When You Down To Nothing God Is Up To Something

When you are down to nothing God is up to something

Genesis 37:23-28; 39:21-23; 41:37-45

Prayer

I hope that everyone has had a wonderful week this week. God’s blessings are too numerous to count even when we cannot see them. Have you ever felt that you have reached the end of your rope, that nothing is going right, that everything you do fails and you wonder what is going on. Life is a struggle. We are struggling against a world that has rejected God who feel that we who believe there is a God are foolish and naïve. Since the world has rejected God it also rejects us. It beats us down but I have wonderful news for you this morning when you down to nothing just remember God is up to something in your life. No matter how bad the world is or how bad life gets we must remember that God is the one in charge and he still controls. God is not just sitting out there doing nothing He is very much active in the lives of his children and He has a plan that He is carrying out and that plan includes you and me. Each of us has a part to play in God’s overall plan. We don’t have to understand it we just have to trust Him and live our life for Him no matter what type of life that is. We are never to give up even when it seems that what we are doing is not working. Bill Hybels tells about an interesting experience after a baptism service in their church. He writes: “I bumped into a woman in the stairwell who was crying. I thought this was a little odd, since the service was so joyful. I asked her if she was all right. She said, ‘No, I’m struggling.’ She said, ‘My mom was baptized today. I prayed for her every day for almost 20 years. The reason I’m crying is because I came this close to giving up on her. At the 5-year mark I said, “Who needs this? God isn’t listening.” At the 10-year mark I said, “Why am I wasting my breath?” At the 15-year mark I said, “This is absurd.” At the 19-year mark I said, “I’m just a fool.” But I just kept trying, kept praying. Even with weak faith I kept praying. Then she gave here life to Christ, and she was baptized today. I will never doubt the power of prayer again.”

Sometimes when we pray and pray we feel like we are experiencing the law of diminished returns — so we stop praying. We correspondingly diminish our desires and dreams. We stop believing that God cares and that he will act — that he is indeed a God who wants us to ask. I hope that you will trust God’s love and concern for you, and his ability as well. I hope that you will continue to be persistent in prayer, no matter how discouraging the circumstances seem.

Gen. 37:23-28 I want you to understand when everything that we have is gone we have no were to look but up.

a. Look at Joseph the apple of his father’s eye, blessed by God, given the ability to interpret dreams yet how he was part of God’s plan.

i. Joseph enjoyed privilege as the favorite son of Jacob but it caused strife in his family

ii. He enjoyed authority as Jacob’s son yet he would have nothing

iii. He had been his father’s son but now he was nothing.

b. When we are naked we have no one but God.

i. The world was stripped from him everything he knew was Gone.

ii. The life that he knew was taken from him

iii. Everything he had, everything he had been was gone.

iv. His own brothers had turned on him but he was not alone in his troubles for God was there.

c. When our family and friends turn on us we too have God there

i. As Christians we must face the fact that family and friends will turn against us

1. Joseph brothers sold him into slavery because they were jealous

2. They wanted nothing to do with him

ii. The world will oppose us and attack us.

iii. Only God will remain with us.

1. No matter how bad life gets God will always be there

2. We are never alone even when family has hurt us

3. God has a plan even the.

2. Gen. 39:21-23 Sometimes we have to understand we are in the pit because God needs us there.

a. We have to understand that things in life happen for a purpose.

i. Joseph did not understand why this was happening to him but he knew that God was there and that God had a plan.