A Wisdom Greater than Egypt

Transcript

All right. Well, hope you're doing well. My name's Schofield, if we haven't met, and I'm our downtown campus pastor, and I get to teach for us on our passage this weekend. I just wanted to start by saying that I've recently been feeling how thankful I am for our church, the church. We've recently been on the receiving end of some support and care, and it's just been one of those moments where I get a first-hand look at, oh, this was why Jesus had this idea, right? That as we have received the care of the church, it's just been confirmation for us that this is what we believe in, this is what is right, and we want you to know that that is our goal, is to be the kind of church that Jesus died to create. And one of the things that I've realized in that is the people that cared for us the most, that even it made the most sense, the people that were brought to us, are the people that we were working alongside and serving alongside for really for years. And there is part of this that requires it. If we're going to be a family, we're going to have to have family chores, as any family will tell you. We recently put a chore chart in place. It's magic, so I highly recommend it. But that's part of church, too, is that for us to be a family is to take care of one another, to take care of the house. And so I want to encourage you, if that's not part of your experience of the church, Jesus wants it to be. It's part of His design, and I know that our staff would love to help plug you in. There is a chore chart, and there's plenty to do. So reach out. We don't want you to miss out on what the design of the church is that Jesus has for us. So go ahead and turn to Genesis chapter 41, and I'm going to continue us in our series on the life of Joseph. Really, this family of Jacob, the family of Israel, that God's going to use, very interesting. We're going to be in chapter 41, picking up where Blake left off last week. So when I was 15, I wanted to drive a car so bad. I can vividly remember being 15 before I had my permit and being at a friend's house and their parents giving me permission to back out of the driveway one of their cars to get it out of the way, and you would've thought that they had just handed me the keys to nuclear bombs. I was so full of power and so ready. I didn't even think that I've never even held a steering wheel and released. I didn't know what to do, but I was going to do it because I wanted to do it so bad, and that really hasn't changed about my personality. But I just wanted to drive any chance my mom would give me. Parking lots, I wanted to drive anywhere we were going. I needed to be driving. Then I remember driver's education and going to get my hours in a vehicle with an instructor, and I was in a moment where I thought we were fine. I'm feeling confident about the pace we're going at and the stopping where we're going, but we get up to a point where we're going to stop before a street, and the instructor did not feel how I felt. But I'm driving, right? And this is when I got clear, is we get close enough to where I didn't think we needed to hit the brakes yet, and all of a sudden, the car comes to a stop. And I look over, and there's the driver instructor, and he has his own brake on the right side of the vehicle. So if you've driven one of these, you know. He stops the car and says, "Hey, too fast." Or, "Not fast enough to hit the brakes." And I remember thinking, okay, his brake is what actually makes all this work. I feel like I'm driving, and if you were looking in at the car, I would look like the driver. The reality was very different than that. The real driver, the one in control, was the instructor. And here's what we're going to see in this text today, is we're going to see a king who thinks that he is the driver. And if you're looking from the outside in, or if you're on the inside, it looks like that. But the reality is he doesn't have the brakes. He's not really in control. He doesn't really have the power. And we're about to see how quickly all it takes is that person to just decide that this is who's actually driving this. So let's start in chapter 41, verses one through seven. So two full years later, this should remind you of what we just heard from Blake. Two full years later, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing on the bank of the Nile River. In his dream, he saw seven fat, healthy cows come up out of the river and begin grazing in the marsh grass. Then he saw seven more cows come up from behind the Nile, but these were scrawny and thin. These cows stood beside the fat cows on the riverbank. Then something crazy happened. The scrawny, thin cows ate the seven fat cows, the healthy ones. So if you could just get your imagination engaged what that means. It's more like a nightmare. I don't know if this would be called a dream. That sounds scary to me. So at this point in the dream, Pharaoh wakes up. But he fell asleep again, and he had a second dream. This time, he saw seven heads of grain, plump and beautiful, growing on a single stalk. Then seven more heads of grain appeared, but these were shriveled and withered grains. And these thin heads, also, they must be hungry. They swallow up seven plump, well-formed heads. Then Pharaoh woke up again and realized it was a dream. So we're going to be looking at the dreams of Pharaoh and seeing what God is trying to teach his people. So this is the context, though, that you can't miss as you get into this. So we're talking about Joseph right here in this passage, this overall family of God, specifically Joseph in this moment, and here is his life trajectory so far. Okay? So I want you to feel this. This is what's happening up until this point, is that he starts off as a favored son, so much so that we're not sure how we should feel about it. Is he good? Is he behaving right? Or is he being arrogant? We don't really get all that from God, but he's in a good spot. He's favored until he is stripped of this robe that he'd been given by his father, this status of favor. He's then thrown into a pit by his brothers. He is then sold as a slave and sent to prison, which the word here for prison, if you look in the text in the Hebrew, is actually the same word for pit. So the idea is thrown into a pit, sold as a slave, thrown into another pit. And then we left off with Blake last week that he is now forgotten. There's a cupbearer that while he's in prison, he serves, and he says, "Hey, remember me when I get out." And the cupbearer does what? He forgets him. So I don't know what your life goals are. I don't know what you hope the trajectory of your life to be, but this is probably not it. At least it's not for me. Here's what's curious about this. Joseph is not unique in the Bible about having this kind of life trajectory and also being at the very center of what God is doing in the world. So that's for you to figure out, for me to figure out. But this is what his life has been like. And so where we start this week is two full years later from this moment. Can you feel that? That that's his life right now. The language that I got from Blake is that we can still be faithful where we are without understanding why we are there. I'm like, oh gosh, was this sermon just for me? To be okay and trust God and still be faithful where I am and not understand why I am where I am. But here's the tension we're going to see. Where Joseph doesn't want to be is exactly where God needs him to be. So that's where we jump into this passage. So two full years later, the emphasis on the word full is, it's like you know how time can fly? Whatever that is, this is the opposite. That's been his experience. And so two full years later, another character shows up, and it's Pharaoh. Pharaoh's now the one having the dream. So just to give you a zoom out on the context. So this is future Israel. At this point, Israel's not even a thing. It's a name. It's a person. It's Jacob. Over time, God is going to build a nation for himself, and it's going to be a nation that somewhere in this region gets a little bit bigger at times. But here's the point. This is Egypt. So this is what we call a superpower. Now, it's hard for us because we are one, and I've grown up as a person in a superpower that the system generally works for me. So there is some work that we have to do to get engaged with the fact that this is who we are relating to this is Egypt, and then the person that's having the dream is the king. So we're talking about the most important, most powerful man in the world. That's the point And so what's happening? Pharaoh dreamed. If you're an Israelite reading this text or hearing this story told, that's a huge signal to you, because what have dreams meant so far? That God is at work. God is doing something, right? Going all the way back to Jacob and his dreams. Then you've got Joseph's dreams, then you've got the cupbearer's dreams, and the baker's dreams. All of these have been moments where God is showing, "Hey, I am working. I am pulling the strings." And now we have that same activity happening to the most important man in the world. Where is Joseph? He's in prison. So any temptation that we might have to think while we're in prison, God might not be doing anything else. This is exactly while Joseph's in prison, what God is doing. It makes me think, when I think about these dreams, I think about push notifications. I've recently gotten clear on how invasive push notifications are. So either I'm obeying push notifications because they just enter into my phone. So if you don't know what that is, that's the ding, the vibration that happens on your phone, and it's getting your attention and telling you to pay attention to whatever it wants. So life hack, I recommend turning off as many push notifications as you can handle because isn't it hard enough already out there to get our attention where it needs to be? So push notifications are like, "Hey, pay attention to me. Obey me." What's crazy is that's kind of what God's doing with these dreams. So Pharaoh can rule the most powerful nation in the world, but he cannot control what goes into his head during nighttime. God just sends that push notification. And then here's the dream. I'll try to give you a visual to capture this dream that Pharaoh has. So he's standing on the bank of the Nile, and he sees these healthy fat calves. This is the economy of Egypt. This is their food. This is their steak, right? This is their nourishment, nutrition. And then you've got grain, right, as another representation of the same thing, the economy, the life source of Egypt. And the picture you get is after we see these good things, what we're going to find out is these seven years of prosperity represented by these seven cows and seven grains, that these skinny ones that are like, I don't know, zombie cows. That's the image I get in my head, okay? So if that helps you. We see zombie cows that start eating our steak, that start eating at the economy, and the life source, and the agriculture, right, of Egypt. And so the bottom line, we're going to see this later, I'll go ahead and tell you now, is that seven years of scarcity, of emptiness, of sick, are going to consume prosperity. Scarcity is about to consume prosperity. Famine is coming. And you can't miss this part, that the dream has Pharaoh stationed on the bank of the Nile. The Nile is Egypt's prized life source. It's the picture of everything. It's the reason that when other droughts and famines come, Egypt's fine, because the Nile is providing nourishment and water and producing things. And here's the point, is that the Nile is there in this dream. The thing that has made Egypt immune will not. It's the part of confirmation for Pharaoh. He goes, "Oh, so the Nile, this is going to happen here." It would be like America's economy, whatever stock market, Wall Street dollar that you can think, the image of its power is a part of also its moment of demise. So what happens next? The next morning, Pharaoh was very disturbed by the dreams. So he called for all the magicians and wise men of Egypt. When Pharaoh told them his dreams, not one of them could tell him what they meant. So this is all on purpose. What's happening? Most powerful man having these dreams. He goes to the intellectual elite. If you can think about the most talented, smart group of people that have been brought together to serve the most powerful person, that's who this is. This is the wisdom of Egypt. This is the wisdom and intellectual talent of the world being brought together, and what can they do? Absolutely nothing. Nobody knows what to do. These dreams are a symbol. They require an interpreter. So if you've been following the story, you can see that God is doing something. They need someone who can interpret dreams. Verse nine. Finally, the king's chief cupbearer spoke up. Okay, so we remember this guy. "Today I have been reminded of my failure." I say that more than I would like to say it. "Today I've been reminded of my failure," he told Pharaoh. "Some time ago, you were angry with the chief baker and me, and you imprisoned us." This is the last chapter. "You imprisoned us. One night the chief baker and I each had a dream, and each dream had its own meaning. There was a young Hebrew man with us," so this is Joseph, "in the prison who was a slave of the captain of the guard. We told him our dreams, and he told us what each of our dreams meant. And everything happened just as he predicted. I was restored to my position as cupbearer, and the chief baker was executed and impaled on a pole." So he was forgotten. Now he is being remembered. So if I'm Joseph and I get to talk to the cupbearer at some point, I'm like, "Hey, man. I mean, for real? Two years? Saved your life." But that's not what Joseph's going to be focused on. It's not where Joseph is. We're going to see that. But here's the interesting fact for me. As I'm reading this story, I just got to tell you, this is what sticks out to me, is earlier when Joseph wanted to get out, was too early. I can't get over this idea. Earlier was too early. If the cupbearer would have remembered him earlier like he wanted, Pharaoh might have ignored this Hebrew slave as a dream teller, but now Pharaoh has this dream and needs an interpreter, and Joseph is the exact key to his problem, and we can already feel this is exactly what God is doing. But here's the tension, is now is the right time, not earlier when Joseph wanted. And I got to ask the question of myself, what does that mean for me? Can I trust that God's timing is better than mine, that God knows what I need better than I do, and release the timing to him? That is his role, and mine is to be faithful and trust. Verse 14. Pharaoh sent for Joseph at once, and he was quickly brought from the prison. After he shaved and changed his clothes, he went in and stood before Pharaoh. So get this. To feel what's happening in this scene is that Joseph is now shaved, brought out of prison. He's a slave, brought out of prison. He's shaved. He's dressed up. He's cleaned, and then he's being walked. You can just think about the sound, being walked through the palace to stand before the most important man in the world. We know this from history. I did a little ChatGPT research on just historical Egypt and all that. Egyptians, they knew the king, the pharaoh, was not immortal. At the same time, the kingship that he embodied and that he was, that was divine. So just to give you a feeling of what that culture was, to go before the throne of Pharaoh was to encounter divinity. We don't have a parallel. You can feel some of the weight that that would bring, but that's the idea, is you're approaching a divine throne. We actually have an ancient Egyptian story describing a man named Sinuhe, is that how you pronounce it? And it's a tale of being brought before Pharaoh. So it's like what this would be like. And the way he describes it is that 20 men escort him through the palace. And this, by the way, this is not a slave. So this would be like a previous court official who would have exposure and experience, not a slave prisoner. So he's even closer, but still, this is what he says. He approaches the throne, and he puts himself flat on the ground. Then he describes that his limbs start trembling. He says he feels like his heart had left his body, and that he couldn't distinguish reality. And Pharaoh has to say, "Pick him up and let him talk." So that's the vibe. That's what it feels like to go into this kind of space. And so here's my question: What would you feel? What would you feel walking into a room like this? Verse 15. Then Pharaoh speaks to Joseph, and this is what he says: "I had a dream last night and no one here can tell me what it means, but I've heard that when you hear about a dream, you can interpret it." Now, pause. It's not wrong. What Pharaoh's saying here, it's kind of true, right? Joseph can say, "Yeah, that's true. That has happened." This is Joseph's opportunity. He's just been brought out of prison by this man, the same man who can send him right back. This is his opportunity. There's a need. He can become indispensable. Honestly, I think I could justify it. Can you see this moment and go, "God's given me these dreams that one day I'm going to be in charge, and so I'm sure God would want me just to take advantage of this opportunity." That's how I would feel. And look what he says in verse 16. "It is beyond my power to do this. But God can tell you what it means and set you at ease." I just don't want us to skip over this. If you think about the context of Egyptian court and the gravity, here's what I want you to feel. Here's what he basically says. Actually, you misheard. So it's not that it's disrespectful, but it is a correction. A foreign slave, a prisoner, standing before the king who has power over his life, who is treated as divine, he has been given an easy yes, and what Joseph does is he corrects the king. He tells the divine throne, "Not exactly." And what has Pharaoh just done to the baker? When the baker bothers Pharaoh or fails, what does Pharaoh do to the baker? He kills him, has him executed. So we even know from the context of the text that this man has power over Joseph's life and future, and this is what we see Joseph do, is he speaks the truth. And he feels the need to make a distinction between his power, his ability, and God's. So there's three things that stand out to me about this moment for Joseph. One is integrity. I think we see something about Joseph's integrity in this moment. In chapter 40, we have a moment in the prison where this cupbearer and the baker are having these dreams. And what Joseph says to them is, "Hey, interpreting dreams, that's God's business." You remember that? So he's in this prison, and he's saying, "This is what God can do." Now, the same moment is happening, but in the palace, in a different room, and he is the same person. The pressure, the context, the intensity has not changed that he is going to operate consistently with what he believes over here and over here. He is one person. He is thinking about what is right before God and not about how this environment changes what's true and what's right. Then I think about the humility. That Joseph does not seize an opportunity to promote himself, which would have been so understandable. I can't get over how it feels like it'd be fine. But for Joseph, it's not. And in the context of this story of Jacob's family, his honesty and integrity and humility, I think they're supposed to stand out. In a family that is marked by deception and grabbing hold of things to get ahead, that's not what Joseph does in this moment. He puts his cards with God, and he risks whatever that means. But you get the feeling that he, at this point, he sincerely feels that way. He sincerely is clear that God is God and that he is not, and it's a waste of time for us to pretend otherwise, even for me to say that before a king. It makes me think about one of my favorite things is to see post-game interviews with different teams, so my sport, soccer. Getting to watch people talk after a victory, and specifically the superstar. Let's just say the player of the game, okay? And I love it when, after the game, when someone goes to interview that player, and you hear someone talk, and the interviewer is trying to get them to talk about their own personal experience of what they did or didn't do. And all that player can do is just talk about us and the team and how we did. And you watch them kind of rehearse some of the sports psychology of the team and talk about what we're working on, and I'm just so proud of us. We put a lot of work in. And I think it's incredible because I can feel the fact that's sincere. That's how he thinks and feels. He's like, "I'm just part of what we are doing." And he feels, to me, it feels free. But it's at least clear and sincere that he does not view himself at the center. And Joseph in this moment, I don't think it's manufactured. He's like, "Hey, man, I just need you to know what reality is. I can't say that's me. That's not true. I don't feel that way." And it makes me wonder what has this downward trajectory of his life contributed to this place that he now is. Being in a place where that's how he responds in this kind of moment. Joseph's passionate about saying, "Nope, but God, that's who you need. I've seen it, and I know he can do it." And then the courage. He tells the truth regardless of the risk. And there's real risk. We have evidence within the text of that, and then there's historical understanding of what this would have been like for him. He does not know how it's going to go, but he does the right thing. And these kind of attributes, this kind of personhood, makes him unusually useful for God in this moment. So he says, "But God can." And then so Pharaoh retells him the dream, and then Joseph interprets it. It's the same dream that we read. He retells it, and then Joseph says, "This means that scarcity is going to consume prosperity. So seven years of famine are going to follow seven years of prosperity, but the famine's going to be so bad that nobody's going to even remember the good times. That's how bad this is going to be." But here's part of it that I want us to get. Look at how Joseph summarizes this. Joseph responded, "Both of Pharaoh's dreams mean the same thing. God is telling Pharaoh in advance what he is about to do." And look what he says in verse 32. "As for having two similar dreams, it means that these events have been decreed by God, and he will soon make them happen." All right, here's what I want you to feel. We just talked about the fact that the throne of Egypt is viewed as divine. You know what the throne of Egypt does a lot? It makes decrees. It delivers messages, right? And here's the tension you're supposed to feel, that now it's just receiving decrees. One of the commentaries that I was reading is that the subject, meaning the person who's usually doing the doing or the activity, has become the object. Pharaoh's used to being the one who gives out the things, and everybody responds. Now he's just receiving what God is deciding. This is where we get clear that Pharaoh is in the driver's ed car. It might look like he's ruling the world, and here's the thing. It feels like that. That's the tension. Nobody in that context would have really felt anything else. I don't even think we're supposed to feel like Joseph is without those feelings, that this is the man who runs the world. But what this passage is telling us is, nah, it's just a matter of what God lets him drive and do before he hits the brakes. God is telling this man what he is about to do. And this is not a warning. There are some dreams in the Bible where it's like, "Hey, if you don't, then I might." And this one is going, "It's going to happen soon. God wants you to know." It makes me think about when I'm going to cut the grass on a weekend, and I tell my kids, I'm like, "Hey, I'm cutting the grass. Two hours." So that means any toys that I can't see. I'm just saying. Two hours. I'm cutting the grass. It's going to happen. It's not like a discussion. I'm not trying to create a split. I'm saying this is a reality. You can choose to respond to it, but I'm going to make it happen. That is the tone that God is taking with the God king. The man that later Israelites are going to view as the source of real power. This is reality that God wants them to see. And so here's the summary that I feel. If I'm an Israelite, and I'm supposed to be hearing this and understanding what it means for my life, what it means for our nation, how we operate in the world, even with the powers that feel the most real, what is God saying? He's saying, "Hey, I'm sovereign over sovereigns." Which means that anything that has the look of control and power, I just want it to be clear, it probably does look that way, and that might be real in certain ways, but it's just a matter of when I want to hit the brakes. And for me, when I think about the future of Israel, because again, this is early on. There's no nation yet, but we know that this probably is a message and a recording that is being given to the nation of Israel as they're coming out of Egypt later in the story. And they're trying to understand who we are and what kind of God we serve and how we should handle that. So I'm in a small group and reading through scripture where we just read the Bible together, and we have been reading about the longer history of Israel as it goes on. And what happens is, over time, you still got Egypt. Egypt hangs around, still a superpower. Doesn't really go away. It's part of Israel's story all the time, and one of the struggles they're going to have is they're going to get scared, and their fear is going to make them unfaithful. They're going to do the opposite of what Joseph does. And what's also going to happen is these other nations, these other superpowers, are going to pop up like Syria, Babylon, Persia, and here's what's going to happen. The Israelites are going to be tempted to look at all these things like they are sovereign. And what happens is their behavior and their faithfulness begins to be dictated by the threat here, and the people of God who are able to bring power and glory and goodness and flourishing are those that go, "Yeah, it might look like that, but I can just be faithful to God and release all that to him." And then the seasons of darkness come when they look around at all these things that they feel like have real power, and they respond to it that way. And what God's trying to teach his people is, "It might look like that, but I need you to trust me. Even when you're in a pit and you can't see what I'm doing, I am sending push notifications to these kings." There's even a part later in Persia where the king, Xerxes, this is part of what brings Israel back after exile, is God tells Xerxes, "Hey, go ahead and send my people back." It's incredible. So it's worth reading your Bible to see more of that. But the problem isn't whether or not God is in control, it's whether or not we will trust that he is, and we will stay faithful while he works out whatever he's doing that we can't see. All right, let's finish the story. So verse 33. "Therefore," Joseph is talking to Pharaoh, telling him the deal. He says, "Pharaoh should find an intelligent and wise man and put him in charge of the entire land of Egypt. Then Pharaoh should appoint supervisors over the land. Let them collect one-fifth of all the crops during the good seven years. Have them gather all the food produced in those good years and bring it to the storehouses, store it away, and guard it so there will be food in the cities. That way, when the zombie cows come, there will be enough to eat with the seven years of famine that come into the land. Otherwise, this famine will destroy the land." So again, it will happen. I'm giving you the opportunity. Pharaoh listens. And now, what we're going to see next, Joseph rises into power. God supplies the leadership that Egypt needs to rescue Egypt, and we're going to see to rescue more than just Egypt. That God is working on a specific plan. He's been in control the entire time. So here's my question for us. What does this mean for God's people? If I'm an Israelite, one of the original hearers, thinking about this story as a part of our history, what do I take away? So I'm going to give you a handful of things that fascinate me. Maybe it will resonate with you. Number one is Joseph's integrity, humility, and courage. I've been figuring out what that means for me. In a story that is full of scheming and deceiving to get ahead, get control, Joseph chooses faithfulness and to not compromise, even when compromise would've been justifiable by the context. He has a higher goal. He has a bigger view of God and his goodness and his holiness, and that is driving distinctive behavior for him. What does that mean for me? And then how has his journey prepared him for this? Because his journey is full of adversity, and this is a concern that I have. I think about this for parenting. I think about this for me, just for our context. In a context that is allergic to adversity. That being a critical ingredient that has formed something in Joseph and given him an opportunity to cultivate these kinds of muscles of faith. What if my life doesn't have any of that? And then for those of you that have your fair share and plenty, it just gives you confirmation of what you suspect, which is that God wants to do something in all this. So Joseph is standing out to me. The second group that I think is interesting is all the wise men and wise people, magicians of Egypt. And I've just got to say, are you prioritizing what makes you a wise Egyptian? Because that's the wisdom of the world that when everybody looks around, it's impressive and it works and it's working, and then we have this Hebrew slave prisoner. So which one do I want to be? And how willing am I to choose the path that might go against the wisdom of Egypt to be a part of what God is doing? The third question is, am I good with God's timing? Am I good with not knowing what he's doing and still being faithful where he has me? And then the fourth thing. The most powerful sovereign in the world, for them, is like a kid on my soccer team. There's a kid on my soccer team, and let's give him the name John. I'm just going to tell you, John is more talented than everybody else. Last season, this is YMCA soccer that I'm coaching, he kicked a ball from half field. These are small fields. But he kicked the ball from half field, hit the goalie in the head, and we all went to the goalie, and we were worried about him because it was such a strong hit. And so for me, I'm like, "Oh, he's just different." And so to the kids, who are seven and eight, he is basically a god. He can do different things. And basically, if he gets the ball, then that's kind of it. But see, I'm the coach. So here's the deal. I decide where John plays. I decide if John plays. He's going to be defense. He's going to be offense. I've even decided, hey, they didn't have enough kids show up to this team for this game, so John, you're going to play on that team. And he hits people in the head either way. He scores goals either way. So for the kids, they're all viewing him as this thing. But for me, it's just something that I get to move around and use how I need to. How does the fact that that's what God is doing in this world, how does that reset the horizon for whatever I'm facing? And so I want to give you an exercise that could be helpful for you to work out with your community. And move this over. It is this, is that you name your Egypt. I'm using Egypt loosely here. I'm thinking about the future Israelites who are looking at a superpower around them that they're tempted to say determines their future. What is that for you? What feels like it controls your future? Could be a boss, could be a relationship, could be a spouse, could be your kids' future, could be money, could be a diagnosis. For you to name it and say, I've got to confess, this is a part of my struggle with to trust God. And then what does it look like for me to release it to God? One of the passages that I remember being taught about is Philippians 4:6-7 that says that we should pray about everything and that we should present those needs to God and we should thank him for all he has already done, and then God's going to give us peace. And I remember when I heard a teacher say, "Here's the problem. One of the reasons we don't have some of the peace is because we don't actually give it to him." We brought it up, but we still want to maintain control of the outcome. Until we decide that we're good with whatever outcome God decides, and we thank him for what he's already done to secure our future regardless, we're still going to carry whatever we're carrying. So this word release means I'm good with whatever you decide. At least I'm trying to be good. I'm beginning to make peace with that. And then be faithful where you are. So it's just an exercise for you. And then as I think about being in this kind of space, when I think about why we can trust God, that he's good and that his timing's better and he's going to work out whatever he's working out, that we might be in a pit while he's sending push notifications to a king, is because he has spared no expense. Look at this language. This is Paul talking about, this is after Jesus. This is as we get clearer and clearer on what God's doing in the world, that he starts back here with his family. "Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won't he also give us everything else?" And this is the language. I can't see what he's doing, but I know what he's already done. He has spared no expense. He has done what we cannot imagine. He has gone all the way. It's over. So while I can't see what this year looks like or next year looks like, I know that's who's in charge. The one in charge did not spare himself but gave it all away. So can I trust him with whatever he's going to do next? Even if I don't like it, even when I don't understand it or see it, can I stay faithful to the one who spared no expense to secure my future? Let me pray for us. God, thank you for this text, where we want to ask that you would open our eyes spiritually to see that you are at work, that you are in control, and you are good. You are powerful, and you have spared no expense to love us and secure our future. That if you were willing to spill the blood of your own Son, if you were willing to take our place on the cross to secure our relationship with you and our eternity, how much more can you handle today and tomorrow? But we are human. We are so fragile and frail, and so we're asking for the grace to believe, and then we're asking for the integrity and the humility and the courage to be faithful, to play our part wherever you have us. In Jesus' name. Amen.