Kerry Shook - The Choice
You know, life doesn't always go the way we want it to, and many things in our lives are out of our control. They're just beyond our control. There are many things in life we don't get to choose. You don't get to choose most of the circumstances that come into your life, but you do get to choose how you respond to them. And that choice is powerful. What you do with that choice will make all the difference in your life. Your greatest ability is response-ability, the ability to choose how you respond to life. That choice is one of the greatest gifts God has given us. When you take responsibility for how you respond in life, you begin to realize the power of the choice no circumstance can steal. But if you believe the lie that what happens to you determines your happiness and your circumstances determine your success, then you'll get stuck in your circumstances.
And this weekend, we're talking about the choice that brings about powerful change. And the Bible says it's not your circumstances. It's your character that determines what you do in life. So would you look at James chapter 1? Our key verse is in the book of James. Would you stand in honor of God's Word? Just follow along with me: "Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure your faith life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well developed, not deficient in any way".
You can be seated. You know, the Bible says we need a new perspective on our problems. And, folks, it's a radical new perspective. It says that we need to see our problems and pressures and the painful circumstances that come into our lives as gifts. And I want to ask why. Why is that a gift? Because it's the way character is built and it's your character, not your circumstances, that determine your destiny. There's a famous study where researchers looked at hundreds of exceptionally gifted people just trying to find out what produced such greatness in their lives. They wanted to know if there was a common thread that ran through all of these outstanding people's lives.
Surprisingly, they found the common thing that linked them all together was that virtually all of them had overcome extreme adversity to become who they were. They had all faced overwhelming obstacles in their circumstances. And we look at our problems, our struggles, our pain as our greatest obstacle to becoming who we want to be in life, but it turns out it's just the opposite. Your problems aren't holding you back. In fact, your problems are the very thing that can take you to a new level in life. Your greatest adversity is your greatest opportunity for a breakthrough, that is, if you realize the power of the choice. Joseph came to realize the power of the choice more than just about anyone else in scripture.
Joseph is this amazing 17-year-old teenager who loves God, obeys his dad. He has character beyond his years, but he still had some maturing to do in his life. Joseph was his father Jacob's favorite, and Jacob loved Joseph more than he loved his other sons, and he gave him this ornate coat of many colors that he didn't give to any of Joseph's brothers. And his brothers, of course, were really jealous of him. And then God gave Joseph a dream that one day he'd be a great ruler and he would even rule over his father and brothers, and they would come to him and bow down to him. Now, Joseph had some pride that God had to deal with before he could fulfill the dream.
See, Joseph would come around his older brothers with his beautiful, ornate coat and kind of rub it in their faces. You know, it just said that, "Hey, I'm father's favorite. You don't have a coat like mine". Joseph also was really excited to share with them the dream God had given him. He said, "Hey, guys, God gave me the most amazing dream. God told me I'm going to be a great leader one day and you guys and Father are going to come and bow down to me. Isn't that awesome"? Well, they didn't think it was very awesome. They were so jealous they wanted to kill him. In Genesis 37:23, it says: "When Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped off his robe, the robe of many colors that he had on. Then they took him and threw him into the pit".
So they stripped him of his coat and throw him into a pit, trying to decide whether to kill him or not. They just leave him there in the pit and they're debating, "Should we kill him? What should we do with him"? But I think it was in the bottom of that pit that Joseph had a breakthrough. See, Joseph had been riding high. I mean, up until that point, all the circumstances that came into his life were really great. God gave him a great dream. He was his father's favorite. Every circumstance in his life was all good. Then suddenly, he finds himself at the bottom of a pit. It looks like he's about to die and the dream is going to end before it can even get started.
I think though it was in the bottom of that pit where Joseph realized how powerless he was to fulfill the dream. It was God's dream that only God could fulfill. The pit strips him of all his pride so he can experience God's power. And it's only in the pit that we realize how powerless we are, how much we need God. The pit strips us of our pride, the pride of thinking we're in control, that we've got it all together, that we can fix the problem ourselves. We usually have to hit rock bottom before we look up to God. Sometimes the dream has to hit rock bottom so that God can then take it and take the pride out of it, then give it back to us where it's all God's dream to do his way for his glory. Sometimes a marriage has to hit rock bottom so God can strip us of our pride, and we finally admit we need counseling.
Look at Proverbs 16:18: "Pride comes before disaster and arrogance before a fall". Pride always leads to a fall. Pride leads to the pit, but that's a good thing because without the pit you can't experience God's power. But it's there in the pit of failure that you have the choice. In pride, you can try to climb out of that pit and keep trying to climb out of that pit with your own strength, or you can surrender to God's power. And some of you have been stuck in the same pit for a long time because you keep thinking you can climb out of it, that you'll find a way out of it that you can fix it. You're stuck in the same old financial pit, making the same mistakes.
You're stuck in the same relationship pit with the same issues. Or it's the same old struggle, the same old sin, the same old addiction. And you're thinking, "Yeah, I've been stuck, but this is the year I'm going to climb out of it. This is the year I'm really going to change this time". I guess you just haven't hit rock bottom yet. You'll be stuck in it until you get sick of it. And usually, we don't get sick of it until our pain is greater than our pride, then we surrender to God's power. We find that he's right there in the pit to lift us out. You see, God loves you when you're on the mountain top of success and he loves you just the same when you're in the pit of failure.
And if you turn to him, you'll experience what Psalm 145:14 says: "The Lord holds up all who fall. He raises up all who are brought down". We all fall, we all fail, we all find ourselves in the pit of failure at times. But when we fall, we can find the God who holds us up. You see, Joseph started in the pit, but he ended up in the palace. God raised him up. God raised him from the pit to the palace, and without the pit he would have never made it to the palace. And without the pit, we can't make it to the palace of God's purpose for us. It's at the bottom of the pit that you'll find your breakthrough.
And I believe it was in that pit Joseph had his breakthrough. In the pit where everything was out of his control but not God's because from then on you don't see a hint of pride in Joseph's life. I mean, it is gone. Well, his brothers decide not to kill him. It's a good thing. Instead, they sell him into slavery and these slave traders are going to Egypt, which was not a good thing. And I said Joseph started out of the pit and ended up in the palace and that's true but first he had to go through the fire. It's in the pit of failure we discover God's power, but it's only in the fire of problems and pressure that our character is built. And remember, it's not your circumstances that determines your destiny. It's your character.
I have up here something so small that you can't see it. It is a seed. Come show them this seed. This is the seed of a giant sequoia tree, the largest tree on the face of the earth. You still can't see it on the camera, can you? It's there. There it is. Yeah, isn't that amazing? And by the way, right behind me is a life-sized, actual size of a sequoia tree, just the trunk of a sequoia tree. Did you know the giant sequoia, that largest living organism on the face of the earth, starts right here in this small seed? And that's the way it works with God. God takes the small things, whatever you have, even if it's not much, and you give it to God, he can do something great with it.
But here's something I find even more amazing. This is the cone of a sequoia. And by the way, I'm growing my own sequoia tree right here. And I'm so excited because in a few years it's going to be that, I'mma plant it in the backyard. It's going to be as big as that one behind me. I'm so excited about that. I'm gonna take good care of it. No, apparently this is not a good environment here in Houston for sequoia trees but this cone here has all these seeds in it. And for the seeds of a sequoia to grow, there has to be a fire. The cone has to be in such heat from a forest fire, that the seeds pop like popcorn out of the cone. Only in the fire can the seeds come out of the cone. They have to go through the heat before they can pop out and the sequoia seed can take root.
Without the fire, there's no sequoia. Without the fire, there's no great and tall sequoia tree. And by the way, the forest fire also helps the existing trees. Because they're so big, the fires usually don't do much damage to them, but it clears all the brush around them so they can grow taller. I find that really amazing because God uses the fire to prepare us for greatness. If you're going through the fire right now and nothing makes sense, just know God is preparing you for a great purpose here on Earth and he's preparing you for a great destiny to rule and reign with him in eternity. Now, your character is not automatically built in the fire. In fact, your character can go up in flames in the fire. The fire will either build you or burn you. It all depends upon, you guessed it, the choice, how you respond to the fire.
Well, the first fire Joseph faces is the fire of temptation. Joseph is sold into slavery in Egypt. He becomes a servant to a guy named Potiphar and Joseph in humility does such a good job he's raised up to be in charge of everything in the house. But then Potiphar's wife tries to seduce him, but Joseph refuses and he runs from the temptation. And she's left there holding his coat, so he loses his coat again, but he didn't lose his integrity. And every time you make the decision to run from temptation and maintain your integrity, it builds your character in a major way.
Now, this topic deserves a lot more than I can give it today, so next weekend we're going to talk about a new way to deal with the temptations that try to take our integrity. It really is going to be a positive message of how you can have victory over the struggles and sins we so easily get stuck in, how God can restore integrity and give you a fresh start and you could walk in victory and break free from some of the stuff that we all get stuck in. So don't miss that. Well, Potiphar's wife falsely accuses Joseph of trying to assault her, and he's thrown into prison for a crime that he didn't commit. But there in that prison he makes the choice again to trust God in the fire. And in prison, he befriends a couple of Pharaoh's former officials that fell out of favor with him and were thrown into prison. And he interprets a dream, the former cup bearer for Pharaoh had.
Joseph tells him, "Hey, the dream means you're going to get back in Pharaoh's favor. In three days, he's going to bring you out of this prison and bring you back to the palace". And then Joseph tells him this in Genesis chapter 40 verse 14: "'And please remember me and do me a favor when things go well for you. Mention me to Pharaoh, so he might let me out of this place.' Pharaoh's chief cup bearer, however, forgot all about Joseph, never giving him another thought". It's one of the saddest verses in scripture. He forgot all about Joseph and Joseph ended up in maybe the most painful fire of all, the fire of feeling forgotten. He was forgotten by a friend.
I'm sure there were times in that prison cell it felt like God had forgotten him. I mean, Joseph is totally surrendered to God, yet he has one devastating circumstance after another that's slamming into his life. I mean, wouldn't you be wondering, God, what's wrong? I'm doing the things you call me to do. I love you with all my heart and all these bad things keep happening to me. He's in the fire of feeling forgotten, but he still makes the choice. He knows the power of the choice, that it's a choice that no pit, no person, and no prison can take away. He chooses to trust that God is still in control. He chooses to trust God still has a plan.
And, folks, in this life, jealous people will try to hurt you, and moral people will try to tempt you, ambitious people will try to use you, unfaithful people will betray you, ungrateful people will forget you, but none of it can stop you if God is with you. There is no circumstance, there is no circumstance that can keep you from your calling and there will be times when you go through the fire of feeling forgotten, but God will never forget you. He will walk with you through whatever fire you're going through. In fact, the Bible says God says to you in Isaiah, "I will never forget you. In fact, I've inscribed your name on the palm of my hand".
Did you know God has a tattoo? Yeah, it's your name on the palm of his hand and he looks at it constantly with love. He loves you so much. He will never leave you. Even when you feel forgotten, God has not forgotten you. So what do we do when circumstances come against us? What do we do when life just keeps slamming us with things that are painful? Well, we need to make the choices Joseph made when he walked through the fire. And the first choice is I have to choose to be faithful. I've gotta choose to be faithful where God has me. Choose to be faithful where God has you so you'll be prepared for where God is taking you. Be faithful where God has you so you'll be prepared for where God is taking you.
Joseph was faithful and responsible wherever he was. He couldn't control where he was, but he could control what he did. He always gives his best no matter what, and look at Genesis 39:6, it says: "So Potiphar gave Joseph the complete administrative responsibility over everything he owned". He hadn't a worry in the world with Joseph there. Joseph took responsibility and did his best where he was, and he was promoted to run the whole house. The same thing happens in the prison. Joseph works hard. He gives his best, and the warden places his him over all the administrative responsibilities for the whole prison. Joseph was response-able, and God raised him up. Joseph is saying here, "I can't control these circumstances in my life, but I can still choose my response. I don't know why these awful things are happening to me, but I do know who's Lord of my life".
Do you choose to take responsibility for the work you do? If you're a Christ follower, you ought to do the best, the best that you can do, no matter what you do. Martin Luther King Jr., who said this: "If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare, poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause and say, 'Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.'"
Whatever God calls you to do, do it with all your heart for his glory because he's your boss. The reason God raised Joseph up to be second in command in all of Egypt is because no matter where he was, he chose to be faithful to God. He chose to take responsibility for what he could control instead of choosing to blame others and make excuses. Are you choosing to be faithful where God has you so that you can be prepared for where God is taking you? You see, if I'm not faithful where God has me, then he can't take me to where he wants me to be. Jesus said this in Luke 16 verse 10. Look at it with me: "If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones, but if you are dishonest in little things, you won't be honest with greater responsibilities".
Some of you are waiting for your big break when God says, "If you'll just be faithful in the small things, I will break through in your life in a big way". Some people say, "You know, when I make it big, I'll make a big difference for God". No, you won't, not if you're not being faithful in the small things. Or "When I get out of debt and I make more money, I'll start tithing". Who are you kidding? If you're not faithful with what God has given you now, you won't be faithful with more. Choose to be faithful where God has you, so you'll be prepared for where he's taking you. And then secondly, choose to trust God and not your circumstances.
I mean, so many times Joseph could have given up on God to come through. When he was in the fire of feeling forgotten and nothing made sense, he kept choosing to trust God, whether he felt it or not. And when it seems like every circumstance that is coming into your life is bad and painful and you don't feel like following God and nothing makes sense, and God is not telling you why, choose to trust God, not your circumstances. Choose to trust God and not your feelings. Choose to trust God. Make the choice in your mind to trust God. Keep waiting on him, keep following him, keep turning to him. No matter what Joseph felt like in that prison cell, he chose to believe that God is good, and his pain had a purpose.
Pain often has a hidden purpose that we usually don't see until after the pain is over, and then we can look back and see what God was doing. And some pains in life, we won't see the whole purpose until we get to heaven. God used Joseph's pain to change his path and bring him to Egypt to save all of Egypt and Israel and his family from famine. And Joseph's brothers, they come to Egypt to get grain because they're starving and they stand before this powerful official in Egypt who's in charge of the kingdom, Pharaoh's right-hand man and they didn't recognize that it was Joseph, their brother. Joseph revealed himself to them.
And in Genesis chapter 45 verse 7 and 8, he said to them: "God has sent me ahead of you to keep you and your families alive and to preserve many survivors. So it was God who sent me here, not you. And he is the one who made me an advisor to Pharaoh, the manager of his entire palace and the governor of all of Egypt". So Joseph says, "God used my pain to take me to my purpose. The pain changed my path and the new direction directed me here". God used the pain to take him to the palace and your pain is not without purpose. In fact, many times, it's the very thing God uses to change your path, because without the pain we wouldn't change our path on our own.
And God uses the pain to change our path and take us to the palace of his purpose. It was there in that prison where Joseph could have gotten his eyes off God and on to the horrific things that his brothers had done to him and all the pain their actions had inflicted upon him. I mean, think about it. You know, I mean, he could have just let that fester because they had wronged him so deeply. But Joseph knew if he focused on his brother's wrongs against him and held onto that hate, he would only be locking himself in a prison of bitterness that would trap him. And if you don't choose to forgive when people wrong you, you'll get trapped in a prison of bitterness where you allow that person to keep hurting you.
Joseph had every reason to get bitter for what his brothers did to him, but he chose to forgive them for his own sake because he wouldn't let the poison of bitterness destroy his life. And when Joseph revealed to his brothers who he was, they were terrified. I mean, they were sure Joseph was going to take his revenge upon them for all the horrific things they'd done to him. They were just wondering, "Is he just going to kill us quickly or is he gonna torture us"? They were terrified.
But look what Joseph said to them in Genesis 50:20: "You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people". Joseph tells them, "I forgave you a long time ago. I wouldn't let bitterness keep me from God's blessing". He says, "You intended to harm me". He didn't say, "Oh, no big deal. I forgive you. You didn't mean it". No, he says, "I know you meant to harm me. I know you meant to hurt me, and it hurt". He doesn't minimize the hurt. Forgiveness is not saying, "Oh, I'm a Christian. I forgive you. Oh, don't worry about it. No big deal" when it's a big deal. No, he says, "You intended to harm me, but the greatest harm would have been if I'd let what you did lock me in a prison of bitterness".