Your Experience and Your Calling

Your mama didn't treat you right, your daddy didn't treat you right.

Don't think that their action was the bottom line. Dr. Tony Evans explores the relationship between emotional pain and spiritual progress. God allows those events so you can save somebody else's life who is abused and broken and in pain. Celebrating 40 years of faithfulness, this is the alternative with Dr. Tony Evans. Author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of the Urban Alternative. It often seems like those who've accomplished the most for God have been through the worst life has to offer. Dr. Evans says our painful experiences can be used to bless and build up the body of Christ.

Let's join him as he explores how to do that. Even when you weren't saved, God recognized all the good things about you. The things that you had going for you, the stuff you had going on in your life and in your world, your background, your parental background, and the jobs that you have taken, the experience that you have learned, the training that you have received, and what he wants to do or at least have the option to do now that you are a believer is sanctify them. That is, use them only now for your calling, which means the promotion of his kingdom and not merely doing a job or getting a paycheck, although that could be included.

Paul had all the raw ingredients. God decided to use those, and that was good. Now, that one's easy for us to accept because we can see how God would use good things in our background and in our life.

Someone spent a lot of time there. Suffice it to say, God used the straits of Paul to put him in as the leader of the church in terms of setting forth the doctrine and making the defense. One of the great things about grace is that God can take mistakes and make them miracles. Don't go out misquoting me. God doesn't endorse mistakes. But the reality is God can still take mistakes that have been repented of and use the mistake to make us better for our calling.

And that ought to be good news before I say anything more. Luke chapter 22, and we could talk about a lot of people in the Bible, but let's talk about my favorite character in the Bible, Peter. The reason why Peter is my favorite character in the Bible is because he liked to talk, okay? Always talking, and he was always running stuff, all right? He wouldn't let anybody else talk or preach or whatever. Okay.

Okay. Verse 31. Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat. Satan has come to me and asked me, can he have you? But I have prayed for you. By the way, it's good to know even when you're not praying, Jesus is praying for you. I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. I'm praying for you that you don't quit on me. And you, when you have turned against, some of your Bibles say when you are converted, strengthen your brothers.

That's an important line. Satan has got something in store for you. I'm going to be there praying for you, because we are going to allow Satan to get through. So I'm going to pray for you.

Now watch this now. When you are converted, because you getting ready to mess up, then I want you to go help somebody else. Now wouldn't you think Jesus would say, you're going to mess up, boy?

So you better go and find some place to hide. He says, Satan's coming after you, I'm praying for you, you get ready to mess up, but when you get fixed up, do something with it. He lays all of that out. Now I'm sure you and I would have gritted our teeth and we'd say, no, but now that you told me, now that you told me in advance, now I'm going to be ready for this. Well, that's exactly what Peter says.

Peter says, verse 33, Lord, with you I am ready to go both to prison and to death. Don't mess up here. You can depend on me.

I am not going to mess up, especially now that you told me. And folks, you don't get too much greater failure than this. He denied the Lord publicly. Jesus knew he was going to deny him publicly, predicted he was going to deny him publicly, didn't stop him from denying him publicly, and told him, when you get back to your senses, then you'll be usable. Did you know that God can take the bad when it's repented of and make you more useful? That doesn't excuse the bad, nor does it excuse the consequences of the bad. But it means that God is bigger than failure. Buildings implode, they collapse, and there is a mess to clean up.

But the hope of your Christian life is that Jesus Christ can take the rubble and construct something new. Peter promised never to forsake him, but the cock crowed. When does the cock crow? Early in the morning, right?

So that means the cock crowed at the beginning of a brand new day. Now listen to me. Some messes we get in, God doesn't keep us from, because he wants to use them later.

And you won't hear a lot of people tell you that. You'll hear, don't get in the messes, and that is what we should say. Don't get in the messes. But some messes we're going to get in. God doesn't stop us from getting in them.

Satan wants to sift you his wheat, because God wants to use them later on for better ministry. Seek God's mercy to take your lemons and make lemonade, to take the things that aren't so good and you're not so proud of, and say, Lord, here it is. I wish it were different, but it's not.

I wish I could change it, but I can't. So here is the mess. And if your grace can get in here and tweak and turn and twist this mess, I'm available for you to use it for something better. It was my bad.

It was my fault. David said after his sin and after his repentance, he says, now you will teach me how to show sin is your way. Because how do you know the way back if you've never been astray? You can't play with God. You can't say, well, since I can know the way back by going astray, let me go as far astray as I can so I can know all the way back.

You can't do that. But the grace of God is that He can use those things. So He'll use the good, the strengths, the job opportunities you've had, the experiences you've had, the education that you've had. He will use those things for your calling. He will take the bad and use those for your calling.

The most difficult of all probably is the ugly. These are things that happen that you have no control over, but that have indelibly marked your life. Let me tell you a little bit about Joseph. Joseph was born into a dysfunctional family, all right?

Well, we don't have time. You can read the whole story of Joseph, the last third of the book of Genesis. His father was a shykester, a trickster from a little boy. He was always running the game. His father was Jacob.

Jacob was always running the game. He tricked his brother Esau out of his birthright by tricking his father Isaac in cahoots with his mother. So his mother joined her son to contrive the birthright from her husband, their daddy, against his brother. So you got his mama and daddy working on two sides of the fence against the two brothers, and that was some conniving stuff.

He learned that as a baby, and he got good at it. And the life of Jacob, Joseph's father, is one conniving after another. Now, he has 12 sons. Joseph is number 11. He's got 10 other brothers in front of him, and they are a trip. Some of them are murderers.

They kill you as quick as look at you. One of them had an affair with his father's wife. Another one had an affair with his daughter-in-law.

I mean, it's all kind of crazy stuff. The story of Joseph centers around a particular event when his father gave him a coat of many colors. When he gave him this coat of many colors, that was the straw that broke the camel's back. Let's pick it up there in Genesis chapter 37, the first book of the Bible.

You can't miss it. Genesis chapter 37, verse 3, Now Israel, that is, Jacob, loved Joseph more than all his sons, Genesis 37, verse 3 says, because he was the son of his old age. He made him a very colored tunic, because this is his favorite son. And his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all of his brothers, so they hated him and could not speak to him on friendly terms. So we got sibling rivalry. You got brothers that can't get along because of the favoritism of the father. Well, this event led to a plan to kill Joseph.

Now, things got to be bad when your brothers want to wipe you out. So they want to kill him. They decide, well, we're not going to kill him. We're going to make it look like an animal killed him, and we're going to put him in a pit and put him in the pit. So they act like a lion killed him, put blood all over his coat, took his coat back to his father. So they then picked up that lion gene from Jacob, all right, because we don't just pass on our good looks.

We pass on a whole bunch of stuff. That's why we wonder, how come he doing that? I did that. That's how come he doing that.

So they finally sell him to some, verse 28, some Midanite traders who lifted him out of the pit, sold him to Ishmaelites for 20 shekels of silver. Now, that's cold. That's cold-blooded. Make your daddy think you're dead. We're going to sell you because we don't like the fact that daddy likes you more. So we got a bad family background. Many of us in here today have come from bad family backgrounds, and we are in pain today because of what mama was like, what daddy was like, what brothers and sisters were like, and we are still enduring the pain, maybe abuse by a father, maybe neglect, maybe rejection. Well, that's Joseph's situation. He comes out of a bad deal. How much worse can it get than you get sold as a slave, a nothing, a nobody?

You're talking about self-image. So that's our scenario. He's now sent to Egypt having been rejected by his family. When he gets to Egypt, that's chapter 39. He's now to become the slave boy in a man's house named Potiphar. He is an officer of Pharaoh.

So Potiphar is a high-ranking guy now. Now, I want you to look at a phrase. Verse 2, And the Lord was with Joseph. Verse 3, Now his master Saul the Lord was with him, and how the Lord caused all that he did to prosper.

Verse 5, Thus the Lord's blessing was upon all that he owned in the house and in the field. Now here's the good news. This is the first set of good news.

The first set of good news is this. No matter what your background or how deep your pain caused by the dysfunction of your family or other people's sins that have messed over you, if the Lord is with you, he can take that rejection, pain, hurt, difficulty, psychology, whatever you call it, he can take that thing and still do something with it, no matter how ugly it is. The Lord was with Joseph, and it says he blessed him.

It sounds like Jabez, doesn't it? Bless me indeed. You know the story. Potiphar's wife started liking Joseph. The Bible tells us why she liked him. Verse 6 says he was handsome in form and appearance. So he was handsome in appearance, he looked good, and form.

He worked out. And she says, Slave boy got it going on. Joseph says, verse 9, How can I commit this great sin against God? He turns her down, verse 13. She grabs a piece of his garment as he tries to run out of there and cries, Rape. Verse 14, I screamed.

This slave boy tried to rape me. She tells her husband now. So what's happening now, verse 19? It came about when his master heard these things of his wife, when she spoke to him, saying, This is what your slave did to me, that his anger burned. Well, quite naturally. So Joseph's master took him, put him in jail.

The place where the king's prisoners were confined, and he was there in jail. Talk about ugly. That's ugly. Anybody ever been lied on? He's lied on and he goes to jail for a lie. Now, it's bad enough as a kid to have your family mess over you.

But now you can't even go to work, do a good job, without your boss and the boss's wife messing over you. So now he's in jail and the man hasn't done a thing wrong. He's done right, because sometimes doing right can get quite expensive. We'll see how God turned that situation around and discover how He can do the same for us. That's coming up after these reflections from Dr. Evans on 40 years of God's faithfulness. Little did I know that He would take humble beginnings and turn it into an international ministry. Now, on over 1,400 stations daily in 130 countries around the world, reaching hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people with the truth of God, and now using social media in all manner of ways and to impact individuals and families and churches and even communities who would take us on all levels of society from the homeless person to the White House and bringing God's truth. I praise God for 40 years of His favor on us. You know, Tony has said that the more people who meet Jesus, the more lives will be transformed.

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Start today. TonyEvans.org. While in jail, there are two other dudes in jail with him. Verse 2 of chapter 40. Pharaoh was furious with two of his officials, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, so he put them in the confinement with Joseph. So they're in there with Joseph, too.

But even in jail, chapter 39, verse 23 says, the Lord was with Joseph. Now, watch this now. When things get ugly, the question is not, why am I going through this? The question is, Lord, how do you want to use this ugliness for my calling?

Because we don't ask the right questions, we get frustrated, because we dwell on, it's not fair, rather than, God, you up to something. In order for this to happen, you had to approve it, because I don't deserve it in terms of anything I've done, so you must be up to something. I don't have time to go through it all, so let me come to a quick conclusion here. Look, listen to this now. Joseph tells one of the guys in prisons, when you go up to Pharaoh, because they're going to let one of the guys out, would you remember me to him? Because I shouldn't be in here. He says in verse 14 of chapter 40, keep me in mind when it goes well with you. You know how you say to your friends, well, look, they're going to help you. Don't forget me.

Please do me kindness by mentioning me to Pharaoh. Verse 23, yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him. It's getting uglier. You finally think you got a way out, you done found a homeboy in jail, and the homeboy gets his freedom and forgets who he knew when he was back there.

So it's not ugly. God, how unfair can this be? Only problem was, Pharaoh had a dream that scared him half to death. He didn't understand it. He needed somebody to interpret it. Even the chief cupbearer remembers, oh, there was this dude in prison named Joseph, and he was good with dreams.

I don't know if you want to talk to him, but if you want to talk to him, I know what he looked like. He said, okay, because none of my guys can do this. The guy comes up, he interprets the dream, and this is what happens.

Now watch this now. Here's where we're going to conclude. Chapter 41, verse 38. Pharaoh said to his servants, can we find a man like this in whom there is a divine spirit? So Pharaoh said to Joseph, since God has informed you of all this, there is no one so discerning and wise as you. You shall be over my house according to your command. All my people shall do homage. Only in the throne will I be greater than you. You talking about the outhouse to the White House?

Born and gone from in jail to being the number one ruler in Egypt. Now the question is, what all this got to do with calling? Let me summarize it and then read the final passage.

Here it is. The text goes on to tell us, Jacob and his 12 brothers were starving because the dream talked about a famine that was going to be in the land. Joseph interpreted the dream, told Pharaoh what to do in the seven good years to save enough for the seven bad years because God said there's a famine coming. He now gets promoted. The father needs to find food. Joseph tells his brothers to come up, but they don't know who Joseph is. He manipulates them to come back up by keeping one of the sons and say, well, if you want this son, you got to go back and bring the other son. And when you bring the other son, then you all come back here. When they went back to their father, he put some of his goods in their donkey basket and said, oh, you stole from me.

You got to come back to me. And he works out a series of events that brings them up to where he is, which leads us into chapter 45. Then Joseph could not control himself because the brothers still don't know who he is. It's been years since he's been sold into slavery by them before all who stood by them and he cried, having everyone go out for me so that there was no man with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers.

So here's the moment. He's going to let his brothers know who he is, the guy who's saving their lives and running the whole kingdom of Egypt under Pharaoh. And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it and the household of Pharaoh heard it. I mean, he's seriously crying, all right?

He's wailing. Then Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph, is my father still alive, Jacob? But his brothers could not answer him for they were dismayed at his presence. In other words, scared to death that he remembered what they did to him when they were little boys, all right?

So they're terrified. Verse four, then Joseph said to his brothers, please come closer. And they came closer and he said, I am your brother. Now I'm going to tell you something right now that I am sure you have never heard in all of your Christian life, all right? I'm getting ready to tell you something that I know very few of you will have ever heard but I'm getting ready to tell you now. It says, he told his brothers, come here, come close.

He sent everybody else out, it says, except his brothers. I am your brother Joseph. Now why should I believe you're my brother Joseph just because you tell me you're my brother Joseph? What proof do you have that you're my brother Joseph? Come here. In order not to get too crude here, there was one sure tell sign of Jewish heritage, circumcision.

Come close. I will show you, I am your Jewish brother for only Jews got circumcised. So he demonstrated to them through circumcision, he was Jewish and therefore, in order for a Jew to be the head in Egypt, he would have had to have been somebody who was promoted there, that I am your brother Joseph. Now here is the whole, here's the bottom line. And now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here. Verse five, this is deep folks. Don't get upset that you sold me here.

Why? For God sent me. Wait a minute, man. How could God send you? You were sold into slavery, Potiphar hired you, you were killed to rape, you were sent to jail, the cup bell forgot about you. That's human interpretation.

Let me tell you the real deal, bro. The problem was not that you sold me into slavery. The issue is God sent me before you to save your life. You thought you were getting rid of me and God was orchestrating a plan using negative, ugly kind of events because he had something years down the line he had in store that was gonna benefit you. He used your evil to promote me in order to save you. He says, for the famine in the land, these two years, he says, but God, verse seven, sent me before you to preserve you, a remnant in the earth and to keep you alive by a great deliverance. Now therefore, it is not you who sent me here, but God, and he made me a father to Pharaoh and Lord over all his household and rulers of Egypt.

Brothers and sisters, the point is chapter 50, verse 20. You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. If you got ugliness in your life, your mama didn't treat you right, your daddy didn't treat you right, your brother didn't treat you right, your boss didn't treat you right, you've been buked and scorned as sure as you're born, everything is falling apart.

Don't think that their action was the bottom line. God allows those events, because somewhere down the line, he's gonna use all that ugly stuff so you can save somebody else's life who is abused and broken and in pain. Look at your pain theologically, not socially.

Don't just say that's not fair. Say, God, since that's not fair, what you gonna do with it so that I can fulfill my calling, I give you the right to take my ugliness and use it for your glory. Dr. Tony Evans, encouraging you to let God turn your trials into triumphs.

If you're ready to do that but have never committed your life to him, stay around. Tony will come back in a moment to explain how to take the first step. First, though, I want to let you know that today's lesson, Your Experience and Your Calling, is part of Tony's Encouraging Message series, Called for a Purpose. As I mentioned earlier, this entire collection is available for you to own on digital files for playback on your audio device or in a two-volume, 12-lesson CD set.

As usual, the set contains a lot of bonus material we won't have time to present here on the broadcast. And for the next few days, when you make a donation to help support Tony's work, we'll say thanks by sending you the entire Called for a Purpose audio collection, along with a bonus, a copy of Tony's popular book, Discover Your Destiny, Let God Use You Like He Made You. Make the arrangements today by visiting TonyEvans.org or reach out to one of our helpful team members by phone. They're available 24-7 to help with your resource request. Just dial 1-800-800-3222. That's 1-800-800-3222. Or you can make the arrangements online at TonyEvans.org.

The Declaration of Independence proclaims all humans have the right to pursue happiness. Well, next time, Dr. Evans explains the only way to find it when it comes to your family is to pursue something else. Right now, though, he's back with this closing invitation for you. If you have yet to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, we can resolve that right now. I'm going to say a little prayer. I want you to pray it after me, but you've got to mean it for yourself. Lord Jesus, I'm a sinner, and I know I need a Savior because I can't save myself. So right now, I trust you alone because you died for me and arose for me. To be my sin-bearer, you are now my substitute. And I'm believing you to forgive my sin and to give me eternal life. Thank you for the free gift of salvation that you have given to me. Help me to live a life to please you. In Jesus' name, amen. Welcome to the family, and we'll keep ministering to you for your spiritual growth through our broadcast. God bless you. The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by the Urban Alternative and is celebrating 40 years of faithfulness thanks to the generous contributions of listeners like you.