Youth Sunday Sermon From The Pit To The Palace

You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives." — Genesis 50:20

Opening: Start Where They Are

Before we open our Bibles today, I want you to think about a time someone counted you out. Maybe a teacher said you wouldn't make it. Maybe someone in your family underestimated you. Maybe the world looked at you — your skin, your neighborhood, your zip code — and decided your story was already written. Hold that feeling. Because today we're talking about a young man who knows exactly how you feel.

His name is Joseph. And his story is our story.

Part 1: Joseph Was Targeted Because of Who He Was

Joseph was the son of Jacob, a young man of promise. His father gave him a special coat — some translations say 'a coat of many colors' — marking him as favored, as chosen, as set apart. And the moment the world saw that coat, they decided to take it from him.

His own brothers — the people who should have loved him most — stripped him of his coat, threw him in a pit, and sold him to strangers for twenty pieces of silver. Joseph was trafficked. Enslaved. Treated as property rather than as a person.

Does that sound familiar?

For over 250 years, millions of African men, women, and children were stripped of their names, their languages, their families, and their freedom. They were chained, sold, and forced to build a nation that refused to call them human. They were thrown into a pit not of their own making.

Joseph's coat was taken. The African people's culture, language, and identity were taken. But here is what nobody could take — and this is the first thing I need you to remember today:

"The Lord was with Joseph." — Genesis 39:2

You can strip a person of everything on the outside. You cannot strip them of God's presence on the inside.

Part 2: They Tried to Bury Them, But They Were Seeds

Joseph was thrown into a pit in Canaan and then sold to Egypt. He was enslaved in the house of Potiphar. He was falsely accused by Potiphar's wife. He was thrown in prison for a crime he didn't commit. Every time it looked like Joseph might get a break, another door slammed shut.

And yet — the Scripture tells us something remarkable. Even in prison, Joseph kept his gifts. He interpreted dreams. He helped others. He refused to let bitterness become his identity. His circumstances were a prison. His spirit was free.

Sound familiar?

Think about the enslaved Africans who, in the midst of unimaginable suffering, created the spirituals — songs that carried coded messages and carried God's promises. 'Swing Low, Sweet Chariot' wasn't just a song. It was a survival strategy. 'Wade in the Water' told freedom-seekers to move through streams so the dogs couldn't track their scent. They found genius in the pit.

Think about Harriet Tubman — a woman who escaped slavery and then went BACK nineteen times to free over three hundred people. They thought slavery had broken her. Instead, it forged her into something unbreakable.

Think about Frederick Douglass, who taught himself to read in secret, then used those words to tear the institution of slavery apart from the inside out.

Think about the Reconstruction era, when newly freed Black Americans built schools, businesses, churches, and sent representatives to Congress — in just a few years after emancipation.

They threw us in the pit. We were seeds. And seeds don't die in the ground — they grow.

Part 3: The Pit is Not the End of Your Story

Here's what I need every young person in this room to hear. Joseph spent years in a pit. Years in a prison. Years where it looked like God had forgotten him. But the Bible tells us that God was with him the entire time — not just when things were good, but when things were impossible.

The same is true for you. Your zip code is not your destiny. Your family's struggles are not a life sentence. The labels people put on you — whether it's in the classroom, on the street, or even online — those labels are not your identity. Joseph's brothers called him a dreamer like it was an insult. It turned out to be a prophecy.

What are they calling you that God means for good?

In 1619, the first enslaved Africans arrived on American shores. By 2008 — less than 400 years later — Barack Obama stood in Grant Park in Chicago as the 44th President of the United States. That is a Joseph story. That is a pit-to-palace story. That is God doing what only God can do.