[Steve Myers] We tend to look at those who can take a hit and keep going. And we look up to them. Doesn't everybody love an underdog that just never gives up? We love to hear the rags to riches story that come from behind. Everybody loves a comeback. Everybody loves a Cinderella story.

In the movie Rocky Balboa, he's encouraging his son. And he says to him, "It ain't about how hard you can hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward." How much you can take and keep moving ahead. That's what winning's about.

And so we love to hear those kinds of stories because that kind of toughness it's pretty cool. But it takes more than physical tenacity to become the person that God made you to be, especially when it comes to taking personal hits in your own life. When someone's done you wrong, when you've had a career setback, when you've lost things financially in your life, when we're in a blame place, "It's everybody else's fault. It's not my fault, it's not my fault that I am what I am. It's not that it was anything to do with what I wanted and caused me to be this way."

And things like broken relationships. Those personal hits when we're not doing well, not doing well in school. Because not all of us come back from those personal hits. In fact, sometimes we don't come back at all. We go on injured reserved instead. Not sure if we even want to get back into the game because after all, it's too hard, it's not worth it, is it? “I don't feel like it. I don't want to. I can't help it. In fact, it's their fault."

And we find ourselves in that critical moment in our life. And we have a choice. What do we do at those particular times? Well, either we decide to move forward or we get stuck in the past. Either we stay down for the count or we get back up and we keep fighting. We can make excuses or accept where we're at and start rebuilding our life.

So for a few moments this afternoon, let's take a look at a few principles in God's Word that can enable us to step out from those dark shadows to get out of the past and to begin to stop letting that control us. Because it doesn't have to be that way. We can look at what the Bible has to say about ways to lay aside what happened yesterday as an excuse for what's happening today.

Now, there is no doubt, things have happened in the past. In fact, some of those things may be happening to you right now. And it's not trivial little things, these are devastating things.

What do you do when you're rejected by your father or your mother when you were a child? Those are tough situations. And whether it's a divorce that was so painful and bitter, just never been able to quite get past its effects. Or maybe it's an addiction. Or maybe you have a sister or a brother, a friend, that you've just never quite been able to get past that event. They don't talk to you anymore. Or perhaps it's abuse. Maybe there's been abuse that you've suffered through. That's been almost overwhelming.

Those are painful pasts, painful situations. Those past and even our presents come in all shapes, all sizes, all degrees of intensity. And in some cases, the person that inflicted those pains, they're not even around anymore. So what can you do? It's too late for them to say, "I'm sorry." It's too late for you if you're the one at fault. So, what can you do? What can you do about those things?

Well, God's Word does have a lot to say about them. And, you know, when you think about those situations, none of them are a surprise to God. He knows what's gone on. He knows what your past is. He knows what you're going through right now. He knows when things go wrong in our relationships. And He knows the devastating effects that they have. But He gives us a way to begin to overcome and to change our perspective, to change our outlook.

So in order to do that, let's take a few moments to take a journey through the life of Joseph because the story of Joseph is filled with devastating events, difficult circumstances. In fact, in the book of Genesis, more than one-quarter of the book is devoted to this remarkable man.

Now, Joseph is an important individual to study because Joseph had a past. He had a difficult past. In fact, his story begins long before he was even born. He came from a flawed family, a defective family, his dad, after all, was Jacob. Jacob, that man would not have won father of the year from the Rotary Club. Not at all. As a young man, Joseph's father, Jacob, was a deceiver. He was a trickster. He was a deceiver. His name meant that as well.

And that father had an unbelievable effect on Joseph. And yet, when we look at his family history, we see the troubled past that he came from. It was a scarred, flawed family background. If you look over to Genesis 25 we see a big problem with mom and dad. Genesis 25:28, simple little passage here but what a story, a short little sentence tells. Notice this information that it gives us about Joseph's mom and dad. Genesis 25:28 it says, "Isaac," his dad, "loved Esau" his brother, "because he ate of his venison, but Rebecca” his mom, “loved Jacob."

So mom and dad preferred one over the other and weren't afraid to show it. This was defective. This is flawed. In fact, if we skip over to Genesis 27, it comes to passing on the birthright to one of the boys. Well, Esau was the first born. He should be the one to get the birthright. But guess what mom helps the second in line do. She helps the boy named deceiver to trick his dad and his brother out of that family birthright. Chapter 27 tells that story and mother Rebecca helped him do that very thing, to trick Isaac into giving the birthright to the wrong son, it seems.

And once the deal is exposed, what has to happen? Jacob has to run for his life because his brother Esau wants him dead. So we get down to Genesis 27:36. And Esau says this, "Isn't he rightly named Jacob? For he's supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright, and behold now, he's taken away my blessing!”

And of course, we see Rebecca, in verse 43, tells Jacob he'd better run. "My son, obey my voice: arise, and flee. Go to Laban, my brother, to Haran." So what does Jacob do? He runs to Uncle Laban and now is fully functional, an amazing human being who makes all the right choices and does all that… No, he doesn't. He doesn't. He goes to Laban. Falls in love with Laban's daughter, Rachel. And of course, there is this biblical principle that's found in Numbers 32 that says, "You may be sure your sins will find you out." And of course, it does follow Jacob. Yeah, he was a deceiver. He was a trickster. But he met Laban who was even more so. A better con artist.

So Laban said, "Okay, you can have Rachel. Just work for me for seven years, I'll give you my beautiful vivacious daughter." So he tricks him into doing that. And who does he get stuck with instead? The other daughter, Leah. He has to serve another seven years to get Rachel.

So, all right, what's the connection then? We're talking about Joseph here. Well, she would be the one who would become Joseph's mother. That was Rachel. So he had to work 14 years to marry her. And now you add to the damaged baggage, Rachel couldn't have children. Not at first, anyway. No children, no children. So what do these two women decide? The one, Leah, runs out after four sons. And so Leah… Rachel couldn't have children. Well, let's give dad the handmaidens. That sounds like a wonderful plan, doesn't it? What could go wrong with that? And so that's what they do. They each gave their maidens to Jacob so he can have more wives. And we know if you've got a problem with one, we'll just add more and it'll automatically get better, right?

I mean, look at this family. A real patchwork piecemeal, one husband, four wives, three he didn't really plan to marry in the first place. I mean, is that giving us the picture of the kind of family that Joseph was born into? What do you call that kind of family? Yeah, altogether, dysfunctional. Yeah. Talk about a dysfunctional family.

All right. Now, the question then is, is that a justification to just say, "Well, that's the way it is, too bad. I deserve to be dysfunctional myself because look at the family I come from." You see, that's no excuse. That is no excuse. God expects more from us. He's called us. He's called every one of us to overcome the dysfunction in our own life.

Because with father Jacob, that life of deception kept going on. He gets to Laban back by deceiving him with his sheep, without telling him, he takes off, takes the wives with him. Oh, by the way, Rachel's daughter steals from dad before they leave and hides things along the way. So is it any wonder that by the time Jacob has 11 sons gets down to Joseph, finally, Benjamin was born later, the older boys turned out just about like dad? Pretty much that way, they were treacherous themselves. In some ways, they were even worse. They had a whole city murdered because of something that happened to their sister, was that justification?

Ruben, the firstborn, sleeps with one of his father's wives. His brother Judas seduces his daughter-in-law. I mean, this family is a mess. An absolute mess. Not well-adjusted by any sense. And so you can imagine, this isn't the kind of family I want to grow up in. But that was the reality of it.

So here comes Joseph, a young man who has every excuse in the book not to turn out right. Yet, how does the Bible present, Joseph? I mean, he's a man of dignity. He's a man of honor. He's a man of godliness. And it begins to tell a beautiful point. That just because your dad was bad and your mom was messed up, it doesn't mean that you have to be that way. Just because your brothers and your sisters turned out rotten and mistreated you, you don't have to wind up the same way. Doesn't have to be that way. A bad environment doesn't have to control your present.

Now, of course, they influence you. Yeah. How we grew up, our environment, our relationships, of course, it does. It influences us. It affects us. But it doesn't have to control us. It doesn't have to control us. Joseph refused to allow the sins of others to dictate who he was. And he refused to hide behind the past and decided, "I'm going to overcome this dysfunction. With God's help, it is possible." And of course, the story goes on, by the time Joseph comes along, what? Did everything just change because he was a nice guy because he tried to be godly because he tried to do what was right? Not at all. His brothers hated him.

And this pivotal event in Genesis 37, if you'd like to head in that direction, this event marks Joseph for the rest of his life. And could have gone just about any direction. But it's interesting what this incident has as far as the impact on Joseph's life. And this history that tells the story is presented in chapter 37. Here, by the time we get to verse 2 it tells us Joseph's 17 years old, he's grown up in that dysfunctional family all of these years. He's out feeding the flocks, what happens? Well, his brothers hated him. Joseph brings back a bad report to dad and the whole situation continued to this next generation. Verse 3 it says, "Israel loved Joseph more than all his children,” well, wait a second, is that what Isaac was doing? Well, isn't that what Rebecca was doing? Here we see that cycle repeats. It didn't stop there. It didn't stop. Jacob could have stopped it, but he didn't. The cycle continued.

Well, would it continue then with Joseph? That becomes the question. Would it have to continue? Or is there any way that we can stop the cycle of dysfunction? God says, "Yes, you can." Even though Joseph tells the truth, it seems, to his father, Israel, Jacob loves him more and because of this, he gives him a tunic of many colors, a special coat. But verse 4, "When his brothers recognize this fact that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him. Couldn't even speak peaceably to him."

That's how bad. Couldn't even talk to the kid. Can't even deal with this. "I can't stand this kid." You talk about sibling rivalry. Wow, this is it. This is it. They couldn't even bear to look at him. Yes, some of it had to do with Jacob's bad judgment, dad's bad judgment, Israel's bad judgment. He was openly partial to the one brother. The firstborn of, guess who? Rachel. The one he really wanted to marry in the first place. His favorite wife, his one true love. And you know what that meant? That meant, in his eyes, as far as he was concerned, Joseph was firstborn. Joseph was really the firstborn from his true love.

So, what's the big deal about some trench coat? It's not the coat. It's not even the favoritism. It's this indication that seems to point to the fact that, "Wait a second. Israel is thinking this is the guy that should get the birthright. Is dad really thinking…?" What was Ruben thinking? What were the others thinking? The other 10 that were born before him, they weren't about to accept the fact that little brother is going to get the benefits of the birthright. And that's what this quote seemed to indicate here that, "Wait a second, is he the one that's the royalty or what?" You see, they began to see through that. And there was no way they were going to allow that.

So what did they do? Well, his mother wasn't their mother. So we're not allowing that to happen. So they concoct this scheme to kill him. They want him dead. But Ruben's cooler mind prevailed. And what did they do instead? Down in verse 24, they throw him in a pit. They throw him into a cistern. Throw him down into the mud and then as if nothing happened, "Let's have a meal." They sat down to eat after they threw their brother into the pit. Well, they had second thoughts. They end up getting him out and sell him into slavery to passing traders that were going by.

Talk about a dysfunctional family. Talk about siblings that hated each other. Then they go back to dad, they go back to Jacob, to Israel, and they trick him into thinking Joseph's dead. Any of us experienced rejection like that in our family? Yeah, Joseph was rejected. Now perhaps we have been rejected by somebody important in our family. Maybe you found out that people that claim to love you, really don't. Maybe someone you cared about deeply, turned on you. And they despise you now. Or perhaps something that you dedicated your life to turned its back on you. People fail us, leaders fail us. And it led Joseph and it leads us to the real question, "What are you going to do now?" What are you going to do now? You going to stay where you're at? You're going to stay put there, decide never to trust anyone again, never going to step out?

You see all of those things, and even more, happened to Joseph, because the story's not over. We follow him down to Egypt. Now he's got the wonderful life as a slave. If it wasn't bad enough before. By the time we get to Genesis 39 Joseph is taken down to Egypt and now he's a slave. He's in the house of Potiphar who was one of Pharaoh's officials, Genesis 39 tells us that story. He's the captain of the guard. Well, what happens then? Well, interesting, in verse 2, notice what it says in Genesis 39:2. It says, "The Lord was with Joseph, and he prospered; and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master."

As we go through the story of Joseph, if we don't stop and pause for just a moment, we might miss verse 2. Because, yeah, it doesn't seem like it's that big a part of the story. But it's a critical part of the story. We can't miss this phrase. Because you can say, "Yeah, Joseph had a lousy family background." But the Lord was with Joseph. Yeah, you can say his brothers couldn't stand him. The Lord was with Joseph. Yeah, but the kid couldn't get a break. The Lord was with Joseph. And I believe that's the first step if we're going to overcome any dysfunction that we face. If we're going to overcome the past, we've got to recognize that no matter what anyone else does, no matter what others do to us, at us, God is with us. And when God is with us, we can get somewhere. We don't have to stay in that hole of a cistern. We don't have to stay in the pit. We don't have to be a slave. We're going somewhere. And God has a job to do for us. Stay with God. That first step, digging out of that pit is to remember, God was with Joseph. He will be with us.

Our assignment? Stay with God. Stay with God. Yes, Joseph was rejected by his family. But who accepted him? God accepted him. Even though he was mistreated he didn't turn against God. He didn't blame God. His faith held firm. And so Joseph proved it didn't matter what happened yesterday. If we stick with God today, yesterday doesn't have to control tomorrow. Our past doesn't have to control our future. Our past doesn't have to define who we are today. Because if we get in those situations and all we can think about are, "Those people who caused me all these problems," we're in a bad place. We're focusing on the wrong thing.

Joseph shows we need to focus on the one who is there to help us. And that one is God. So “The Lord was with Joseph,” and that rejected childhood, that dysfunctional family, that was under God's watchful eye. God could take care of a dysfunctional family. God could take care of slavery. In fact, God had a job for Joseph to do. And right now at this point, it's to work for Potiphar, it's to be a slave in his household. And in fact, what happens? Well, good old Pot turns it all over to Joseph. Pretty amazing. We see the Lord was with him and in verse 3, Genesis 39, "His master saw that the Lord was with him" it even became obvious to others that God was with Joseph.

Verse 4, "Joseph found grace in his sight, and he served him." Served Potiphar in other words, "He made him overseer over his house,” "Wow, problems are over. We're finally arrived. Woo! Yeah, I knew God would see me through this." Yeah, even though God met Joseph where he was at, makes him successful in this horribly strange land. Yes, he stayed with God and relied on Him. But there was more. If he was truly going to overcome, he had to allow God to direct every step of his life.

We have to do the same. God has to direct every step. And we see Joseph beginning to do that. He allowed God to use him, even though he was stuck in this official's house, Joseph recognized he served God. And Potiphar and his wife were just an in-between. And so he didn't allow that problem in the past to become the dictator to his life today. And in fact, if we find ourselves in that position if we find ourselves to recognize this fact that the only way to overcome if something in the past is dictating our present, we've got to change dictators. We've got to change and allow God to direct our everyday life.

And if we walk with Him, He will do that. He promises to do that. Because, you know, there's things in the past, guess what, we're not going to fix it. We're not going to fix it. It's not going to get better. May never be able to get your parents, who rejected you, to love you. It may never happen. You may never get your brothers or sisters, who won't talk to you, to even recognize you're still alive. You'll never get your boss to apologize for treating you that way. May never happen.

But when God is directing our life, when we allow God to direct every part of our life, is there any doubt that He can make things happen? In fact, He promises to do just that. Because as we look back we can see the bad actions and the bad results and the bad decisions that messed up our lives. Our own bad decisions, not maybe our own families but the things that we did. But, see, God is encouraging us to recognize the fact that whoever, a husband or a wife or a father or a mother, a child, whatever it may be. "Okay, I'm not going to be able to go back and raise my kids over again. It's done, it's done. But starting now. Does my past have to impact my identity today? The answer is, “no."

If we allow God to direct every aspect, if we submit our lives to His rule, if we allow Him to lead us, if we allow Him to guide us, He is going to make up for those losses. He's going to make up for the lost years and days and missed opportunities because He has something better. In fact, can't He fix those things that otherwise are unfixable? Can't God do that? You see, I think that really brings us to a big step in overcoming, because not only do we have to recognize that God is with us and stay with Him, allow Him to direct every aspect of our life. That means I must be fully committed to godliness, to right actions. Because I can say I'm committed to God but if that doesn't turn into what I do, if my dedication isn't to act, then I'm going to miss out.

And, in fact, as we see the story of Joseph, he was committed to live a godly life. No matter what the circumstances, because here we leave him looking like, "Hey, everything's great, everything's solved." He's on the up and up. It's going to be great from here on out. Yeah, but life isn't always that smooth. And so it becomes apparent. In fact, it becomes very apparent of a couple things. Yeah, other stumbling blocks are going to come. But when we stay fully committed, where will that ultimately lead? Maybe not the short term, maybe not next week or next month, maybe not even next year. But ultimately, it will turn for good.

And so here we find the next stumbling block in verse 7, Genesis 39, "It came to pass after these things that his master's wife cast longing eyes on Joseph, and she said, 'Lie with me.'" So Potiphar's wife gets the hots for Joseph, wants to sleep with him, makes the big move on him. But what was Joseph's mindset? He had fully committed himself to godliness. She makes a grab for him. He runs. In fact, his clothes get caught up and left behind. So she presents the evidence to her father. She gives phony testimony. We get down to verse 20 Genesis 39, "Joseph's master took him, put him into the prison, a place where the king’s prisoners were confined." And there he was in the prison. So after trying to do what's right, fully committing with God, staying with Him, deciding he's going to do what's right, what did it get him? Got more pain. He's in prison now. He's in prison.

But I think that that commitment has to shine through. And so, following this example that Joseph set. Because in this story, I think what we can begin to glean, if we're committed to God, if we're committed to His way, no matter what's gone on, if we are committed to act in a godly manner, it just might be being in jail is where we ought to go. If that's what God has allowed. If that's what God has allowed, that might just be the best place to be. But that sounds pretty strange, doesn't it?

But sometimes that's the way life is. Sometimes you got to hit the bottom before you can start uphill. Sometimes that just seems the way that it is especially when we look at it from God's perspective. Because there was no way Joseph was coming out of this by his own power, by his own. Could he will himself out of prison? No. He's totally at the mercy of the jailer, of the king, of the Pharaoh. There's no way he's getting out on his own.

So, guess who has to get him out? Gods got to do it. God is the only way. And when you look at this, remembering the Lord was with Joseph, and that means something's got to give, something's got to give. And that's why verse 21 is so amazing. If you look at Genesis 39:21, I love this passage, this is fantastic. It says, "The Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy, and He gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison."

Now, he didn't show him favor and he opened the doors of the jail and Joseph walked out. It wasn't a Peter kind of situation, was it? No, it wasn't that at all, it didn't happen that way. Here, he's still in jail. He's still there. But now the warden, you could say the warden, puts Joseph in charge of the prison. I mean, phenomenal. He's got a job to do. He's busy again. He didn't have time to look back on the past, to worry about what his brothers did to him, didn't have to worry about any of those things. God was with him and He had something for him to do. Something important for him to do.

And I think it tells that story, when we commit to God totally in our life, we recognize the fact that, "No matter what happens, no matter what happened in the past, no matter what's going on, no matter how bad or good the circumstances are, they're not controlling me and my life. They don't dictate my steps. They don't define me." And so we can break the chains of dysfunction when we recognize God's got us in His hand and He is not letting go.

So when we really come to grips with what God's got in mind, it changes the whole perspective. Because sometimes we have a tendency, "Oh, we messed up, we flunked out, we failed. Why should I try again?" But when we have total commitment to God and we surrender our lives to Him, His power is available to us and we can move forward. We can have a different perspective. We can look ahead instead of looking back. And that's exactly what Joseph did.

You see, when we go ahead to chapter 40, yeah, Joseph is still a jailbird. He's still in jail. But he begins to do other things God had in mind for him. He starts interpreting dreams, dreams that the baker had, dreams that the cupbearer had. Yeah, they were also in the doghouse, they were in the Pharaoh's doghouse as well. And if you're not familiar with the story, read through chapter 40.

But Joseph with God's help interprets these dreams. And they promise, when they get out, "Oh, we'll recommend you get out to Pharaoh, by the way." They get out and the cupbearer forgets, the butler forgets, yeah, the whole thing. Yeah, they forget Joseph. Even though they get out. And guess how long Joseph stays there? Not two weeks, not two months, two years. He's there two more years as first under the warden. Two more years he's there.

Talk about hanging on. I mean, by this time you'd probably feel sorry for yourself, wouldn't you? That seems pretty normal. I mean, it would seem pretty normal, "Well, if it wasn't for that lousy cupbearer I'd be out of here." That's pretty normal. But he didn't do that with his parents. He didn't do that with his brothers. He didn't do that here either. I mean, he could have said, "Every time I try to do something right or try to act godly or try to do the right thing something bad happens again." But he didn't have that perspective. Because it's interesting then when Pharaoh's the one that starts dreaming and need somebody to interpret it. Now, guess what comes to mind? Now they remember, "Oh, yeah, Joseph's the guy that could do that."

But interesting, where would Joseph have been if he had gone to that bad place? When he didn't get the recommendation and he was still wallowing in that prison for two years, what would have happened if he said, "Yeah, it's their fault. I should be out of here. No wonder I'm here, every time I try to do something good bad things happen.” You see, he wasn't in that place. And because he wasn't in that place he was ready to serve God. He was ready to allow God to use him in a dramatic way. He had decided to place his hand, his life in God's hand.

And so when that opportunity arose, he is ready to go. He wasn't bitter. He wasn't angry. He was ready to serve God. And boy, that's when everything starts popping. That's when things change. Because the Pharaoh wakes up from a cold sweat in this terrible dream, we get the Genesis 41:1, reminds us it's after two years, this happens, Pharaoh dreams a dream. Butler gets his memory back. Summons Joseph out of prison. Pharaoh knows. And he says in fact, "Nobody can interpret this but you. Nobody can do that." But does Joseph get the big head? Does he say, "Yes, I've waited my life for this. I'll handle it all." You see he doesn't do that. You get the verse 16. What does he say? "Joseph answers the Pharaoh, saying, 'Not me. I can't do it. God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace.'"

You see, he had fully committed his life to God in every aspect and he was striving to act in a godly way, even in horrible circumstances. And so he was an instrument in God's hands. And so God used him as that instrument, God gave him the interpretation. And Joseph was ready to give it. So, what ends up happening? God gives him the information about this dream. There's going to be seven great years of crops, seven terrible years of famine.

Joseph tells Pharaoh. The Pharaoh says, "All right, you're going to be my Famine Commissioner. You're going to handle this. I'm going to put you in charge of all of the land of Egypt. I appoint you," is what Pharaoh says. So we get down to verse 38, and he says to his servants, Pharaoh says, “'Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom is the Spirit of God?’ Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Inasmuch as God has shown you all this, there is no one as discerning and wise as you. You shall be over my house, and all my people shall be ruled according to your word; only in regard to the throne will I be greater than you.’ And Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.’"

So if you read through this whole story and had to make a deep theological observation, what would it be? You know what mine is? Wow! Amazing! You start with a rejected brother, parents that were misguided, a slave that was going nowhere, somebody rotting in jail. And now? Now he's going somewhere. He goes from a filthy muddy pit to being the number two ruler on earth. Egypt was the greatest kingdom, most powerful at this time. Number two on earth. That's where God took him. And guess what? Nobody does that, but God. God is the only one that can do that.

And guess what? God knows where He's taking us. He knew where He was taking Joseph. He knows the lessons that we need to learn in order to be equipped when we get there. Joseph was certainly equipped for the moment. And God sees what we're going through. He knows what we're going through when we're five. He knows what we're going through when we're 10. He knows what's happening in our life when we're 15 or 20 or whatever it may be. He knows how people treated us. He knows our situation. He knows how they will treat us. And whether we're 15 or 25, and there's still messes to clean up. Guess what? He can allow those things to achieve His purposes because He knows where He'd like to take us when we're 40 or when we're 60 or, yeah, when we're 80 or 90. Because sometimes even then we're not quite there.

And so when we get there, when we get there, there's absolutely no doubt who gets the credit. Was there any doubt who got the credit in Joseph's story? Yeah, and we look at our situation, our circumstances, let's really try to see them as Joseph saw them. We've got to stop our eyes from seeing through this lens of all the nasty things that have happened to us or all the difficult circumstances or all those terrible people and what they did to us or what they're still trying to do.

Joseph did that. Joseph was able to do that. And when promotion finally came to Joseph, 17 years later, 17 years from the pit, being sold into slavery, he had a total messed up… not that his life wasn't messed up before, because we saw that it was. Just the family he grew up with was messed up.

So from that time, especially from the time of being sold into slavery, now we've got 13 more years of confusion, 13 more years of discouragement, 13 more years of pain and suffering of not knowing whether he's up or down or in or out, dead or alive. All of those things. Yet, through it all, Joseph maintained his faithfulness and his commitment to God. And he was able to overcome all that dysfunction. And he realized such an amazing spiritual lesson. Look over at Genesis 50:20. We fast forward through the story.

An amazing lesson was burned into Joseph's mind, a lesson for all of us today. Even though all these bad things had happened to him, "Many by the hand of his own brothers, they wanted him dead." But Joseph came to see it from a whole different perspective. Genesis 50:20, he says to those brothers, "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." And that's what it's all about. God was able to take those negatives in his life and fulfill a good plan. He was able to take Joseph where He wanted him to be.

It was a definite somewhere that He wants to take us as well. He wants us to have His blessings poured out on us. And it's about how hard you can get hit but keep moving forward. It's about taking that hit, getting up and going on, and putting our trust in God because with God we can take it. We can take it. And so let's be a Joseph. Let's maintain our faithfulness and our commitment. And always remember, God is with us. We can step out from under the shadow of our challenges and our difficulties and stop letting it control our present and our future.

And we can set aside the things that happened yesterday as an excuse for what's happening today. So let's resolve to break the past control over our lives, and determine to reject any bitterness, to reject any resentment, to put away anger, to put away that indignation and hostility, to set that aside and allow God to direct every aspect of our life and be fully committed to His way, to godliness. Because that will change what dictates our feelings and our attitudes and allow God to direct our every thought in our life today. And so through His Holy Spirit, God is no doubt equipping every one of us for a great future. Because God knows where He's taking us.