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Max Lucado
Hello everybody! I love this church and I love your pastor. I love everything about what you do. Word of what you do has traveled literally around the world. I’ve met some of your members in remote places and heard about the unique way you are reaching into your city and the way you care for people and oh my, it is an honor to be with you, a phenomenal privilege to be with you. I’ve been in San Antonio at the Oak Hills Church now for a quarter of a century and they are so happy when I travel! They are so tired of me! They always tell me I preach too long.
The other day in one of the services, somebody got up right in the middle of the sermon and started walking out. I stopped everything and I said, ‘Sir, where are you going?’ He said, ‘Well, I’m going to get a haircut.’ I said, ‘Why didn’t you get one before you came in?’ He said, ‘I didn’t need one before I came in!’ You’d never do that to Mark would you? Then not long ago, I stepped into the restroom and we have those hot air hand dryers. You know, you hit the button and a blast of hot air comes out? Somebody had written on a sticky note, for a brief message from our pastor, hit this button. Oh! Not really! It’s a great church and I’m so thankful to be part of this great church and to share a few words with you.
Sometime ago, I ran into a lady from our congregation in a grocery store. I hadn’t seen her in a while so we stopped and visited in the produce section and I asked her about her kids and her work, but when I asked her about her husband, her chin began to quiver and her eyes began to fill with tears. To use her words, she said, well he traded me in on a new model. We talked for a while and we actually had a prayer right there between the lettuce and tomatoes. Then after we prayed, here’s what I told her. I said, ‘You are going to get through this. It may not be painless and it may not be quick, but God can use this mess for something good. But in the meantime don’t be foolish or naïve, but don’t despair either, because with God as your helper, you will get through this.”
A friend called some time ago, he had just been laid off at work. He couldn’t blame his dismissal on the economy or the company. It was his fault. He has said some crude, inappropriate things at work and his supervisor really had no other alternative but to let him go. So now he is in his mid-50s, unemployed in a struggling economy. His wife is mad and his kids are confused and he is ashamed and embarrassed. After we talked for a while, I said, “You are going to get through this. You are. I don’t know if it is going to be painless and I doubt if it is going to be quick, but God will use this mess that you are in for something really good. What’s important for you is don’t be foolish or do something stupid, don’t be naïve, but don’t despair because with God as your helper, you will get through this.”
Not far from where I work, there is a truck stop and this truck stop serves very good, greasy hamburgers! I love to pop in there. This summer they had a young girl who had a summer job at the truck stop and we had a good conversation a couple of times. One occasion she shared with me that her parents were recently divorced and that they were telling her to choose which one to live with. She was only 15 years old and she was pretty torn up about it and I can understand why. We talked about options and what she should do and then before I left, I said, “You will get through this. You are. It may not seem like it right now and it may not be quick and it won’t be painless, but God can use this mess you are in for something good. So don’t be foolish or naïve but don’t despair! With God as your helper, you will get through this.”
Who am I to tell people that? Where do I come off telling people that there is reason for hope in the midst of such crisis? Well, I actually came across that in a pit, a pit so dark and deep that the boy couldn’t get out. Had he been able to get out, his brothers would have pushed him back in because they were the ones who put him there to begin with. The story is in the book of Genesis and it is the story of Joseph, the son of Jacob. You remember how it begins.
23 So it came to pass, when Joseph had come to his brothers, that they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the tunic of many colors that was on him. 24 Then they took him and cast him into a pit. And the pit was empty; there was no water in it. 25 And they sat down to eat a meal.
So it was an abandoned cistern with jagged rocks and roots and down inside, we see the boy, at least he appears to be a boy with his spindly arms and legs and his wrists were tied together and he was cramped lying on his side down in the cramped space and his voice is hoarse from screaming and it is not that the brothers don’t hear him, the truth is they hear him very well. Years later when the famine has dampened their swagger, they will confess that they saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us and we would not hear.
These are the great grandsons of Abraham. This is the closest that the Bible comes to a royal family. These guys are going to have their names on the banners of the tribes of Israel. The book of Revelation says that in the New Jerusalem, the city of Jerusalem has foundation and in that foundation are carved the names of these boys. But today, their hearts are hard. They are bitter. Within earshot of their baby brother whom they have just thrown down into a pit, they are drinking the wine and passing the bread and their hearts are as hard as the Canaanite desert on which they sit.
Here’s why, Joseph was pampered like a prized calf. His dad, Jacob, had two wives, several concubines, but he really just had one love and Joseph was the first born out of that love. So whenever he saw Joseph, he thought of his late wife and he pampered Joseph. It is a classic dysfunctional family! His family is so dysfunctional, they could have their own reality TV show. The Bronze Age version of Chaos! Joseph gets his own tunic, his own coat of many colors while the other brothers wear hand-be-downs. Joseph gets his own room, the other brothers have to sleep in the barracks. Joseph gets to stay home with Daddy, Daddy’s boy, the other brothers have to go off and work.
And one time, when they were far away from home, 50 miles, to be exact, Jacob sent Joseph to them with an errand and they saw the opportunity for what it was and they took Joseph and they had every intent of taking his life. And had they not been just a feather more greedy than they were blood-thirsty, but then they had a chance to sell him. So here he is in the pit.
My hunch is that Joseph didn’t see this coming. I don’t think he woke up that day thinking now is the day I get thrown into a pit, so I better dress in padded clothing. The attack caught him off guard. Maybe your pit caught you off guard. You weren’t thrown into a pit and forgotten but maybe you were thrown into a divorce court and betrayed. Maybe you were thrown into an unemployment line and neglected. Maybe you were thrown into a bed and abused. The pit, the pit is that time in life that is austere, it is waterless, dark, and we don’t know the way out.
Joseph’s story, if you remember, really got worse before it got better. He was sold into Egyptian slavery where he was accused of sexual impropriety and then he was thrown into prison. Abandonment led to enslavement led to entrapment led to imprisonment, but the thing about Joseph, he never got bitter. He never gave up. He never let his hurt metastasize into hatred. In fact, he not only survived but he thrived! Everywhere he went! The guy was like a helium balloon! He kept ascending to the top. They couldn’t hold him down.
Sold into slavery and then next thing you know, he was in charge of all the other servants. Thrown into prison, next thing you know, he was in charge of all the other prisoners. Then in the most famous bounce back in the history of the universe, Pharaoh shoulder-taps Joseph to become the next Prime Minister of Egypt and literally from one day to the next, Joseph goes from the prison to the palace where he guides the then-known world through a seven-year famine and in doing so, saves his own family.
What did he know? What did he know that enabled him to keep his balance? What did he know that enabled him to always land on his feet? What did he know that kept him from giving in to anger and bitterness or despair? What did he know that enabled him to get through this? We don’t have to speculate, he told us. In some of his final words recorded in the Bible in a conversation he had with his brothers 40 years after this pit moment when the roles were definitely reversed and he is in the palace serving as prince and his brothers, who had been under his protection for many years, come to him because they are afraid he is going to do to them what they did to him because Jacob had died and they are afraid Joseph is going to throw them into a pit.
When Joseph hears them begging for mercy, he basically says you just don’t get it do you guys. You just don’t get it. Let me tell you what is going on here. Something else is happening. Something higher than you, something greater than you is happening. And here he gives the summary in Genesis 50:20
20 But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.
You meant evil against me, he said. You had every intent to hurt me, to destroy me, you came weaving evil. This is a Hebrew verb that comes from another verb that means to weave, to braid, to knit. They came with all of their threads of evil intent and they created this tapestry of hurt. You meant evil against me. But God. Someone else stepped in. someone intervened. Someone else was at play. But God, and then using the very same verb, he said but God meant it, intended it, or you could translate it, God re-wove it. God took the very evil that you brought against me and He re-wove it into something good.
Look at Joseph’s understanding of suffering. Evil came at him but God was on the throne and God is so sovereign that He can take this evil and He can re-braid it, He can unbraid it and re-braid it and use it to do something good, such as protect the children of Israel. Satan’s intent was simple. If he could destroy Jacob and Jacob’s sons and Joseph and all that is happening, then he could, in essence, destroy the lineage of Jesus Christ. So his intention was to step in and interrupt the coming of the Christ long before the family had a chance to become a nation. So what does God do? God lifts and relocates the brightest of the boys in a position where he can ultimately as prince provide safe-haven, protective custody for the children of Israel, a small tribe of about 60 or 70 shepherds who can come into Egypt and live in the protection of the nation because their brother is the prince and then over the centuries multiply into a nation of one million plus.
We see tragedy. God sees perfect plan. We see prison. God sees boot camp. We see Joseph sold into slavery. God sees Joseph fulfilling his intended purpose. Which you intended for evil, Joseph came to realize, God used for good. You intended evil. He acknowledges that evil happens. He acknowledges that the pit was wrong and he acknowledges that being betrayed and abandoned by his own family is not right, but God can take the wrongness of the world and He can re-weave it into something that ultimately causes us to say it stunk at the time and it hurt, but I got through it. In fact, God took that mess and He made it into something good.
This is the promise that we find in the New Testament in Romans 8:28. The New Testament version of Genesis 50:20 is Romans 8:28
28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
God works in all things. He takes the things of life and He works in the allness of them, the collection of them, the gathering of them. Individually, they are very difficult but as He takes them and pulls them together as part of his sovereign plan, we look up someday and we see how God was working in that. It’s not what I wanted. It is not what I requested and it is certainly not what I prayed for, but God used that for good.
Just about every morning, my wife and I sit out on the porch at our house and we look out over the beautiful Texas hill country and we enjoy a cup of coffee. And some of the first words I say every morning are these, “Mm, that’s good.” I drink the coffee and I say that’s good. Now what am I saying? Am I saying that a mug is good? Am I saying that plastic wrapping around coffee beans is good? Am I saying that coffee grounds are good? No! Am I saying that a coffee maker is good? Well, no. Am I saying that hot water is good? Am I saying that napkins are good? No! what I’m saying is that when you take all of this and you put it together in the right measurements with the proper ingredients and under the proper care of someone who is a barista, who knows what they are doing. Individually, they are not great, but when they all come together at the right temperature with the right ingredients, good happens.
I’m not saying that cancer is good. I’m not saying that unemployment is good. You will never hear me hint to the mother who suffered a miscarriage that it was good. I will never stand in the cemetery and put my arm around someone and say this is good. No, no. It stinks and it hurts and it is painful and it is misery and there is nothing in the Bible that would suggest that the terror or the tragedy that you are facing right now is good. But here’s the promise of the Bible, God can take that which is bad and He can use it for good and He can turn it into good. He can redeem it. He can reclaim it. He can take what Satan brings and He can perform a divine jujitsu of sorts and that is the very power that comes at you will be recycled against the devil so that the devil says he thought he was selling that family so that extinction was in the plan but it ended up being preservation. What he intended was evil but what happened? And every time that which is intended for evil becomes ultimate good because God has never abandoned the throne.
Here’s my question for you, could it be that what God did then for Joseph, He will do right now for you? That what is intended as evil, what is intended as tragedy, what is intended to hurt you will actually be used to develop you and to strengthen you and to advance the cause of God. Evil, but God, good. Evil can become good as we commit God in the middle of it. How do we do that? I’ve got two or three ideas.
Number one, when you find yourself in the pit, then lay claim to the nearness of God. Lay claim to the nearness of God. God gives you this promise. He says never will I leave you, never will I forsake you. It is even stronger in grief. The translation could be I will not not leave or neither will I not not forsake you. Five negatives in one sentence, not, not, neither, not, not. He is making a point. He never leaves you. You may think He has. You don’t feel the nearness of God. When somebody is going through a hard time, they say they don’t feel like God is near.
Here’s the rule of thumb, when you are passing through a tough time, you have to let God’s Word trump your emotions. You can’t trust your emotions. They are not trustworthy. I’m not saying you are not trustworthy, I’m saying that tough times stir up unreliable and undependable emotions. Sometimes you have to take your emotions outside and give them a good talking to. Whether you feel God is near or not does not matter. What matters is that God has said He is near. Don’t equate the presence of God with a good mood. Don’t equate the presence of God with a good mood. You say it, I say it, ‘I feel so good, God is near.’
You can also say this, ‘I feel cruddy, God is near.’ Because how you feel does not determine the presence of God! So lay claim to that. When you are in the pit, when you are in a difficult time, do not give in to that lie from the devil that says God is not near. God is with you, right there in the emergency room, right there in the foster home, wherever I am, I don’t know what tomorrow holds but I know God is here. You’ve got to hang on to that. It is your parachute. Lay claim to the nearness of God.
Number two, cling to his character. Recite and rehearse the character of God. My friend, J.J. Jasper lost his son in a dune buggy accident, a five year old boy, when the dune buggy flipped, his son died. From the emergency room, J.J. had to call the rest of the family. The boy was the youngest, the others were in their teenage years at the time and he had to call them. They were away at a summer camp. I said, “How did you tell your children that their baby brother had died?” He said, “Well, as each got on the phone, I said I’m going to tell you some really bad news but before I do, I want you to think about everything you know that is good about God. Think about everything you know that is good about God. When times are bad, what is still good about God.”
That conversation left an imprint on me and I made a list of everything I know that is good about God. And I keep it with me in case crisis strikes, I want to have it handy. My list reads like this, no matter what, God is still sovereign. No matter what, God still knows my name and angels still respond to his call and the hearts of rulers still bend at his bidding. No matter what, the death of Jesus still saves souls. The Spirit of God still indwells saints and heaven is still only heart beats away. The grave is still temporary housing. God is still faithful. He is not caught off guard. He uses everything for his glory and the ultimate good. He uses tragedy to accomplish his will and his will is right, holy and perfect. Sorrow may come with the night but joy always comes with the morning.
You see, in changing times, you must lay hold to the unchanging hand of God. That’s what makes tragedy so difficult, because it is a change and no one likes change. We want everything to stay the same but it is not going to stay the same. But God does. So in the midst of a difficult time, rehearse, recite the characteristics of God.
Here’s a third idea. Pray your pain out. Pray it out. This is the time to shake a fist. This is the time to lodge your complaint. This is the time to march up and down the lawn. This is the time to pound the floor with your fists. This is the time to let God know I don’t like what you just did! That’s ok for you to say! It’s alright. God is not going to get mad. He is not going to have his feelings hurt. Did you know that in the Bible there is a book called Lamentations? What is a lament? It is a complaint. File your complaints.
Part of your healing is revealing your hurt. Part of your healing is revealing your hurt. God has disappointed you. He has. Whether you want to put it in those words or you are a little embarrassed about putting it in those words, the fact of the matter is, you had this expectation of God that if God was God then, and then something happened that you don’t think God should have done and you are just a little ticked off. So it is very important for you to have a heart to heart with God about it. It is very important. Otherwise the devil is going to get a wedge between you and God. You’ve got to go deep with God in dark times.
It could be that God is using this time to really reveal more of Himself to you. Maybe, could it be, that you had the wrong understanding of God and He is just correcting it a bit? And He is allowing you to endure a tough time so that something can happen inside you? Could it be that you are asking God to change your circumstances when all along God is just using circumstances to change you? And these circumstances are important in your development but you don’t know that until you pray the pain out. You’ve got to get heart to heart and honest with Him. That’s ok. It is really better for you to take it out on God than to take it out on other people. My friend says it is better to shake your fist at God than to turn your back on Him. So go ahead and pray your pain out.
One more idea, lean on God’s people. Lean on God’s people. Cancel your escape to the Himalayas. Come out of quarantine. I know you don’t want to be around anyone but exactly where you need to be is around other people! You need to be in a small group. You need to be connected to the church. You need to be a barnacle on the boat of God’s church. Here’s why, Jesus said for where two or three are gathered together, I am there in the mist of them.
We tend to say we are going to go get away so we can find God but God says, ‘Well, I’m over here in the middle of all these people!’ If you want to find Him, come and hang out with others. Here’s why, somebody else has been through what you are going through. Someone has and you will meet them in a small group or at church. Jesus is right there. You tend to think no one has ever gone through this before, I’ve said those things too, but listen, someone has! Oftentimes, they have grey hair or they are bald like I am. What you need is to place yourself in a position where somebody will hear your story and they will say, that happened to me, or something similar happened to me and I got through it. You need somebody on the other side of the tunnel to say hey, there is no quicksand, you are going to make it.
The devil’s strategy is to isolate you, to quarantine you, to cut you off from God’s hope supply center which is the church. If I’m hungry, I go to the kitchen. If I’m sick, I go to the doctor. What makes me think that when I’m discouraged I should avoid people? The church is God’s hope distribution center. When my wife was in her early 30s, we were new to ministry. We have three daughters who were very small at the time, two still in diapers, one in kindergarten. And she had a husband who didn’t get off the airplane and stay home as much as he should have, so she was left running the world and she got depressed. It was a very tough time for her. She said everyday was grey. She calls it her black cloud. No matter what happened, she couldn’t pull herself out of it.
One Sunday in particular, she just almost didn’t go to church. She was so tired and wasn’t sleeping well and then to get three girls bathed because I was already at the church. But she decided to go, but if somebody says how are you doing, I’m going to tell them! And sure enough, it began in the parking lot. How are you doing? She said, ‘I’m depressed. I’m having a rough time and I’m very discouraged.’ And a nurturing, encouraging conversation happened right there in the parking lot. So she went inside the front door, how are you doing today? She said, ‘I’m depressed and I’m discouraged and I’m not sure I can make it.’ Another healthy conversation. She got inside the auditorium, how are you doing? This went on 13 different times! By the time she left that day, she had 13 people who volunteered to pray for her and to check up on her and to encourage her. She would tell you, I’ve heard her tell others, her healing began that day. It didn’t all happen that day but she traces the beginning of her healing to the day she began to lean on God’s people.
You are going to get through this. You are going to get through it. You just need somebody to help you get through it. You are going to get through it. Is it going to be quick? I hope so! But oftentimes it is not. For some reason, God just takes his time because part of the plan is to take time to mature us. Is it going to be painless? I don’t know, that’s not my call. But here’s what I do know, God will use this mess you are in for something good.
Every page of the story, every story in the Bible, it seems, tells us that deliverance is to the Bible what jazz music is to the Mardi Gras! Bold, brassy and everywhere! God getting people through things, through fiery furnaces and through stormy times and through lions’ dens, through challenges and arguments and difficulties and through persecution. God gets his people through the valley of the shadow of death. He gets us through things. In the meantime, don’t be foolish. Don’t try to treat long term problems with short term solutions. More drugs don’t help an addiction. More adultery doesn’t help a rocky marriage. More debt doesn’t fix debt. So think. In Texas, we say stupid doesn’t fix stupid. Just be careful because you are a sitting duck for a bad decision so you have to be careful. But don’t despair either.
Here’s my closing comment, my closing challenge. Defy despair! Defy it! Say you are not going to get me! You may have taken some of my family, you may have taken some of my friends, it may seem like you are taking a whole society at times, but you are not going to get to me. I’m going to hold on to hope. I don’t know exactly what the solution is and I don’t know exactly where tomorrow is going to take me but I’m going to hold on to hope. I defy despair! You are not going to have me because with God’s help, with God as my helper, I know this, I will get through this!
Lord, we thank You for your promise. We thank You for your presence. We thank You Lord for what You do for us and what You do in us. I know, Lord, that hearing this prayer are some of your sons and daughters who are very discouraged, and I believe You brought them to hear this message so that they could have enough strength to make it just one day, to not give up, to not throw in the towel. Lord, the devil wants to interrupt them because they have something that this generation needs. They are a Joseph in their generation, uniquely equipped to take a stand for You in their circle. Lord, strengthen them today. Let us hear this and resolve hope and let hope go deep. We ask You to help us and we know You will. We know You will. We offer this prayer through Jesus Christ, Amen.
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