.
And now the rest of the book of Genesis, starting here in chapter 37, is going to focus in on
the story of Joseph.
And so if you would, when you found it, Genesis 37, let's stand in honor of the reading of
the Word of God.
Jacob lived in the land of his father's sojournings in the land of Canaan.
And these are the generations of Jacob.
Joseph, being 17 years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers.
He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives.
And Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father.
Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he was the son of his old
age, 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.
Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more.
He said to them,
Hear this dream that I have dreamed.
Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field.
And behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright.
And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.
And his brothers said to him,
Are you indeed to reign over us?
Or are you indeed to rule over us?
So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.
Then he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers and said,
Behold, I have dreamed another dream.
Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.
But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him,
What is this dream that you have dreamed?
Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?
And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind.
Now his brothers went to pasture their father's flock near Shechem.
And Israel said to Joseph,
Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem?
Come, I will send you to them.
And he said to him,
Here I am.
So he said to him,
Go now, see if it is well with your brothers and with the flock, and bring me word.
So he sent him from the valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.
And a man found him wandering in the fields, and the man asked him,
What are you seeking?
I am seeking my brothers, he said.
Tell me, please, where they are pasturing the flock.
And the man said,
They have gone away, for I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan.
So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan.
They saw him from afar, and before he came near to them,
they conspired against him to kill him.
And they said to one another,
Here comes this dreamer.
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 will become of his dreams.
But when Reuben heard it, he rescued him out of their hands, saying,
Let us not take his life.
And Reuben said to them,
Shed no blood.
Throw him into this pit here in the wilderness,
but do not lay a hand on him,
that he might rescue him out of their hand to restore him to his father.
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.
The pit was empty.
There was no water in it.
Then they sat down to eat.
And looking up,
they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead
with their camels bearing gum, balm, and myrrh
on their way to carry it down to Egypt.
Then Judah said to his brothers,
What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood?
Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites,
and let not our hand be upon him.
For he is our brother, our own flesh.
And his brothers listened to him.
Then Midianite traders passed by,
and they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit
and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver.
And they took Joseph to Egypt.
When Reuben returned to the pit
and saw that Joseph was not in the pit,
he tore his clothes and returned to his brothers and said,
The boy is gone, and I, where shall I go?
Then they took Joseph's robe and slaughtered a goat
and dipped the robe in the blood.
And they sent the robe of many colors
and brought it to their father and said,
This we have found.
Please identify whether it is your son's robe or not.
And he identified it and said,
It is my son's robe.
A fierce animal has devoured him.
Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces.
Then Jacob tore his garments and put sackcloth on his loins
and mourned for his son many days.
All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him,
but he refused to be comforted and said,
No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son mourning.
Thus his father wept for him.
Meanwhile, the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar,
an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard.
The grass withers and the flower fades,
but the word of the Lord endures forever.
Father, we pray now as we open up this word
and begin the story of Joseph,
Lord, would you give us our proper perspective
on the suffering that comes into our life?
Would we see it in light of the promises you've made to us in Christ?
We pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
You may be seated.
Amen.
God permits what he hates to accomplish what he loves.
These ten words changed Joni Erikson Tada's perspective on her suffering.
You may be familiar with the story of Joni Erikson Tada.
She suffered a tragic car accident as a teenager
that broke her neck and left her for life,
suffering as a quadriplegic,
suffering all sorts of physical distress,
obviously as a paralyzed teenager,
but as well as emotional distress and spiritual distress.
She wondered and she asked,
well, how could a good God allow something like this to happen to me?
How could a good God allow someone like me
who has all of my life ahead of me
to go through such suffering?
And these ten words shared by a friend of hers
put everything into proper perspective.
God permits what he hates
to accomplish what he loves.
When you read through the scriptures,
you'll notice that believers,
they have a kind of strange way of thinking about suffering
and injustice.
You read the book of James
and you'll see he tells us,
count it all joy, my brothers,
when you meet trials of various kinds.
That's strange.
Peter tells us,
do not be surprised at the fiery trial
when it comes upon you to test you.
John tells us,
don't be surprised, brothers,
that the world hates you.
And Paul tells us,
we rejoice in our sufferings.
I mean, don't you wish that you knew the secret
to how we can actually view suffering
and injustice with that kind of perspective?
This morning, we get to see the secret
from the story of Joseph.
And the secret is this,
it's the absolute certainty
that God is at work in all things,
even the hardest things in our life,
for good.
Now, this seems to be the big picture message
of Joseph's story.
I'm excited to dive into his story
over the next several weeks together.
This is an innocent man,
a teenager, 17 years old,
who faced harsh and unfair circumstances.
He's the victim of great injustice.
And yet, in all of it,
what we see as we walk through Joseph's story together
is that our God was at work for good.
So let's take a look here this morning
and we'll ask the question,
how should believers think about our suffering?
And we'll see four answers this morning.
This will be our outline if you're taking notes.
How should believers think about our suffering?
Four answers.
First, we should understand
that here in a fallen world, believer,
people may hate your favor.
People may hate your favor.
Look there with me to verse one.
We see this in verses one through four here
at the beginning of the passage.
And here we see how loved Joseph is by his father.
Joseph, by the time that we catch up with him
here in chapter seven,
he's now 17 years old.
You might remember how he was the only son
that Rachel bore to Jacob
until finally she gave birth last week to Benjamin
and ended up dying in childbirth with him.
But we see that Joseph,
he holds a special place in his father's heart.
I mean, he is clearly his father's favorite son.
Jacob loved Rachel more than all his other wives.
She was his favorite wife.
And now we see that he loved Joseph
more than all his other sons.
And I'm sure you realize, right, parents in the room,
this is not a good idea.
We ought not play favorites with your kids.
But Jacob does.
And we see this tension building up in the family as a result.
Look there to verse two.
It says that Joseph grew up with his brothers,
the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah.
And he brought a bad report of them to their father.
Younger brother Joseph is a tattletale.
And you can just imagine Joseph coming and spilling all the dirt,
sharing all those bad things his brothers are up to.
And how do you think his brothers are going to feel about that?
Right?
You probably are familiar with the saying,
snitches get what?
Help me.
Snitches.
Yeah, snitches get stitches, right?
Nobody likes to be told on.
And here's Joseph, his father's golden child.
He's spilling all the family gossip at his father's feet.
So that's strike number one against Joseph.
Strike number two comes here in verse three.
Look there.
Verse three says that Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons.
And again, this isn't a surprise.
We've seen this building already, haven't we?
You remember how when Jacob feared meeting Esau on the way back into town,
how he strategically thought about how to handle the situation.
What did he do?
He put all his other kids at the front of the line
and he put Rachel and Joseph all the way at the back
so that if Esau came and was angry,
he would take care of all of them first
and maybe Rachel and Joseph would be able to escape.
This is nothing new here.
Everybody knows that Joseph is the favorite.
And again, we get to see how Israel's sin
is having this negative ripple effect on the whole family here.
He loves Joseph the most.
And to make that abundantly clear, just so that everyone can see it,
Israel gives him this special multicolored robe.
It's like a visual reminder to everyone every day,
to all his brothers, everybody that sees him,
that I'm special and I'm the one that's loved by my father.
You don't have one of those, do you?
Right?
And we see in verse 4,
when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers,
how did they respond?
They hated him.
They could not even speak peacefully to him.
This is strike number two.
They hate that he is so loved by his father.
Now, none of us are Joseph.
This story is not ultimately about us.
But, if we are in Christ,
then we can draw a connection here
and draw some similarities here
to the experience of Christians here in this world.
You remember John told us,
do not be surprised that the world hates you.
And one reason why the world might hate you,
even if they don't recognize it,
is because you, Christian, are so beloved of the father.
Now, just think about who you are in Christ for a moment.
If you are in Christ,
you are a beloved child of God.
And sure, yes, of course,
God has a certain general love for all his creation
and the most general way of speaking
that we are all children of God
and that he has created all of us.
But the Bible tells us
that the Lord has a special, particular,
saving, steadfast love for his people in Christ
that not everyone in the world shares.
Those who are in Christ are children of God.
The Bible tells us those who are not in Christ
are children of the enemy.
The church is the very bride of Christ.
And I can tell you I love all of you,
but I can assure you
I don't love you the same way that I love my bride.
Ephesians 5 tells us that he loves the church
and gave himself up for the church.
And sometimes we sing the line in the old hymn
that from heaven he came and sought her
to be his holy bride.
With his own blood he bought her
and for her life he died.
We are his own body.
He nourishes us and cherishes us
and he washes us as with water,
with the word of God.
We're told in Ephesians 1,
in love he predestined us for adoption as sons.
We're told in Romans 8
that nothing can separate us
from the love of God for us in Christ.
This is the special love that God has for his people.
We may not be robed in material goods,
and some are, some aren't,
but the Lord robes his people in joy
and in confidence and in hope and in holiness.
And one day, church, we will be robed in glory.
But you see, those who don't know him,
they don't share this special favor.
They don't share this place of privilege.
And they don't share this extravagant love of God.
And so what happens when you speak to them
or to your father about their sin
and this thing called repentance of sin,
what happens?
How do they respond?
Some may listen and repent
and prove themselves to belong to the Lord,
but others, guess what?
They will hate you for it.
Do you notice that when you come to Christ
and some of those relationships
that you had before,
they get a little bit tougher,
a little bit harder to navigate?
There is a spiritual division
between those who know the Lord
and those who do not know the Lord.
And there's a reason why.
Jesus tells us in John chapter 15,
if the world hates you,
know that it has hated me before it hated you.
If you were of the world,
the world would love you as its own,
but because you are not of the world,
but I chose you out of the world,
we could say with Ephesians 1,
I chose you in love out of the world,
therefore the world hates you.
Don't be surprised by this.
Not only this,
but second,
we should also know in a fallen world,
people may hate your future.
People may hate your future.
Look there with me starting in verse five.
And here we see strike number three.
Joseph has a dream.
And it says that when he shares this dream,
when he told him his dream,
they hated him even more.
What could he possibly say
that would make them so angry?
Look there to verse seven.
He says,
we were all there binding up sheaves in the field,
and behold,
my sheaf stood up,
and all of your sheaves gathered around my sheaf,
and they bowed down to my sheaf.
And it seems like they all understand the meaning.
Are you really going to reign over us?
And so they hated him even more for his dreams
and for his words.
But he's not done.
I mean,
you'd think this guy,
maybe he would have gotten the message by now.
But verse nine says he dreams again,
and he goes and opens up his mouth,
and he goes and tells them again,
just no awareness at all, right?
And he says,
well,
this time,
listen to my dream,
guys,
the sun and the moon
and the 11 stars
were all bowing down to me.
Can you imagine the brothers?
These 11 brothers.
Now,
every word that Joseph is saying at this point
is just cranking up the heat right now,
right?
Are you kidding me,
Joseph?
These 11 stars are bowing down to you
and the sun and the moon,
mom and dad too.
And it says,
when he told it to his father
and to his brothers,
his father rebukes him
and says,
what is this dream you've dreamed?
Shall I and your mother
and your brothers
really come down
and bow ourselves
to the ground before you?
And it says,
his brothers were jealous of him,
but his father kept the saying in mind.
Now,
I make no excuses
for what happens next,
right?
I mean,
the brothers are clearly
100% in the wrong,
but you can understand
why they're upset,
can't you?
I mean,
who is this guy?
Who does Joseph think he is?
He's already got it all.
The dad loves him
more than all of us
and now he's telling us
this dream he has
of all of us
bowing down to him.
Really?
They hate him
for what God has revealed to him
about his future.
And again,
Christian,
I don't think we have to work too hard
to draw a parallel
to our experience,
do we?
A Christian,
you understand,
don't you then?
That you have ahead of you
a glorious future.
If you are in Christ,
you are destined for glory
and we know that
without a shadow of a doubt,
if you are in Christ,
you are going to be
with him in glory.
We have ahead of us,
we get to inherit
the new heavens
and the new earth,
all the world
renewed
and freed
from sin's curse.
That's our future in Christ.
And we can say
even more than that,
we know that
when Christ returns,
Christian,
we are going to
reign with him
in the new heavens,
in the new earth.
Paul tells us
in 1 Corinthians 6
that the saints
are going to judge
the world.
In Daniel chapter 7,
you remember
when we went through Daniel,
it tells us
the kingdom
and the dominion
and the greatness
of the kingdoms
under the whole heaven
shall be given
to the people
of the saints
of the Most High.
That's us, church.
His kingdom
shall be an everlasting kingdom
and all dominions
shall serve
and obey him.
That is our future
in Christ.
But again,
not everyone
shares this future.
And those who don't
may resent you
for the future
that you have.
They may mock you.
Are you serious?
And what is this talk
of eternal life?
Are you kidding me?
You?
You who have no money
and no status
and no position
of authority
here on this earth,
you're going to reign
over me?
You're going ahead of me?
I say,
that's exactly right.
Earthly status
and earthly positions
of authority
and earthly accumulations
of wealth,
that matters very little.
It matters nothing
in the kingdom of God.
The meek will inherit
the earth,
Jesus tells us.
God chose
what is weak
in the world
to shame the strong,
Paul tells us.
It's incomprehensible
to the natural mind
and people may
hate you
for believing it.
And we know
the enemy certainly
doesn't love your future.
The enemy
wants to keep you
from getting there
at all costs.
The enemy
and all who belong
to him,
they work as hard
as they possibly can
to keep you
from reaching
your glorious
inheritance in Christ.
And so we see
people may hate you
for the favor
you have.
You are loved
of the Father.
They may hate you
for the future
you have.
Your glorious
inheritance in Christ.
And so,
third,
because of this,
we should realize
that here in a fallen world,
people may seek
your failure.
People may seek
your failure.
Look there,
starting in verse 12.
And this dream
that Joseph dreamed
was clearly
strike three,
right?
His brothers have had
enough.
They go out to pasture
their father's flock
in the field
and Israel sends
Joseph out
to join them.
Why?
So that the tattletale
can report back.
How are they doing?
How are they doing
what I've asked them
to do?
And so he goes,
but apparently
it says he has a hard
time finding them
because they're not
in Shechem
where they're supposed
to be.
They're over in Dothan,
which is not in Alabama.
That's about a day's
journey north of Shechem.
Already he's got
a little bit of dirt
to share on his brothers.
So he goes
and he finds them
and verse 18
says that his brothers,
they see him
from afar
and before he makes
his way to them,
they start to talk
amongst themselves
and they conspire
against him
how to kill him.
They said,
here comes this dreamer.
Let's kill him
and throw him
into one of the pits
and then here's
what we'll do.
We'll say that a fierce
animal has come
and devoured him
and we'll see
what becomes
of his dreams.
Except Reuben
speaks up
and why he's
the only one
I don't know
but I'm grateful
for Joseph's sake
that he does
and he says,
no, no, no, no, no,
shed no blood.
Just throw him
in the pit
but don't lay
a hand on him
and we're told
he said this
because his intention
was to come back
and to rescue him
and to bring him
back to his father
but regardless,
all the brothers agree
they think it's a good plan
and so Joseph comes,
they strip him
of his robe,
they take him,
they throw him
into the pit
and they leave him
for dead.
This is a terrible
injustice,
isn't it?
Joseph has done
nothing wrong,
he's an innocent man,
he's their own brother,
can you imagine?
And before you say,
well, that's crazy,
I mean it is crazy,
before you say
I would never do
anything like that,
do you remember
how all this started?
They didn't just
wake up one day
and decide to throw
their brother in a pit,
this has been festering
in their hearts
for a long time,
hasn't it?
This tiny spark
of jealousy
and pride
turns into hatred
hatred,
hatred turns
into a plot
to betray
and to murder
their brother,
turns into this
premeditated deception
that they're going
to have to tell everyone
to cover it all up,
you see this small
spark of sin
left unaddressed
has now turned
into this raging
fire that is burning
everything down
around them
and that's how sin
works,
isn't it?
And on top of that,
look at verse 25,
they don't even seem
bothered by any
of this that they've
done.
Verse 25 says
they throw their
brother into a pit,
they leave him for dead
and what do they do?
They sit down to eat
and their sin
has blinded them
to what they've
just done
but they're not
finished yet,
are they?
As they eat,
they look up,
they see a caravan
of Ishmaelites
coming from Gilead
and Judah has
this bright idea.
Verse 26,
he speaks up
and he says,
what profit is it
if we just kill
our brother
and conceal his blood
and you wonder,
there's this moment
of hope,
maybe just for a moment,
is Judah going to be
the one to speak up
and stop all of this?
Judah,
who's the ancestor
of Christ,
maybe he'll put
a stop to it,
right?
No,
look what he says,
what profit is it
if we just kill
our brother
and conceal his blood?
Let's sell him instead
to the Ishmaelites.
Come on guys,
he's our own flesh
and blood after all,
right?
So they take Joseph
out of the pit,
they sell him
to the Ishmaelites
for 20 shekels
of silver,
which by the way
in today's dollars
would amount
to about $500
and they take Joseph
to Egypt
and Reuben,
when he comes back,
he's devastated
and they have to come up
with this deception
to lie to their father
when they do this,
their father as well
is devastated
as much as anybody
tried to comfort him,
he won't receive it.
He said,
I'll just die
in mourning.
Do you see the impact
that sin has had
on this entire family?
Joseph's own brothers
have sought
to destroy him,
they wanted to make certain
that his dreams
did not come true
and again,
Christian,
draw the connection
to us in Christ.
are we surprised
when the world
around us
hates us?
Don't you realize
that since you now
belong to Christ,
the enemy hates you
and wants to destroy you?
Don't you realize
that we face
a great and powerful enemy
that the enemy
and all who belong to him
actively seek your downfall?
The way the New Testament
talks about the Christian life,
we're not in peacetime,
Christian.
We are in wartime.
The enemy wants to keep you
from the love of God
if that were at all possible.
He wants to keep you
from your inheritance
if that were at all possible.
And one tool
in the toolbox
that they use,
one of their primary weapons
that they use,
is suffering
in the life
of the believer.
In their hands,
suffering
is a means
to destroy you
and stop the spread
of the gospel
through you.
But,
Christians
think about suffering
differently.
We know
because we're told
in the pages of Scripture
nothing
can separate you
from the love of God
in Christ Jesus
our Lord.
Not even the worst
imaginable suffering
in your life.
we're told
nothing can keep us
from this glorious
inheritance ahead of us.
It is kept
in heaven
for you
who by God's power
are being guarded
through faith
but for a salvation
ready to be revealed
in the last time.
I love the story
of Acts chapter 5.
Peter
and the apostles
they're filled
with this new boldness
to go and preach Christ
and the high priests
and the Pharisees
they're all telling them
they've got to stop
talking about Jesus.
And so they beat them up
and they charge them
not to talk about Jesus anymore
they let them go
they just tear them
to bits
and how do they respond?
It says in verse 41
they left the presence
of the council
rejoicing
that they were counted
worthy to suffer
dishonor
for the name.
And every day
in the temple
and from house to house
they did not cease
teaching and preaching
that the Christ
is Jesus.
they rejoiced
that they were counted
worthy to suffer
for the name of Christ.
How can they see it that way?
It's because in all of this
we know
fourth
and finally
in all things
God
seeks
your welfare.
In all
things
believer
God
seeks
your
welfare.
this is the perspective
that we're called to have.
Let's finish our verses.
We're told
count it all
joy
brothers
when you meet trials
of various kinds.
Why?
For you know
that the testing
of your faith
produces
steadfastness.
Do not be surprised
at the fiery trial
when it comes upon you
to test you
as though something
strange were happening
to you
but rejoice
in so far
as you share
Christ's sufferings
that you may also
rejoice and be glad
when his glory
is revealed.
We rejoice
in our sufferings
why?
Knowing that
suffering
produces endurance
and endurance
produces character
and character
produces hope
and more than that
he says
I consider
that the sufferings
of this present time
are not worth
comparing
with the glory
that is to be
revealed
to us.
Church
we know
we rejoice
to know
that our God
is at work
in every moment
of our lives
even the most
difficult moments
of our lives
for good.
I hate to spoil
how all this story
works out
but we have to go there
because it helps us
frame this whole story
of Joseph
in chapter 50
verse 20
all the way at the end
but we get the point.
Chapter 50
verse 20
Joseph gives us
the Christian perspective
on our suffering
and he says
to his brothers
you meant evil
against me
but God
meant it
for good.
You meant evil
against me
but God
meant it
for good.
His brothers
meant evil
against him
but even
in this
don't you see
God is at work
for good.
God is at work
to save
Joseph.
He worked
even through
the greedy
hearts of his brothers
to have him
sold into slavery.
He was at work
even in their plans
he had bigger plans
to send Joseph
ahead of them
to Egypt
not only just
to save Joseph
but to save
all of his family
from a famine
that they have
no idea
is right around
the corner.
And you zoom out
even bigger than that
go to Exodus
and what do we see there?
We see God's plan
is to bring his people
into Egypt
so that he might
redeem them
out of Egypt
he might display
his glory
in Egypt
and call them
to himself
as his own people
God is at work
in all of it
to point us forward
to an even greater
act of redemption
in the gospel
of Christ.
Now how much
of this do you think
Joseph was aware of
in the moment
while he's down
in the pit?
None of it.
But church
we have the bigger
picture here
God is always
doing infinitely
more than we
possibly are
even remotely
the slightest bit
aware of
at every moment
of our life.
God is working
redemption
here
even in this
act of horrible
evil.
He's at work
to magnify
the glory of his name
even in this
dark moment
where sin
and evil
and injustice
and suffering
seem to take
center stage.
God
permits
what he hates
to accomplish
what he loves.
What could that
possibly be?
Two aims
of God
in our suffering
the display
of his glory
and the eternal
good
of his people.
The display
of his glory
and the eternal
good
of his people.
I'm so thankful
aren't you?
God loves
our eternal
good
more than
our temporary
comfort.
The thief
takes a knife
he takes
suffering
like a knife
and he cuts
us to kill
us
but the Lord
like a skilled
surgeon
takes that
same knife
and he cuts
us to heal
us
to make us
well
and to make
us whole
and to make
us like
Christ
who is
by the way
right at the
heart of
Joseph's story.
Do you see how
all this points
forward to
Jesus?
Joseph's story
is ultimately
about
Jesus.
Jesus Christ
is the beloved
son
of the
father
robed
in glory
his only
begotten
son.
Jesus is
the one
who was
prophesied
over and
over again
that this
Messiah will
be exalted
as king
over all
the earth
and Jesus
is the one
who came
humbly
to his own
brothers
and how
was he
received?
He was
welcomed
with hatred
and envy
and betrayal
and greed
and ultimately
Jesus was
delivered over
to death.
Those who
did not
belong to
him
hated him
and rejected
him
and crucified
him
and put him
down in the
pit of death
but praise
God
and the
greatest
injustice
in the world
in the death
of Christ
was at the
very same
time
the greatest
good ever
accomplished.
The greatest
moment of
darkness
putting the
son of God
to death
was at the
very same
time in the
plan of God
the greatest
victory.
Satan's
plan of
destruction
was at the
very same
time God's
great plan
of redemption
for sinners
like us.
He died
that he might
conquer death.
He became
sin so that
he might
rescue us
from the
powers of
sin.
he was
raised to
new life
so that
in him
we too
might be
raised to
newness
of life.
What man
meant for
evil
God
meant
for good.
This Christ
is risen
and reigning
now and one
day we know
church he will
come again
and every
knee will
bow
and every
tongue will
confess that
Jesus Christ
is Lord
to the glory
of God
the Father.
Do you
know this
Savior by
faith?
If not
what keeps
you from
coming to
him now?
The truth
is we will
suffer in
this life.
I'm sure you
all have
stories of
your own
life right
now of
suffering and
injustice but
in him and
only in
him can we
have this
perspective on
our suffering
that whatever
we face here
and now we
believe all
things work
together for
good for
those who
love God
and are
called according
to his
purposes.
Father we
praise you for
this hope that
we can have in
the face of
great injustice
and great
suffering.
Lord whatever
trials are
brought into
our life
Lord in your
hands God
are meant
for good.
While the
enemy would
seek to
destroy us
Father you
seek to
mold us
into the
image of
Christ and
so we
rejoice in
our sufferings
yet we
pray Father
for the day
when Christ
would come
and put an
end to
all our
suffering and
all our
trials and
we would be
with you
free from
sin and
death forever.
We praise you
for this in
Christ Jesus
name.
Amen.