For most of us, the word problem has a negative connotation. We see problems as setbacks. but what if we could see them from a different perspective? Today, on Turning Point, Dr. David Jeremiah offers insights from the life of Joseph.
to help us see challenges in a new light. not as obstacles, but as opportunities. To introduce the conclusion of his message, The Possibilities of Problems, here's David. And we want to remind all of us who are Christians that if we've been around long enough and read the Bible enough, we know there are advantages to adversity. When adversity comes, we don't curse it.
Uh we don't rehearse it. We uh We use it, and God uses it in our lives. And Joseph is a really good illustration of that. We're going to finish up what we started yesterday on the possibilities of problems. Hey, during the month of uh September we offer a calendar for the coming year.
You think it's kind of early.
Well, it is because it's a fourteen month calendar. It starts in November of this year. In fact, the first page in this uh beautiful calendar called Following in History. Footsteps is a page on planning for Thanksgiving in November.
So the calendar is a great asset. And, you know, following in His footsteps provides encouragement for you to walk like Jesus walked. Every month focuses on a different aspect of the character of Christ. And the monthly step challenge suggests ways you can choose to be more like Christ each day. And the daily Bible reading plan keeps you immersed in His Word.
You will see breathtaking vistas from nature each month and take each scripture to heart as you submit your life to His purpose. Follow his ways each day.
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You know, it's been interesting for me to watch. the fact that even though I've been sidelined, God has not been. First of all, what he's done in this church is totally amazing to me. and all of the people on our staff have done so well.
Sometimes I think, I don't think this church really needs me at all. I'm just going to sit back here and watch this whole thing go and pretty good. But in the meantime, while all this was happening, I wrote a book called The Great Disappearance. You don't need a voice for that. You don't need a lot of strength to walk for that.
You just need to sit in a chair and do it. And that book became the best-selling book I've ever written. And through all of the things that we developed in social media, I know this sounds impossible. But that book has touched the lives of over 300 million people. all over the world.
It's just amazing. I mean I haven't been able to do anything but just watch it. And thank God for it every day. Oh, so many other things have happened. I realize That we are blessed to serve God, but in reality, God doesn't really need us.
He allows us to be a part of what he's doing. And yeah, he needs us to get the word out. But you understand what I mean. God can do anything. and he can put his servant on the sidelines.
and say to his servant, you've been showing me what you can do, let me show you what I can do. And he'll do it.
So Problems oftentimes give you greater opportunities. I've met people I would never have met. I've witnessed to people I could never have witnessed to. And I think Joseph would say the same thing. Secondly, problems promote spiritual maturity.
Problems grow you up, whether you like it or not. Apart from the Lord Himself, there's nobody I know. That was treated more unfairly than Joseph. He stands out as a classic example of somebody who is repeatedly mistreated. And he didn't do anything.
to cause that. Philip Yancey writes, if anyone Had a valid reason to be disappointed in God. It was Joseph. whose stabs at goodness brought him nothing but trouble. Yeah.
He interpreted a dream to his brothers and they threw him in a cistern. He resisted a sexual advance and landed in an Egyptian prison. There he interpreted another dream to save a cellmate's life, and the cellmate promptly forgot him. I wonder if Joseph languished for his virtue in an Egyptian dungeon. Did questions like, is God unfair?
Is God silent? Is God hidden? I wonder if those questions occur to Joseph. But shift for a moment to the perspective of God. Had he deliberately pulled back to allow Joseph's faith to reach a new level of maturity?
And could this be why Genesis devotes more space to Joseph than to any other person? Through all of his trials, Joseph learned to trust Not that God would prevent hardship, but that he would redeem hardship. Choking back tears, Joseph tried to explain his faith to his brothers. He said, You intended to harm me. But God intended it for good.
As you rewind Joseph's life, It's not hard to realize that he probably had a very soft life. He grew up with all these brothers. He was the youngest. You see the story, they're out taking care of the sheep. Joseph's home with his dad.
And so Maybe God thinks if Joseph is going to be useful, he's got to toughen him up. He would have to make him ready to be Prime Minister of Egypt during a worldwide famine. He surely wasn't ready as a young boy. And the psalmist alludes to this hardening process. In Psalm 105, we read this about Joseph.
He sent a man before them, Joseph. who was sold as a slave. They hurt his feet with fetters and he was laid in irons. The marginal reading translates that last phrase like this. His soul came into iron.
or iron came into his soul. Joseph went into prison. Timid providential child who had been given all of the benefits of life. And the Bible says when he came out, He came out an iron-souled man. He had iron in his soul, Let me ask you a question.
Do you have iron in your soul? I have this prediction for you. If you're going to make it through the next decade, you better get some iron in your soul. That's what God did for Joseph. How did he do it?
He trusted him with some testing and some problems. And in the process of testing and problems, He became a man of great wisdom and courage and determination. God wants iron-souled people. When we hurt and endure problems.
Something changes in our hearts. and we become more spiritually Mature. You know, the Bible is filled with this truth, but I've chosen four verses to give you that teach this. And after what I've said to you, Listen to these verses. through the ears of what I have said.
Romans 5, 3 through 5. We also glory in tribulations. knowing that tribulation produces Perseverance. and perseverance, character, and character, hope.
Now, hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has given me. Let me just remind you that it is dangerous to pray for patience. If you pray for patience, God will send you tribulation because that's the only way He can develop it in your life. You know, maybe you say, Well, I'm just such an impatient person. I'm going to ask God to help me.
He will. But you may not like the course he gives you to take. He will teach you to be patient, and the way he does that, according to this verse, is through tribulation. Here's Hebrews 12, 11.
Now, no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful. Nevertheless, afterward, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness. to those who have been trained by it. Here the writer of Hebrews says when you're going through stuff like I'm going through, or some of you are going through. It's not fun.
You know, I was meditating the other day on just how hard it is for me to get ready to face a day. The stuff that you used to do just Not even thinking about it now is a challenge. It's an exercise in patience. And the Bible says when you go through things like that, God is up to something in your life. James says it this way: my brethren, Count it all joy when you fall into various trials.
knowing that the testing of your faith produces what, class? Patience, endurance. unwilling to quit. Here's 1 Peter 1, 6 and 7. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, Why?
So that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ. When you are a Christian and you're not being punished for sin and you're going through trials, it's because God loves you so much He wants to make you the best you could ever be. And the Bible says if we have not been tested. If we've never suffered, we are incomplete. It's exactly what the Bible says.
You can't be complete if you don't go through some stuff.
Sometimes it's interesting. We try to help people. during their difficulty and if we're not careful we're actually aborting God's process in their life.
Sometimes we need to let people experience because we have a sense in our spirit that God is working in their life. Just think about this. Remember when Joseph was thrown into the pit? Reuben was going to rescue him. If Reuben had rescued him, the story of Joseph would never have been in the Bible.
If you read the Bible, you see often where people want to reach out. and cause Relief. And God is working. in that person's life. Problems provide greater opportunities, they promote spiritual maturity, and they prove your integrity.
Sometimes I hear people say, You know what, Dr. Jeremiah, I was doing just fine, but then this thing happened, and this is what this did to me, and this is what it made me. I was okay. I married that woman and she made me like this.
Well, let me just tell you what I know. When problems come and you think they make you a certain way. They don't make you a certain way, they just reveal the way you've always been. Problems don't make your character, problems reveal your character. You are not the way you are because somebody else did something.
You are the way you are because somebody else did something and brought out of you what you already are. If you're an angry person, Somebody can tick you off. But they can't take you off if there's no anger present for them to work with.
So I think it's important. to understand the difference between character and reputation. Character is often confused for reputation. But there's a vast difference. Reputation is what other people suppose we are.
Character is what we really are. Reputation is what men think you are. Character is what God knows you are. Reputation is what is chiseled on your tombstone. Character is what the angels say about you before the throne of God.
And character never changes. even when circumstances change. Because problems prove our integrity. They don't make our integrity.
So I just took one of the excuses you've been using. Off your list, and you can't use that one anymore. If you are upset about something, Just remember It's not somebody else's issue, it's your issue. It's my issue. When we do that.
Number four, problems produce a sense of dependency. You know, one of the hard things about having a disease like I've had is I haven't been able to do a lot of stuff that I normally do. I have to ask Donna, can you get this for me? And I hate that. Not that I don't want to ask her.
I hate that I can't do it for myself. For type A people, This is about the worst experience you can ever go through. to have to depend on someone else to get you a glass of orange juice. Or a glass of water, or can I have my blanket so I'm not freezing to death? God loves us to be in positions of dependence, especially.
when we're depending on him.
Now listen to this. Joseph was in prison, but I want to read a passage. from chapter 39. That puts it all in perspective. Then Joseph's master took him and put him into the prison.
a place where the king's prisoners were confined, and he was there in prison. But the Lord was with Jesus. Joseph. Wow. The Lord goes to prison.
The secret of Joseph's power. was his awareness of God's presence in his life. God had not forgotten him, and though it seemed to him that that was the case. Every time he turned around, he realized God was there. God went with Joseph to the pit when he was thrown in the pit.
God went with Joseph to the palace when he ruled in Egypt. And God was with Joseph in prison. Our prison ministry is a testimony to the fact that God does some of his best work. in prison. Guys, go there.
filled with themselves in ugliness. God gets a hold of their life. They get in a prison fellowship Bible study and they come out, changed people. Only prisons could do that for some of these men and women. And so, you know what Joseph found out when he was in prison?
He found out how much God loved him. And I can't count how many times you have told me. When you've gone through family problems or marital problems or financial problems or physical problems, here's your testimony, Pastor. I knew that God loved me and I've always felt close to Him, but never in all my days have I felt the love that I've experienced while I've been going through this problem. God draws near to us.
when we're suffering, when we're hurting. In his book, A Scandalous Freedom, Steve Brown writes: Pain is not something most people like. That's why we run from it as fast as we can. And that is also why we aren't free. Jesus hardly ever goes to those places where we run.
When pain comes or when we fear that it will come, Don't run away, run to it because when you get there, you'll find Jesus is already there. waiting to help you. and encourage you. Tim Keller adds this thought, one of the main ways we move from abstract knowledge about God to a personal encounter with God is through the furnace of affliction. What he's saying is, we know a lot about God in our heads, but sometimes it doesn't get from our head to our heart, and affliction causes that to happen.
Affliction causes you to realize that the Bible says God is with you. Then you go through affliction and you feel God with you, and you go, oh, so that's what that means. He really is with me. Believers understand many doctrinal truths in their minds. But those seldom make the journey down to the heart except through disappointment.
and failure and loss. As a man who seemed about to lose both his career and family, One man once said to Tin Killer, I always knew in principle that Jesus is all I need to get through, but listen to this. But you don't really know Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have. And sometimes you get through these problems, and it looks like everything that's important to you has gone away. But there's Jesus.
And you never know. How Jesus is all you need. Kill Jesus is all you have.
So problems provide greater opportunities. They promote spiritual maturity. They prove your integrity, they produce a sense of dependency. and they prepare your heart for ministry. This last thought.
Joseph is in prison. He's been through a lot. He wakes up one morning and he goes to wherever they gather for meals. And he looks out and he sees these two other guys, these two servants, the butler and the baker. And he sees they were sad.
And so he asked Pharaoh's officers who were with him in the custody of the Lord's house, saying, Why do you look so sad today? Do you know it's possible? if you've never suffered at all. that you never see suffering in anybody else. Isn't that interesting?
When I had cancer years ago, I have to admit I was the classic type A. building the church every day going to work and I'm sure I walked by many people who were hurting and never noticed them. But when I got cancer, God broke my heart. I don't know if y'all remember this, but when I came back, I couldn't pray for six months without crying. I used to ask God every week now, Lord.
If you want to do something for me, whatever you do, don't let me cry when I pray today. embarrassed me. But God broke my heart. That's what happens when you go through suffering, your heart is melted, and all of a sudden you begin to notice. the pain in other people's lives.
Joseph went down to eat And he looked out and he saw these two men and he said, Why are you so sad today? Isn't it Paul who wrote to the Corinthians that we comfort others? with the comfort with which we ourselves have also been comforted. When we are put into the difficulties of life and problems come to us, Usually what happens as a result of that is we are made especially sensitive to other people. who have had similar difficulties.
You don't have to... Falsely say, I know what you're going through because you know what they're going through, because you've been through it yourself, and they know it. Listen to me. People listen to you differently. when you go through stuff.
I had an illustration of that years ago. kind of a strange way. Do you remember the day of cassettes? When we started a Turning Point, that's how we produced. messages for people to listen to.
When I came back from cancer, I had a woman say to me, Pastor Jeremiah, You're preaching so much better now. than you used to.
Now that is a really hard thing to absorb as a pastor. It makes you wonder how bad you really were before you went through kicking. And I thought that was a strange thing for her to say. And she told me that she knew that because she was listening to me on the radio. One day I was thinking about it and I realized that there had not been anything on the radio that had been recorded Since I came back from being sick, it was all messages I'd preached before I'd gone to the hospital.
So she couldn't have noticed that I was preaching better. Because these were the messages I had preached before I even went to the hospital. And then it dawned on me. Because she came back later and said, you know what, I was kind of wrong about that. You weren't preaching better.
I was listening better. People listen to you. when you've been through something. I tell people all the time, if you're a pastor, People listen to you when things are going well. When things are going bad, they watch you.
They want to see if what you've been saying works in your life. Is Jesus all you need? Or are you just saying that 'cause you're paid to say it?
So Interesting enough. Even Jesus. had to experience suffering. In order that he could identify with our suffering. That sounds strange.
But I can prove it to you. Hebrews 2. Therefore in all things Jesus had to be made like his brethren. for in that he himself has suffered being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted. In other words, the Bible says that for Jesus to be able to help us, He had to suffer what we suffer.
So now the Bible goes on to say we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses. He was in all points tempted as we are. yet without sin.
So Looking back over the life of Joseph, Here's a man who teaches us how to live our lives when trouble comes. If we're honest, most of us Don't Want the cross, we want the crown. We don't want Good Friday. We want Easter. We want the gain without the pain.
And God will not have it so.
So if he's trusted you with some difficulty in your life, Maybe it's time for you to quit asking him why. and ask him what. What are you trying to teach me during this time? And then with all of your heart and soul and mind, with the Bible in one hand. and your willingness to be faithful to him.
Learn the important lesson, and when you come out of it on the other side, you will be so much better, you won't even recognize yourself. Because God Is building you up and strengthening you. and using the difficulties you're facing. to make you a better person. And if you don't get bitter, you will get better.
I'm sure. of that. I know it's true. And I know it's true, friends, because it's been true for me. I've had, I think, more than my share of challenges.
Physically, specially. Two rounds of cancer and uh this uh myelitis, which I've had now for two years. When I stop and think about it, I realize that I am a much better person than I would have been had these things not have happened to me. And I could give you a lot of illustrations of that. You'll just have to take it by faith.
because of the time restraints, but Let me just remind you again, problems are not always awful. Many times God uses them for His purpose and if we just are patient and ask God to give us wisdom to know what to do, He will and He will use our problems, our adversities. to make us better. I know that's true. And uh Tomorrow we're going to find out some of those.
problems because we're going to go to prison with Joseph and we'll see what's going on with him there. Hope you'll join us then. Thanks for listening. Today's message originated from Shadow Mountain Community Church and Dr. David Jeremiah, the senior pastor.
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Visit TurningPointPlus.org for details. This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us tomorrow as we continue the series God Meant It for Good: The Story of Joseph on Turning Point.
