The Promotion of Detours

Your detour has an exit when your preparation meets God's purpose.

Life's little side trips happen for a reason. Dr. Tony Evans says they won't end until that purpose is accomplished. When your time connects with His time, you are now moving from detour to destiny. 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. Sometimes it seems like the end of one detour in life lands us right at the beginning of another. Well, today Dr. Evans will let us in on the reason for that as he continues his look at the life of Joseph.

Let's join him in the 39th chapter of Genesis. Detours are not fun. They're not pleasant. They take longer than your trip was originally designed to take because God must prepare you for the destiny. Myself and Sister Evans were on our way back from Denver, Colorado, and we got on a plane.

Our plan was a straight line. Leave Denver, arrive in Dallas, an hour and 45 minutes. Two-thirds into the flight, the pilot came on and said, There are storms in the Dallas area and we have been rerouted. We won't be going to Dallas. We're going to be landing in Oklahoma City. Now, Oklahoma City was not in my plans.

I had not requested it, desired it, anticipated it, about it, thought about it, or wanted it. Yet somebody else was in control. And the somebody who was in control told me I wasn't going where I thought I was headed. And we wind up landing in Oklahoma City. Not only were we in Oklahoma City, but we were stuck on an airplane, a place I didn't want to be stuck. The pilot kept coming on and saying, It's going to be 15 minutes, 20 minutes.

Two hours later, he came back on and said, It's going to be 15 minutes, or 20 minutes. For hours, stuck on a plane in a place I didn't plan to be, for circumstances I could not control. Finally, we were told after hours on the tarmac, we could leave Oklahoma City, and I could get back to my destiny, which was Dallas, Texas. And so the plane got on the runway, buckle your seatbelt, we'll have you in Dallas in just a few moments.

As the plane began to take off, it slowed down and went back onto the tarmac. And the pilot said, I'm so sorry, but new storms have shown up in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. And so we were not able to take off, so we're going to be here for 15 or 20 minutes longer.

It wasn't 15 or 20 minutes, and we were stuck in Oklahoma City. The detour, when we thought we were going to take off, took a detour. So they said again, things have cleared up in Dallas, we're going to take off.

Didn't bother to buckle my seatbelt. But this time, the plane took off. Finally, I'm going to reach my destiny, which is Dallas, Texas.

The plane lands, and the pilot comes back on. He said, ladies and gentlemen, I have some good news, and I have some bad news. The good news is that we have landed in Dallas. The bad news is there are no gates available. And it will be another 45 minutes before we can anticipate pulling up to a gate. Now, needless to say, I am spiritually ticked off at this point. Because I had a one hour and 45 minute plan that has now turned into a seven hour ordeal. I have been placed on a detour.

Some of you feel like that's the story of your life. You plan to be over here by now, and yet you're in a holding pattern. And you don't know when this plane called Destiny is going to land. Today, I want to talk to you about how you know it's time to land. How can you know that you're getting off of the detour and onto the main highway of destiny?

Joseph's detour started when he was 17 years old. So you teenagers who here today know that you want to stay close to God while you're young so that you don't wind up living a detoured life and never reaching destiny. Your detour has an exit—here it is—when your preparation meets God's purpose. When your preparation hooks up with God's purpose, when your time connects with His time, you are now moving from detour to destiny. God is crafting a purpose while developing a person. When the person is prepared for the purpose and the purpose is prepared for the person, God creates a hookup, and the hookup is destiny. The problem occurs when God creates a purpose and the person is not ready.

When they've not allowed the preparation to prepare them for the purpose. So you have a purpose dangling out here without a ready person to fulfill it, because preparation has not been allowed to take place, which elongates detour. When we get into our story today, Joseph is going to be 30 years old.

We started when he was 17. Chapter 41, verse 46 says that Joseph is 30 years old when these events occur. So this is a 13-year detour, because you don't go from detour to destiny in a straight line. But I'm going to share with you the three things to look for that will let you know you're getting ready to move off of detour onto destiny, onto the place God has for you, the place God's taking you to.

The three things that come out of this story of the life of Joseph that you ought to look for if you are serious about your relationship with God and serious about His purpose for you. Number one, you know you're getting ready to leave detour and enter the highway of destiny when God disappoints you just when you thought He was coming through for you. I know you didn't expect that one. You expected the hallelujah chorus.

No. When God disappoints you just when it looked like He was about to deliver you. Let's look at chapter 40. Verse 14, keep me in mind when it goes well with you and please do me a kindness by mentioning me to Pharaoh and get me out of this house, this jail.

For I was in fact kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews and even here I have done nothing that should have put me into this dungeon, this jail. Joseph looks like he's finally going to be delivered. He's interpreted the cupbearer's dream, told the cupbearer you're going to live, you're not going to die.

He's given the cupbearer good news. He says, and when you get delivered, mention me to Pharaoh. Tifo, this is innocent Hebrew boy, still in jail. Get me up out of here, up out of here, up out of here because I don't belong in here. I'm tired of being in here and you are going to be situated.

And since I helped the brother out, I HBO'd you. You remember me to Pharaoh when you get out of here. It looks like God has finally brought somebody into his life who can help him, who can deliver him, who can send a good word for him. It looks like his day has finally arrived. God has sent a contact who can speak on his behalf.

Verse 23, yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him. You know you are headed toward destiny and off of detour when it looks like God has set things up to deliver you and he goes left on you. When God goes left on you, it's good news in a bad situation.

So how can we change our perspective when it feels like God has disappointed us? Dr. Evans will come back to tell us when he returns in a moment. Stay with us. This is Dr. Evans Training Center's free course called Kingdom Man. It'll teach you to see past the phony images of manhood that society surrounds us with and become the loving leader that a wife and family would want to follow. As with all of our courses, there's in-depth study material you can work through at your own pace, lots of exclusive content from Tony, tightly focused Q&A videos, and an online forum where you can collaborate with other students.

It's almost like having a seminary on your smartphone. Check out the free course called Kingdom Man and the growing list of other subjects waiting for you. Visit TonyEvans.org today and follow the link to the Tony Evans Training Center. Again, you can find out more about the Tony Evans Training Center when you visit TonyEvans.org. And that's also where you can learn how to get a copy of today's message, part of Dr. Evans' nine-part series exploring how the path to our destiny is, for many of us, quite unexpected and unpredictable. In Joseph Detours to Destiny, you learn how to make the most of the unexpected twists you face in life, as God prepares you for a future you never imagined. We'd like to send you a copy of this complete series on CD or instantly downloadable MP3s as our thank-you gift when you make a donation to help support Tony's ministry.

The alternative is a 100% listener-supported broadcast, so we depend completely on you to stay on the air. Visit us today at TonyEvans.org or call us at 1-800-800-3222 to make the arrangements and request your copy of the Detours to Destiny audio series. I'll repeat that contact information after part two of today's lesson.

Here's Tony. I was on the phone with a brother at midnight who was bemoaning circumstances in his life. We went over this principle that when God disappoints you, when it looked like he was going to deliver you, it's really God telling you, get ready for where I'm taking you. And when he discovered that that's how God works, it didn't change his situation. It did change how he saw it. When it looks like God is going to deliver you and then he turns around and disappoints you, as bad as it feels, it's great that it occurred because God is setting you up for where he's taking you.

Now that raises a question, doesn't it? God, why do you want to do me like that? Why do you want to set me up and then break my heart? Why do you want to make it look like you're getting ready to deliver me and not deliver me?

Why do you want it to look like you're going to work it out and then don't work it out? Anybody ever been disappointed by God? You thought God was going to work it out, and then it just happened just the opposite. Looked like you were on the verge of it, and God disappoints you.

That feels bad, but actually it is good. Now let me tell you why. When God takes you to your destiny, he doesn't want to share the credit with you. He doesn't want to share the credit with the people you know, the contacts you have, the money you have, the clout you have, the notoriety you have, the power you have, the background you have, the prestige you have. So he wouldn't let Joseph's contact with the cupbearer be the means of his deliverance so that the cupbearer couldn't take the credit and Joe couldn't take the credit for knowing the cupbearer. So God let him get to the edge, think he had a hookup, back him up just to let him know it ain't going to be through the human method you fought. It's not going to be just because you did somebody a favor and now you got somebody indebted to you, so now you think that somebody indebted to you is going to deliver you.

No, because if this thing is about me, I'm going to leave your hookup out of this. So cupbearer ain't even going to remember your name, even after you were responsible for giving him the message of deliverance. Because when God wants to do his thing in your life, he wants to have all the glory and he wants to get all the notoriety. 2 Corinthians 1, Paul says, God took us to the point of death so that we would learn not to trust in ourselves, but to trust in the only one who can raise the dead. God does bring you to the point. Now I know you got this statement, let me correct it, let me fix it up, because we've all said it and it's wrong. God will not put more on you than you can bear.

All right, let's get that straight. The Bible don't say that? There is a time when God will put more on you than you can bear. And the time he will put more on you than you can bear is when he wants to strip you of you.

When he wants to break a brother or sister down of your self-dependence, your self-sufficiency, your independence, he will wear you down until you cry, uncle, until there is total dependency on him. So one of the reasons some of us have not gotten off of our detour is we're still too self-sufficient. We still feel like we can handle it ourselves. We know the right people, we have the right money, we work the right job, we got the right hookup. And we think because we got this human ability, human talent, human contact, human resources, and then we just throw in a little prayer to make it seem spiritual. It is when God disappoints you, just when he looked like he was coming through for you, in order to increase your dependency on him and not you.

But that's good news, because when your human contacts can't help you, and your money can't buy you out of it, and you are thrown on him alone, then guess what? He gets the chance to be God. Number two. Number one is when God disappoints you. Number two, which is kind of related to it, is when God skips you. One, he's disappointed you.

Then he skips you all together. Chapter 41, verse 1, Now it happened at the end of two full years that Pharaoh had a dream, and behold, he was sitting by the Nile. Joseph is 30 before all this is going to come about, that's getting ready to happen. He's in jail for another two years, so that means he's 28 right now. So he's 28, so for 11 years now, he's been on this detour. He finally looks like he's getting ready to be delivered, and the cup bear forgets all about him, and he's stuck there for two years. He's sitting on the tarmac for two years, not knowing when this plane is going to ever take off.

Yesterday when we were on the tarmac, there was a brief discussion about leaning to my own understanding, namely getting off the plane, catching the car, getting in the car, and driving to Dallas in case we were going to be stuck overnight. Because it is very tempting when God has you on the tarmac to walk away, even though he has not given you a way of escape yet. Joseph is in his cell. He's thinking when the cup bear leaves any day now, somebody's going to be knocking on this door because the cup bear, I just told him, he's going to tell Pharaoh, and Pharaoh's going to want to meet me, and all that, and I'm going to be found innocent.

And for two years, he's got to wait for a knock that doesn't happen. But two years later, Pharaoh has a dream. Joseph has never met Pharaoh. He's never met Pharaoh. He knows Pharaoh is Pharaoh, but he's never met him.

Joseph has no connection with Pharaoh's dreams. Pharaoh is going to sleep and he dreams. He dreams about some ugly cows, seven ugly cows eating seven good cows. Then he dreams about some corn and seven ears of corn, a tiny corn eating the good corn. And he can't figure this out. I got cows eating cows and corn eating corn, and I can't sleep.

Wait a minute. Joseph is over here locked up in prison. Pharaoh's in a mansion in the king's house. Pharaoh has a dream. This dream is going to be the link between Joseph getting to meet Pharaoh. But the dream happens unbeknownst to Joseph. So God is working over here unbeknownst to Joseph over here because he's doing something there that's going to hook up over here that over here has no knowledge is taking place over there. Okay, let's deal with vocabulary.

Three words that either you shouldn't use at all or if you use them, apologize after you use them. That is luck, chance, or fate. Luck, chance, or fate are not Christian words. You cannot have a sovereign God who's in control and have luck, chance, or fate because that means nobody was controlling the events. And since we have a sovereign God who the Bible says not one hair of your head dropped off of which he is not fully knowledgeable of and fully connected to, there can be no such thing as luck, chance, or fate.

There is another word we'll describe later. It's called providence, where the fingers of God are in the glove of history controlling hookups when the two years are ready. Why are you going to leave Joe there for two years, God? Because I need two years before Pharaoh is ready for the dream, but I need two years for Joseph to develop full dependency.

And when preparation meets purpose, detour meets destiny. Verse 8, Now in the morning of his spirit was troubled. So he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt and all of the wise men. And Pharaoh told them his dreams, but there was not one who could interpret them to Pharaoh. Pharaoh called the creme de la creme. He called the magicians and the smart folk, called the wise men.

He got the smartest people around. He said, this was my dream. What does it mean?

And they said, I don't know. Because watch this, when God is setting something up, he will not let human wisdom come up with an answer. Dr. Tony Evans, reminding us that the answers of life can only be found in the author of life. He'll have more for us on this subject tomorrow. In the meantime, be sure to look into getting a copy of his current teaching series, Joseph Detours to Destiny, a set of nine messages that will help you understand that even when you feel like your life has stalled or come completely off the rails, God still has a plan for you and can take you where you need to go.

It contains today's message as well as plenty of material we haven't had time to present on the air. As I mentioned earlier, it's yours with our thanks when you make a donation toward Tony's ministry. Just visit TonyEvans.org for details or call us at 1-800-800-3222. Again, that's 1-800-800-3222 or online at TonyEvans.org. Dr. Evans says a lot of what we consider random events in life aren't random at all, but part of a design. Be sure to join him tomorrow as he explores the biblical concept of providence. And until then, be looking for opportunities to show kindness to others for the benefit of our culture, your community, and the glory of God. The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by the Urban Alternative and is made possible by the generous contributions of listeners like you.