Pay or Pave

As convicted. So, we'll be starting something called Summer of Salt beginning next week. It's a series of messages throughout the summer. We're going to probably spend about six weeks and or maybe even more than that with some just inspirational messages. And we'll have other people speaking as well as we start the summer.

Next week, I'm going to give you five must-haves when you travel. And so, be back next week to hear that. But just to kind of go through what we've talked about the last couple of weeks in our series, let's review just for a minute. We first, in week one, we visited James. And James, the brother of Jesus, told us this, that we are to be quick to listen and slow to speak.

Can you say that with me? Quick to listen and slow to speak, right? Quick to listen and slow to speak. How hard is that, right? And he gives us that challenge.

And he told us that our mouths are untameable. Our mouths are uncontrollable. And we can't really control our mouths, but we can put up guards on our mouths. We can put a guard around the mouth. We can put a warden on our mouth to keep us from saying the things.

Because we're always going to have this threat of saying the wrong thing, of doing the wrong thing, or speaking the wrong thing. And then he reminds us that we are, we have these things called fish mouth, okay? Fish mouth. And if you, up here on the screen, if we can get that graphic. A fish mouth.

You don't want to be her, right? You don't want to be fish mouth. Is it up there by any chance? Okay. I can't see because it's back there.

You don't want to be a fish mouth. So we're going to start this saying around here anytime we start to say something. Because what Paul says is that no distasteful, no dishonoring or degrading word is to come out of your mouth. And that literal translation is fish mouth. So we don't want to have fish mouth, okay?

So anytime we start to speak and we need to be quick to listen and slow to speak, what are we going to do? We're going to look at our brother. We're going to look at our sister and say, fish mouth, right? Fish mouth. Let's stop for a second.

Let's pull back. Because we don't want to be that. Because as Christians, we believe each person is made in the image of God and has, and that there's someone that Christ died for, right? So you don't want to say anything hateful. We don't want to say anything dishonoring.

We don't want to say anything degrading. Then Paul gives us another word picture and he talks about these construction sites. He says we, that our words are, and our conversations are like construction sites. And words are built, our words are buildings or material that we use to build these buildings. So we, when we walk into a conversation, we want to leave that conversation better than when we arrive.

We want to leave that person, the things we say, we want to leave those people better off by them being with us than when we first entered into that conversation. We want words that are encouraging. We want words that build people up. And he talks about that. And we need to get rid of it.

And here's what he does. He gets up in our business and he starts talking about bitterness. He says we got to get rid of bitterness because it's difficult, it's difficult to be a builder when we're bitter. We can't build people up when we're bitter. So we dealt with bitterness last week because, you know what, bullied people bully, right?

Neglected sons become demanding husbands. Abandoned daughters turn into suspicious wives. So we need to get those things out of us so that we can in turn build people up. And there is a brand of hurt that brands us with a need to get even with somebody. To get even.

And forgiveness is deciding that someone in the past doesn't owe you. That no matter what they did, they don't owe you. It's deciding that I'm going to give someone in the past what they don't deserve, right? What they don't deserve so that I can give the people around me what they do deserve. Because what we do is when we act in bitterness, when we have bitterness in our hearts, whatever that person did, whatever that dad did, whatever that friend did, we carry that into our relationships now, right?

And we unfairly place it on the relationships. And this is what Paul was getting at, that we got to let go of that bitterness. We got to let go of bitterness because we can't be builders if we're bitter. Because sometimes, here's the deal, because sometimes, and this is what I want to get out today, because sometimes what goes around comes around. And even the powerless often find themselves in positions of power.

And the people who hurt you may someday need you. They may one day need you. And how we leverage our words in those moments says so much about you. And it says more than any, more about you than anything else. So I want to get you ready for that today.

I want to, I want to push you into that arena of maybe one day you're the one. Maybe somebody treated you bad. Somebody in power treated you. Somebody had power over you and treated you bad. Maybe one day you're going to be that person on the other side.

What will you say? And I want to get you ready for that with, I believe, is probably the second greatest story ever told. The first greatest story, obviously, is Jesus and God and the Father and what He did for His love for us, how He gave His Son. But I want to share with you the second greatest story ever told. So we're going to go back to Abraham in Genesis.

And it starts there. And what we know about Abraham is, is God spoke to Abraham and said, through you, we were going to, I'm going to build a nation. I'm going to bless you, and I'm going to build a nation through you. But it didn't start with Abraham. Abraham had a son named Isaac.

And then Isaac had a son named Jacob. And then Jacob had 12 sons, right? 12. And through these twelve sons, he would build a nation. In just a few generations, you would have an entire nation that started from Abraham, worked through Jacob, and the entire, and here's the deal.

These twelve sons, the entire enterprise would eventually dangle on the word of one person, one single person among these twelve sons who I want to speak today, and that is Joseph. Joseph, the son of Jacob. Joseph, the son of Jacob. And he was Jacob's favorite son, okay? Why was he Jacob's favorite son?

Because Rachel, who had Joseph, was Jacob's favorite wife. Now, let me just give you a little takeaway here, men. Don't have a favorite wife, okay? It will not go well for you. It doesn't show to go well here.

It will not go well for you. It will cause all kinds of problems, and it will cause so many problems as it did in this story with Jacob and Joseph. So, Joseph's ten older brothers hated him because Joseph was his favorite. And when Joseph was 17 years old, his father asked him to go check on his brothers. Check on your brothers.

I want you to go out and check on your brothers. Now, and then his brothers looked and said, this is our opportunity. They were so full of hate because Joseph walked around with this multicolored coat that his father gave him. He was just so precious in his dad's sight, and they just were full of, what is that? Bitterness, that bitterness that we were talking about.

They were full of this, so they saw this as a chance. They had had enough. They'd had enough of the favoritism, and they wanted to do something. They wanted to take him. So, they take him, and they strip him down of everything.

They throw him in a pit, and they plan to kill him. They plan to kill him. Wow. That's how much hatred they had in their heart for Joseph. And here's where the story picks up.

And by the way, you can go to our Bible app, the YouVersion Bible app, find our event, and you can follow along. We got all the scripture there that you can follow along with. You can also take notes and keep up with things. But starting with Genesis 37, and I'm going to kind of like walk through this story and kind of make it a little conversational here as I parse the scripture a little bit. And he says this, as they sat to eat their meal, they looked up and they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead.

So, could you imagine just for a second, okay, Joseph has just been beaten up. He's been thrown in a pit. He is terrified. He knows not what's going to happen. He knows how much his brothers resent him.

And he hears this caravan coming up. And then his brother Judah says to his brothers, what will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay a hand on her. So, the brother's like, oh yeah, yeah, that makes sense. So, we don't have to kill him.

We can just sell him, and then we can tell our father that. So, there's this unction of compassion comes over him, right? Doesn't last very long. Like, yeah, yeah, after all, he is our flesh and blood. Let us sell him, right?

And after all, he is our brother and our flesh and blood. So, they pull him out of the pit, and he's terrified. He's 17 years old. He's sold to foreign slaves with many different languages coming out of them. I mean, he doesn't know who they are.

He doesn't know how much they're going to sell them for. He doesn't know what he's going to be worth. He doesn't even know what he's going to be doing. Could you imagine going off into a foreign land knowing nothing about anything? So, there he is in a cage.

His brothers put him in the cage, wave goodbye to him, and think, well, we'll never see him again. And he assumed that he would never see his home again. And then, we enter into verse 39, or chapter 39, rather. And it says, now, Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. And Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard, brought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there.

And the strangest part of this story, the strangest part, the most ridiculous part of this story is that, and it's repeated throughout this story, is the next verse. And it says, the Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered. And we think, no, the Lord wasn't with Joseph. Why would the Lord, if the Lord was in Joseph, he wouldn't have been sold into slavery. If the Lord was with Joseph, he wouldn't have been taken off to a foreign land.

If the Lord was with Joseph, the Lord would have been with them, right? And he would have been okay, and he would have prospered in the way we think that he should prosper, right? But it says here in Scripture, and this is why it's so wild, the Lord was with Joseph. And the next part, however, is even more strange, because in some strange way, not only was the Lord with Joseph in some unseen, supernatural way that he couldn't see physically, or we can't see in this story, it says he chose to live as if God was with him, rather than God abandoning him. He chose to live as if the Lord was with him.

And we see that overarching theme through the entire story. And for many years, Potiphar noticed Joseph's character. He saw that Joseph was a good man, and he found favor in him. And Joseph was put in charge of the whole household. But Potiphar wasn't the only one that found favor in Joseph.

His wife found favor in Joseph, because Joseph was a very handsome man. So his wife demands Joseph sleep with him. And then she gets an answer that she didn't expect to hear. She gets an answer that she had never probably heard in her entire life, because she was Potiphar's wife. And it was No.

Now, no slave says no. You're a slave. You don't say no. Slaves don't say no. Servants don't say no.

And Joseph does a bold thing here. And Joseph's reasoning are even more fascinating because the first reason was your husband has put everything in charge of me. And why would I do such a thing to a man who's put me in charge of his household? And you are the only one. He hasn't put me.

And I cannot break my trust in him. But more than anything, he says this, And then how then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God? You mean the God that wasn't there for you, Joseph? You mean the God that's put you in this position from the very beginning? The God that took you away from your home?

The God... See, isn't that how we think? That this isn't right. How could God do this? You mean the God that would allow me to be where I'm at?

Really? This God? But day after day, she demands. And she puts... He avoids her.

And then she accuses him of attempted rape. And when Potiphar finds out, he has no other choice. He has no other choice but to put him in prison. Some versions say a dungeon, a dark place, a prison. And here's what it says in verse 20.

It says, Joseph's master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined. But while Joseph was there in the prison, the Lord, what? Was with him. How could the Lord be with you? Because if the Lord was with you, you wouldn't be in prison, right?

If the Lord was with you, you wouldn't have been unfairly trialed. You wouldn't be put in prison. You wouldn't be done the way you were done, right? If the Lord was with you, she should be in prison, right? She should be in prison.

Her brother should be in prison. The Lord was with him, though. Over and over again, we see the Lord was with him. And he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. So the takeaway here, guys, is this.

Bad things have been happening to good people for a long time. Bad things have been happening to good people for a very, very long time. But here's the flip side of it. But God has been with good people and bad things for a long time as well. And eventually, Joseph becomes an administrative assistant to this prison warden.

And years go by, but Joseph maintains faith in and with God. And he chooses to believe that God is with him. And while he's in prison, he runs into this butler and this baker. And they both were butlers and bakers to Pharaoh, the main chief guy in that day. He was the most powerful person.

And they're sad and they're downcast. Joseph is asking, what's going on? How can I, you know, why are you guys downcast? They start sharing that they had these dreams. They had these dreams.

And I'm sure in some way, kind of hearing through the prison, they knew that Joseph was an interpreter of dreams. Because he had this gift of being able to interpret dreams. So they share with him the dream. The butler starts first. I mean, the baker starts first.

And he shares this story. And he tells them all about this dream that he had. And Joseph said, yeah, I can interpret that dream. But God can. I can go to God and we can see what God says about these dreams, right?

So he starts interpreting this dream. And he learns that the butler, in three days, his head would be lifted. And he would be put back into the place and position he once was with Pharaoh. And everything would be okay. So in three days, sure enough, it happened.

He was put back in a place, a position. And Joseph said, just remember me. Remember me. Now, the baker comes along. He hears that.

And he says, wow, that's a really good answer to that dream. I'm going to share you my dream. Because I want to find out what's going on with my dream. So he shares his dream. And he says, yeah, you're going to be lifted up in three days.

Your head's going to be lifted up in three days, but off your body. And you're going to be put on a stake. You're going to be impelled. And then the birds were going to eat your flesh. And I don't know why Joseph went into so much detail about that.

Because if it were me, I would be like, well, I'm not getting anything about your dream. I don't know what's going on with your dream, man. I'm just going to pray for you. And hopefully everything would be okay. But this happened.

These dreams came true. These dreams fulfilled themselves. These dreams that God had given these men and used Joseph. But the butler forgot about Joseph. Days passed by.

Weeks passed by. Months passed by. And he was forgotten. He was not talking. You know, he never heard anything.

Now, Joseph is 30 years old. And Pharaoh has a series of disturbing dreams himself. And none of the magicians and none of the leaders and none of the people of wisdom could interpret this dream. They couldn't. Then the butler says, I know a man.

I know a man. Now, remember that time when you, maybe I shouldn't mention that because you had me in prison one time. But, you know, remember that time, you know, you had me in prison. I ran into a guy. I ran into a guy who could interpret dreams.

So, it picks up in Genesis 41 and says, so Pharaoh sent for Joseph and he was quickly brought from the dungeon. And when he had shaved and changed his clothes, he came before Pharaoh. Now, could you imagine that for a second? You're in prison. You're kind of there.

You've been there for years. And then all of a sudden, the guards come in. They say, you're going to see Pharaoh. So, they're like taking you out of there. They're cleaning you up.

This is how you bow. This is how you talk to Pharaoh. This is how you walk into the room. That's what was going on in Joseph's mind. Wow, I'm going to appear before Pharaoh.

I'm going to appear before the very most powerful, the most powerful person in the world. I'm going to appear before him. And so, Pharaoh said to Joseph, I had a dream and no one could interpret it. But I... I've heard it said that you, or said of you, that when you hear a dream, you can interpret these dreams.

You can interpret these dreams. But what Joseph says next is astounding. What Joseph says next is the most courageous thing that someone could ever say. Grant, this is the most powerful man in the world. And you don't say this to the most powerful man in the world.

And this is what he says. I cannot do it. Joseph replied to Pharaoh, I cannot do it. And I'm sure the butler was thinking, oh no, oh no, it's back to prison I go, right? Because he's like, oh no, you know, I have done something.

But then David says this, but God, but God. That's even worse though, because you're talking to Pharaoh. Pharaoh, but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires. This is, this is a man that's been told that he is a God all of his life. He was a God.

He was from the gods. He was to be honored. He was to be revered. And here's Joseph standing saying, I can't interpret the dream, but I'm going to show you a God that can. I'm going to talk about a God who can.

I'm going to work through a God who can. You serve a little g God. You serve these little g gods, but I'm going to introduce you to a big God, a capital G God that can actually answer this. One of the most courageous things he could have done. And he stands up.

And I'm sure Pharaoh was, and his officials during that time were like, oh my, the officials were like, oh, what's going to happen here? You know what? This is, this is, this is crazy. But Joseph predicts seven years of extraordinary abundance from Pharaoh's dream. And there, he said, there'll be so much grain, there'll be so much crop, you, you, the economy will go bad because it'd be so cheap.

You know, you could just buy a crop, you can buy grain, and, and, and there's going to be all this benefit and abundance that you're going to have for seven years. And then there's going to be a famine across the land and everything's going to die out. There's not going to be anything. There's going to be nothing. And so, so he, he shares this, this interpretation, but he doesn't stop there.

He does the unthinkable. He begins to give advice to Pharaoh. He gives advice to Pharaoh. He says, here's what you do. And he says, Pharaoh, here's what you do.

You need to prepare for the famine. You need to prepare. So you need to build, you need to put these cities in place. Just grab all the grain you can. And you need to start placing them in these cities.

And, and, and you need to place a 20% tax in the name of Pharaoh. And Pharaoh's like, I'm listening. This is about me. Let me, let me just listen a little closer here. Let me lean in a little bit here because he's talking.

He says, so you need to put a 20% tax on all the grain in honor of you. And you need to put up these silos, these extreme silos, and, and collect these things. And then when the famine comes, you will have control over the grain. And then Pharaoh says this, the plan seemed good to Pharaoh and to all of his officials. And by the end of the famine, we learn that Pharaoh's personally, he personally owns just about everything because people, when the famine came, began to sell their crops or cattle, their land, their, everything that they owned so that they could gain this grain because of the famine, slaves, cattle, land, whatever they had that, that they could purchase this grain for.

And then it goes on in verse 28. So Pharaoh asked them, can we find anyone like this man on, in, in whom is the spirit of God? Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, since God has made all this known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you, and you shall be in charge of my palace, and all the people are to submit to your orders. And I'm sure the second and third in command were like, wait, what, what, wait, what, what's going on here? You know, like, what are you doing?

You know, only with, and he says, only with respect to the throne will I be greater than you. So David was, David, Joseph was raised to the second in command of the entire kingdom, only with Pharaoh above him. And he makes Joseph the prime minister of Egypt. And he's, and this training didn't come from a palace. This training didn't come from a classroom with highly educated, highly wise people in political categories and political positions.

This came from a prison cell. This came from betrayal of his brothers. This came in dark places that, that his training came in the muck of life. His training came in places that you would not expect his training to come. God was preparing him, even though it didn't seem that God was there.

God was there with Joseph. God was working in Joseph's life. God was preparing a way. He was ordering the steps of Joseph so that Joseph could be where he is. It came in the most unexpected way, a place that seemed as if God was not with him and was silent.

And Joseph prepares the nation for the rain to stop, and the rain stops, and the crops stop growing, and all the things happen. And he opens the storehouse, and he sells grains. The famine spreads beyond the land. It spreads out into Egypt and beyond. And then his father and brothers get word that there's grain in Egypt, to go to Egypt.

And this is where the story picks up in chapter 42, verse 1. And when Joseph learned that there, Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, why are you just, why do you just keep looking at each other? I can imagine. They were probably like, well, what are we going to do? What are we going to do?

And Jacob's like, go to Egypt, right? Go get some grain. Don't just sit here and talk about it. Don't just stare at each other. Let's move on.

And he says, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt, so go down there and buy some for us, so that we may live and not die. So go to Egypt. So the stage is set, and the fortunes have been reversed. It says, now Joseph was the governor of the land and the person who sold grain to all the people. So it just so happened that Joseph was at the city where his brothers showed up and were looking for grain.

And there he was. The powerless had become powerful. The small guy had become the big guy. And he's standing there. And so Joseph, when Joseph's brothers arrived in verse 6, so when Joseph's brothers arrived, they bowed down to him with their faces to the ground.

And as soon as Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he pretended to be a stranger. So they did not recognize him. They did not recognize him. They didn't know who he was. You know why?

Because he walked like an Egyptian, right? Okay, some of you got that. My wife is named Laffer here. She was looking down at her phone, taking notes. But really, the last time they saw him, he was terrified.

He was young. And now here he is. He's in a place of position. And here's something you are going to have to wrestle with one day. This is something that you're going to have to think and decide on your own.

What you do when you have the power and the words determines... What will... Excuse me. What do you do when you've got the power and your words determine the destiny of your enemy? What do you do when you have the power and your words determine the destiny of your enemy?

And it depends on what you did with your bitterness. It really depends on what you've done with your bitterness and your anger and all that hurt that you have. That's what... How you use your words when you become the powerful depends on how you... Because if you still have bitterness dragging around, you'll be like the person you don't like.

You'll be just like the person that you don't like. And Joseph remembers his terror as if his brothers... You know, he's probably thinking about all these things. He's thinking about... I can't...

I remember when I was in the pit. I remember... He was probably struggling internally with these things. And he would think about them all the time. He would think about being on the slave trading block, you know.

As the Ishmaelites took him in and they sold him to Potiphar. And he would think about those things. He would think about being in prison. He would think about the rejection of the butler after all he had done for the butler. He remembered all those things.

And he remembered being in a dungeon for years. He remembered being in the dark places for years. But he wouldn't use it against God. And he wouldn't use it against his brothers. And then the next three chapters, we don't have a lot of time to talk about that today.

But he toys with them. He plays with them, you know. And for months he sends them back, you know. They come in and his brothers are before him. And he says, I want you...

Do you have a younger brother? And I say, yeah, we have one. He's with the father. Well, you go and bring him back. And then I'll hold one in prison until you come back.

Or hold him hostage until you come back. And then they come back. And he tells them to go do something else. And he goes to do something else. And they're just like, what is going on here?

And he would do that for months. And I'm guessing he was... Even in himself, he was probably working out the emotions. How am I going to approach them? How am I going to...

Why wouldn't he just say, I'm Joseph and you're... Oh, you know, he was probably working out a lot of that stuff internally inside of him as he was thinking about processing what he was going to say and how he was going to deal with his brothers. And the months go by and there's so much detail. But finally, he has them all in one room. Every one of them in one room.

And it says this in chapter 45. Then Joseph could no longer control himself because all his attendants... Before all his attendants, and he cried out, Have everyone leave my presence. And Joseph can no longer hold it inside himself. He has to talk to him.

And why is he acting this way? Why is he... And I'm sure they're thinking, Why is he singling us out? He's asking everybody to leave the room. What is wrong?

What is going on? His brothers and his family are like, What is going on here? And I imagine there was some fear in their heart. So there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers. So there was no one in the room.

It was just him and his brothers. And Joseph said to his brothers, and he finally lets it out. I am Joseph. I am Joseph. And the next scripture says, They wetteth themselves.

Now that's just me. But I think that maybe... There was some bowels moving that day. After they learned that it was Joseph. Joseph, but joking aside, they expected him to do unto them as they had done unto him.

That's what they were expecting. And all it would have done is just one word. Joseph, all he had to do is say one word. And they would have prepared stakes to be impaled. They would have...

And listen, it wasn't like... These were slow, agonizing. I want to give you a picture of what these guys were fearing. So there would be ten stakes, because he had ten brothers at this point. Ten stakes.

They would be lined up. And they would take them out one by one. And all of his brothers would be brought into the execution chamber or the execution... Or whether it was outside or inside, they would have brought them out to that square, to that place, and every one of them would have been lined up, and they would start with one brother, and they would take and drop him on a very sharp stake, and it would pierce their body slowly, until it hit their heart, and they died, and they would do that over, and over, and every brother would have to watch the brother before them die. So, as you can imagine, they were terrified.

We're here in the second of command, in all of Egypt, in all of the land, in all of the nations. We have him here, and he asked this instead. He says, is my father still living? But his brothers were not able to answer him, because they were terrified at his presence. I mean, just imagine, like, you can't even speak.

Have you ever been so terrified you can't speak? Have you ever been so terrified? I don't know what's going to happen. I don't know what to say. I don't know what to do.

You know, the, you know, your dopamine's running through your system, or whatever, because you're trying to deal with it, and that's what was going on. That was going, what was going on. And they had also rehearsed this over, and over again. Would he do unto them as they had done unto him? Would he do unto us as, as we have done to him?

But they did not need to be terrified in his presence, because Joseph had lived as if God was with him during their absence, during his absence. So he kept bitterness at bay, because he lived as the Lord was with him. And what Joseph didn't know was that God's plan for salvation was hanging on one word. What Joseph didn't know is that God was preparing him for the salvation of many. God was preparing a nation through Joseph and through his brothers that he had no clue at the time.

When he was in the prison cell, when he was going through all the pain, when he was going through all the hurt, when he was going through the betrayal, he lived as if God was with him, but he had no clue what God was up to. That his words, the words that he would use at this very moment before his brothers would be something that hung on the very idea that God would save the entire world through just one act and one word. And there sat before him ten of the twelve tribes of Israel. Well, ten of the twelve tribes of Israel in which God would use to reach the entire world through salvation in Jesus Christ. The same Savior who would do for the world what Joseph chose to do for his brothers.

For his brothers. And because he didn't carry around a sack of bitterness and anger, although he had every reason to, But instead, he sent armed guards with his family. He says, I want you to go back and bring all the family, and I want you to bring them here, and I'm going to take care of them. And he brought them to Egypt, and he takes care of them. Instead of killing them, he takes care of them for the rest of his life.

And then years go by, and Jacob dies. And then his brothers are like, oh no, here it comes. We've been waiting for it. We was waiting for daddy to die. And now we're going to die.

Now he's going to put us to death. Because it made no sense what he did before. But then, we hear the response. Here it is in chapter 50, verse 18. His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him.

And he says, we are slaves. We are your slaves. We'll do whatever. Please spare us. Please spare our children.

And please spare our children's children. We'll do whatever you want. But Joseph said to them, and this is so powerful. He says, do not be afraid. And this is something you are going to have to really challenge yourself from time to time.

Because you're going to find yourself in Joseph's position. You're going to find yourself in a place where you have the power. And just a few words, or even just one word, will change the destiny of somebody's life. And he says this, am I in the place of God? Am I in the place of God?

And here's something you can kind of take home with you. You will never experience the good that comes from the bad unless you recognize God was with you in the bad. And then refuse to play God when things are good. And what does Joseph say? He says, you intended to harm me.

But God intended it for good. See, God was silent. God was still. God seemed silent. God seemed still.

God seemed that he wasn't there. God, but God was doing something. You intended it. You didn't think God was a part of the process. But God was a part of the process all along.

And he said, God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done and saving many lives. Amen. And in verse 21, he goes on. So then, don't be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.

And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them. Wow. And landing this plane, landing this. One day, you may have that power. One day, you may have the power over a person who took something from you.

One day, you may have the power to change somebody, send somebody one direction or send somebody another. One day, you may have the power to change somebody. One day, you may have the power to change somebody. One day, you may have the power to change somebody. Based on some hurt that you've had.

Maybe you've been hurt. Maybe you bring harm to somebody. Maybe by your words or by just one thought or whatever's inside of you. You may have the power one day that you didn't have before. The question is, what are you going to do that?

Are you going to speak death into that situation or are you going to speak life into that situation? The person who stole your first marriage maybe. The person who stole your childhood. The person who stole your children away from you. And you'll remember what they did to you and how they took that from you and how much that hurt.

And your Heavenly Father invites you. Your Heavenly Father invites you to remember something else. That he's going to remind you, remind you of where you were. And he's going to remind you who was with you. He's going to remind you of that.

So what do you do when you've got the power and your words determine the destiny of your enemy? What do you do when you have the power and your words determine the destiny of two things? Are you going to pay them back? Are you going to pave the way? Or pave the way forward?

Because here's the deal. You can either throw rocks, you can cast rocks, or you can pave a path. And it's a whole lot better paving that path forward. Because your decision is determined by the perspective that you maintain between you then and now. And I hope you'll take a cue from the one who gave his life for you.

Because if you do in that moment, you will be most like your Heavenly Father. The question is, do you want to experience freedom today? Today is a day that we think about freedom. We think about life and liberty and all those things in Memorial Day. But today, are you going to make the decision?

Perhaps you carry some bitterness in your heart, bitterness in your life. Are you ready to cast it? Are you ready to cast it away, to take it away as we talked about last week? Just throw it out, put it in the garbage can, take it to the can, and put it away. Today is the day to do that.

This morning is the time to do that. And if you'll just bow your heads, and I want you just to... If you're somebody who's struggling with that, maybe you haven't been completely freed to be who you are, the way that God made you because you're holding on to bitterness. And you cannot pave the way forward if you have bitterness. You cannot build people up if you have bitterness in your heart.

So today, Lord, I ask all across this place that you would just move in our presence, Lord. Move in our lives, God. Convict our hearts, Lord. If we are holding on to anything, that person that did that to us, that dad that said that, that mom that did that, that person that I was married to that did that to me, that took that away from me. Today, God, I'm not going to allow the bitterness to take away what you have for me, God.

I'm not going to allow the bitterness to hold back what I have for others that are around me right now. I'm not going to unfairly place... I'm asking, God, that you take that bitterness from me, and I forgive those who have hurt me. Because, Jesus, you said it yourself. Forgive those who despitefully use you.

And I'm going to do that today, God. So if you're here today, just pray that in your spirit, in that heart. Lord, I ask you to take that bitterness away, away. And in that same spirit of worship, in that same spirit of prayer, God, maybe there's somebody here today that hasn't tapped into the forgiveness that God has given you. That he gave his son so that you didn't have to live in the guilt.

That you didn't have to live in the hurt. That you didn't have to live in the past anymore. Because he's already covered all of that. And he says, he who believes in the name of the Lord will be saved. He who believes in the name of the Lord will be taken from that place of despair, that place of guilt, that place of dirtiness.

And you can be placed in the blood of the Lamb and made new and made pure and identified as a child of God, a Father that loves you. So, God, if you'll pray this with me, just say, God, I believe that you are the Son of God, that you died on the cross. You died for my sin. You were Joseph. You were the stereotype.

Joseph was a typology of you, God, that I stood before you. I did those things to you, God. I put you as a slave. I put you down. I sent you off.

I sold you. I sent you to prison. I did all those things, Lord. But you came back. And now that you are the powerful one, Lord.

Now you are the one in power. You forgive me, God. So I receive your forgiveness. And I know I'm being made like you, Lord. So I'm yours now, God.

I give my life to you. I want to be your son. I want to be your daughter. And I give my life to you, God, because I know that you gave your son for me. So today I give my life to you.

I give my heart to you. In the name of Jesus. I give my life to you, God. And yeah. Amen.