The Throne

You'll get through this is our current message series. My name is Mark. I'm one of the pastors. Hello and good morning. Good morning balcony. Good morning balcony. Thank you very much. Good morning all of you that are joining us on our live stream somewhere. We are so glad that you are here.

I just came from next door where we kicked off our very first TLC and S-Bennial service. I was literally pulling out more chairs in order to accommodate the folks who are now, check this out. This is going on right now. Next door. It's so exciting to see, and wow, God is good. On top of that, I mean, I just got you saw the Beach baptism video that Kyle showed you, and that was just so amazing—crazy conditions and yet inspiring and just so joy-filled. He showed you really the official version. I've got for you some bonus footage that we're calling Beach baptism Extreme. Check this out. Talk about you'll get through this, right? Congratulations to all of you who are baptized. Yes!

And I've never had to say this before, but congratulations for surviving your best. It just goes to show that life does not always go exactly the way we plan. And yet, when total chaos is busting out, God is working behind the scenes to accomplish His good. In fact, if you forget everything else I say today, I want you to remember this: that no matter what, God will not allow your pain to go to waste. He's not gonna allow whatever you're going through right now, whatever you went through this last week, to go to waste. So write this down, memorize it, and trust it.

I mean, take Joseph for example. We first meet him; he's hated by his brothers who throw him in a cistern. Then they sell him as a slave, and then he ends up in Potiphar's house where he's accused of a very serious crime—rape—and thrown into a dungeon where he remains for years and years. As we saw last week, he gets this glimmer of hope when he interprets the dream of the cupbearer. He says to the cupbearer, "Hey, you're gonna be back in the palace in three days. Remember me when you get there. Mention me to Pharaoh. Get me out of this prison." But does the cupbearer remember Joseph three days later? Nope, he does not. He just moves on.

And maybe that's how you feel—forgotten by family, friends, fellow believers. But God never forgets. God never gives up, even when we do. And as we trust Him, He will bring purpose out of our pain. And we're gonna see that big time today in Joseph's life as we return to his story in Genesis 41. It begins like this: when two full years had passed—this is after the cupbearer was restored to his position—Pharaoh had a dream. Two years! He thought it was gonna be like maybe three days since the cupbearer left the jail and Joseph behind. But two years later, Pharaoh had a dream. He was standing on the bank of the Nile River, and 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 behind them from the Nile, but these were scrawny and thin. These cows stood beside the fat cows on the riverbank. Then the scrawny, thin cows ate the seven healthy, fat cows. At this point in the dream, Pharaoh woke up in a cold sweat, I would imagine. But then he fell asleep again and 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 by the east wind, and these thin heads swallowed up the seven plump, well-formed heads. Then Pharaoh woke up again and realized it was a dream.

The next morning, Pharaoh was very disturbed by the dream, so he called for all the magicians and wise men of Egypt. When Pharaoh told them his dream, no one could tell him what they meant. Finally, the King's chief cupbearer spoke up. Well, finally is right! Today I had been reminded of my failure, just a little thing. He told Pharaoh, "Some time ago you were angry with the chief baker and me, and you imprisoned us in the palace of the captain of the guard. 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 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 Pharaoh sent for Joseph, and he was quickly brought from the dungeon. When he had shaved and changed his clothes, he came before Pharaoh. Wow! Imagine, yeah? Joseph wakes up that morning, and it's just like so hundreds, maybe thousands of mornings before, and yet suddenly hears the clanging of keys. Two burly guards grab him, and in the time it takes to shower, shave, and put on a fresh set of clothes, he's standing before Pharaoh, the most powerful man in the world at the time. Pharaoh said to Joseph, "I had a dream, and no one can interpret it. But I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream, you can interpret it." And this is where years of pain and loneliness and confusion all come to fruition in this moment because it says in verse 16, "I cannot do it," Joseph replied to Pharaoh. "But God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires."

"I can't do it. It's not in me. But God can, and with God, anything's possible." It's like this is clearly not the cocky young kid we meet at the beginning of his story, right? The one who was just only so happy to tell on his brothers and share his dreams from which he is the star of the show, even though he knows probably not gonna be received very well. Because during this time, God has been preparing him, maturing him for this moment in front of Pharaoh.

Pharaoh goes on to share about these zombie cows and these cannibalistic heads of grain with gaping mouths, and Joseph says, "Well, man, I can't tell you what that means, but wow, you are really messed up." No, he doesn't say that. Watch how he puts the spotlight on God. Verse 25, "God has revealed what he is about to do." He says that the fat cows, the plump heads of wheat—that's gonna be seven years of amazing abundance. But then the skinny cows, the freaky heads of grain—that's seven years of famine. Verse 28, "God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do—a famine that's gonna be so bad that during the famine, the years of abundance will be completely forgotten." Verse 32, "The reason the dream was given to Pharaoh in two forms is that the matter has been firmly decided by God, and God will do it soon."

So far in this story, the only mention of God has been God was with Joseph, kind of outside the narrative, if you will. But here, look at Joseph's just going, "God is gonna do this. God's gonna do that. God has decided this." He's just preaching a sermon basically to Pharaoh. And says, "Appoint your highnesses, you know, you don't just need some guy; you need God." And this is amazing because the Egyptians believed that it was actually Pharaoh—Pharaoh is like a god-man. He is a mediator between this world and the world of the gods. And yet you strip away his royal costume and his makeup, and he's just another human being facing an impending crisis that is beyond even his pay grade, as it would be frankly for anyone, right? Unless, like Joseph, God is with you.

And so look at the wisdom that Joseph has in this moment. He hasn't had a chance to rehearse for this. He didn't even know what the dream was until several minutes earlier, and yet he just starts speaking this amazing strategy to deal with this. And he says, "Now let Pharaoh look for a discerning and wise man and put him in charge of the land of Egypt. Let Pharaoh appoint commissioners over the land to take a fifth of the harvest of Egypt during the seven years of abundance. This food should be stored in reserve for the country to be used during the seven years of famine that will come upon Egypt so that the country may not be ruined by the famine." Just like that, God gives him an amazing plan.

And the plan seemed good to Pharaoh and all his officials, so Pharaoh asked them, "Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the Spirit of God?" And don't you love this? Because now here's Pharaoh going, "You know what we need around here? We need more people like Joseph. People who are godly, people who are filled with God's Spirit." It's amazing because you know what? The world is just as desperate for godly people today as it was back then. Godly people who aren't about just tearing down people who don't believe the way that we believe, but people who are wise and winsome, and they are in such a way that outsiders, other non-believers, they want to believe what we believe because they're drawn by the attractiveness, the sweetness of the Spirit within us.

And they see what the Spirit is producing: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Those are attractive qualities and also godly wisdom that is forged in the crucible of suffering. In our culture, we want to avoid suffering at all costs, and yet God uses our hard times to do things within us that can only happen in those times of pain. And I'm saying go looking for trouble, but remember God is at work even in the midst of it.

Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Since God has made all this known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you. You shall be put in charge of my palace, and all my people are to submit to your orders. Only with respect to the throne will I be greater than you." Now watch this, verse 41: "So Pharaoh said to Joseph, 'I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt.'" This, you realize, how astounding this is! In the span of like what, 20, 30 minutes, he goes from prison to the palace to prime minister of the most powerful nation on the planet. Only God can do that!

It's amazing. But again, before that moment, before this moment right here, you know, there's a string of other moments that go back many, many years—moments when Joseph had to make a choice. Do I choose to continue to trust that God is good even when life is hard, or do I just chuck it all? I mean, how many times did Joseph have to essentially say what Job does when he says, "Though he slay me, yet I will trust him?" Over and over again, he doubles down on what he knows, God—who God is.

Well, if you recall when we first met Joseph, he wasn't this way. Seventeen, daddy's favorite, special robe, you know, he's acting every bit like we would expect a 17-year-old to act. And yet look at this: Joseph was 30 years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Thirteen years have gone by since his brother stuffed him in that well. And over those 13 years, he's matured, hasn't he? He's grown up, and now he's arguably the most influential and important person in the known world.

And in this new role that he's had for like, you know, all of five minutes, it says he moves forward and says that Joseph collected all the food produced in those seven years of abundance in Egypt and stored it in the cities. Before the years of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph by Asenath, daughter of Potiphar, a priest of On. So along with this new position, he's also given a new wife, and Joseph named the firstborn of his sons Manasseh and said, "It is because God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father's household." The second son he named Ephraim and said, "It is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering." And you see the trajectory there where it's like at first, it's like the firstborn son is like God is healing my heart; He's making me forget my sorrows. And then when Ephraim comes, now God is even making me fruitful. I am blessed.

And then just as God revealed in Pharaoh's dreams, the seven years of abundance in Egypt came to an end, and the seven years of famine began, just as Joseph had said. There was famine in all the other lands, but in the whole land of Egypt, there was food. And all the countries of the world came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph because the famine was severe in all the world, including the part of the world where Joseph's family lives. And we'll see what becomes of that next week, right? But for now, by the way, you can read ahead if you want; it's okay, no rule against it.

But for now, there are the time we have remaining. Let's just unpack this a little bit again. At the outset, I said that God will not allow your pain to go to waste. Another way of saying that is this: with every interruption comes an invitation. Sometimes our lives are interrupted in ways we would never welcome. Maybe you're dealing with something like that right now. But with that interruption comes the invitation to trust, to believe that God is still at work, to remain faithful, obedient, and to wait well.

As René said last weekend, I want to kind of help us apply this to our lives by teasing out three things that were going on in Joseph's day and three things that are still at play in our world today. Because it's a 700-year span between where we sit here and where Joseph was in Egypt, and yet there are three things that were going on then that are still going on now. And so I just want to put these in the form of three questions to help us clarify what they are. And the first one is this: what are things only God can do?

Joseph's story is replete with things only God can do. "I can't do it," as Joseph says, "But God can." And you know what? We spend a lot of energy trying to fix or control or change things that are beyond our control, and in the process, all we do is produce more anxiety and probably additional problems in the present. Thank you. Again, what's the first thing Joseph says? "I can't; God can." So today, what is it that you need to admit? I can't, but God can. You know, I can't kick this habit; God can. I can't make ends meet; God can. I can't control the emotions of other people; I can't control their opinions. I can't control their choices. And yet God can work through all things in order to achieve His good. God even uses the choices, the evil choices of people around Joseph to position him as CEO of Egypt, where he will go on to save the world. Could Joseph do that? No, but God could.

What is it in your life where it's a God thing, not a you thing? And that same God is still working today to bring life and hope where there is death and despair because Jesus came to save, as it says in Romans 1:16. Paul says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God." Not your—you can't save yourself, but God can for the salvation of everyone who believes, everyone who would trust Him. And now we saw this last weekend in such a wonderful way at Seacliff Beach because I read at the beginning as we gathered together, we had getting ready for a baptism. This is my friend Adam Lewis, and when I asked Adam why he wanted to be baptized, he said with all his heart, "I love Jesus." That says it all, doesn't it? And those words just reverberated through all the other people that were gonna be baptized. In fact, in our group, I mean practically without exception, every single person started their story, "I love Jesus." And then through tears, they went on to share how Jesus had rescued them from destructive behaviors, from addiction, from just lostness and brokenness—person after person after person. It was such a powerful moment.

Yeah, that says it all, doesn't it? And listen, if you have never asked Jesus to do for you what you could never do for yourself, namely save you from sin and death and give you new life and give you a new heart, you can do that today. I'm gonna give you an opportunity in just a little bit, okay? But before that, we got two other questions that we want to address. The second one is this: we'd said, "What are things only God can do? What are things only we can do collectively?" Because there's strength in numbers, isn't there? In fact, that's the official motto of the Golden State Warriors, who didn't demonstrate that in their last game, but anyway, I diverge. Strength in numbers. Joseph knew this way back in his day too.

And so essentially, he turns the whole nation into an agricultural collective. You know, rather than saying, "Hey, good luck, you know, we're gonna take care of ourselves. You take care of yourself. We'll just hope we all kind of find our way," he says, "No, we are going to band together because we can do more together than we can separately." And so it says Joseph stored up huge quantities of grain like the sand of the sea. It was so much that he stopped keeping records because it was beyond measure. You know, I think in our context, we see the same thing happening year after year after year with our fall food drive. I mean, God uses this church to do something remarkable where consistently we set this crazy goal of a million meals for our community, and God allows us to meet and often exceed it. And you know what? I hope we never get used to that where we just go, "Oh, yeah, that's just kind of what we do." You know, we got it. This is a remarkable thing.

Let me put this into context for you. So during the 2020-2021 season, the Warriors and Kaiser Permanente donated one million twenty thousand meals to Bay Area food banks, which is awesome. I commend them for doing that. And yet we—and again, here where I'm coming from, I'm not bragging about us; I'm bragging about what God is doing in us and through us—one church in a small county working together, believing Jesus specifically tells us to feed the hungry, donated more meals than the Warriors and Kaiser Permanente combined. Now that is strength in numbers. Okay, yeah! And again, it's all about Him. We're not doing this; okay, we're doing this. Praise God that He would use us in this way.

This is Jesus working through His church. That's what He does. He does not call us to be lone rangers; He calls us to be a family, a group, a team that gathers together to achieve more than we ever could on our own. And so I'm so excited to see what He's gonna do in and through us during this year's food drive, which kicks off this weekend, and what He's already doing through our acts of kindness—already amazing things. You're gonna hear about more details in the future, but amazing things are already happening.

But as it says in Ephesians 2:10, it says, "For we are God's workmanship." And by the way, in the Greek, that means we. Okay? All y'all from the South are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. And when we live out God's good purposes in our own lives, you know what happens? It makes other people more interested, more responsive to God's good purposes for their lives. Think about it this way: let's face it, probably we're not gonna see, you know, here in this next year, you know, 100% of Santa Cruz County come to Jesus. That would be awesome. But there will be folks who believe; there will be folks that don't believe. And for those who don't believe, even if that's the case, don't you want them to be glad that we exist?

You know what I'm saying? Like, you know, I don't go to that church, but I'm sure glad they're there because they are a blessing to our community. And so, for example, not too long ago, we held a memorial service for a woman who died abruptly and tragically. She wasn't a part of this church; she works for a local government agency. Her family's not connected; her friends are not connected; her co-workers are not connected. But we wanted to reach out in love, in hospitality, in the name of Christ, to support this family through this terrible time. And so the day of the memorial, there are 300 people in this auditorium—99.9% of them had never set foot in this room. In fact, I counted all of two people who were connected to Twin Lakes—two—and they were a couple.

And yet the folks that were there, they were exposed to what we do. They were loved; they were cared for; and they were touched. In fact, the leader of this local government agency, he sent me an email and he said, "Hi Pastor Mark, I wanted to say how much I appreciated your words and for the church having the memorial." And listen to this: he says, "TLC is a real model for us all." And you know what? God made that possible through you. God made that possible through us. Everything that God is doing through in and through this church, He is doing in and through us. And it's amazing when you think of the ministries from the little toddlers to senior citizens and all the way through. There are like silos of spiritual grain providing spiritual nourishment here on this campus, in our community, and around the world. So can we say amen, church? Amen!

It's amazing, and it's such a privilege because these are things we can do together in the power of the Spirit of God. Third thing, third question: what are things only I can do? What are things only I can do? I mean, to state the obvious, there's only one you, and there are things that God wants to uniquely do through you. That is why you exist. And so what is God calling you to? You know, you don't have to be a pastor where it's like, "Oh, God's got to call my life." No, Jesus says to all His followers, "Come, follow me." He calls all of us, and He has a distinct role just like He had a very distinct role for Joseph, right?

Now, I don't know what His role will be for all of us, and they may not be talking about it 3,700 years from now, but you have a God-given calling on your life. In fact, in Philippians 3, the Apostle Paul describes his own and how he's leaning into it when he says, "Not that I've already obtained all of this—I haven't done it all yet—or have already been made perfect, complete. But I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." You may be thinking, "Well, you know, that's great, but I am no Apostle Paul." And yet the very same Apostle Paul would say elsewhere in Scripture, "Hey, I am the least of the Apostles. I don't even deserve to be called an Apostle because, after all, I had a past."

And sometimes we go, "No, I got a past. So how could God use me?" Forgetting what lies behind, I press on towards the goal for which Jesus has called me heavenward. Think of Joseph. Here's his resume: he's a shepherd, kind of because he likes to supervise and tell on his brothers more than actually do the work, right? Doesn't want to get his robe dirty. Then he's a slave. Then he is a convicted felon. So he's got quite the resume, right? Oh yeah, and then after that, he's the prime minister of the world's superpower at the time. I mean, it's amazing what God can do and what in the world did Joseph know about running a nation? Well, apparently a whole lot because God enabled him to do it.

And you know that same God that created and prepared and positioned Joseph is the same God at work in your life today. And so as we make ourselves available, He will make us able. I'm gonna give you a powerful example of that as I close. This man on screen, his name is Rigo Reyes, and Rigo is a missionary with an organization that we support called Mission Door. A couple years ago, Rigo was driving through rural Nicaragua trying to find a church that Mission Door had planted, but it's just out in the boondocks. He gets lost, and eventually, he stumbles upon this village that's so remote that it's not even listed on any maps. And at the time, there was severe drought, and this village was literally starving. This is the kind of crops they were seeing, and they are starving to death as a result.

Well, as it turns out, in his previous position, Rigo worked for a large agricultural business. Rigo had connections in particular to drought-resistant corn, and so Rigo helps plant the corn and harvest the corn, and they start building silos and containers for all the corn that they are starting to produce—so much so that they have to actually convert some of the houses to corn silos. And if you can imagine this, in fact, just a couple years ago, René and my brother Paul went to this very same village, and it's just like this hyper-abundance of corn—in fact, so much so that this little village becomes a little pocket of economic prosperity. They're not just being blessed themselves; they're blessing others as well. They sell the corn; they buy chickens; they sell the eggs; they buy other things that the people need. And God does all of this because Rigo lost his way and found a calling.

Yeah, it's amazing, and you never know how God is going to position you for the next thing that He's calling you to do. And you know, you may have a clear sense of what that is today; you may not. Well, just be patient. Joseph had to be really patient. And so just wait and see how God might use you. Stay trusting; stay aware. He's not gonna waste your pain. He may just be using it to prepare you for whatever He has next. I mean, think of how He was working behind the scenes in Joseph's life. He was working behind the scenes in the life of an anonymous teenager, in the life of a family, a nation, and ultimately working to save the world—all behind the scenes. And you know what the amazing thing is? He was doing it despite the destructive behavior of a whole lot of people and yet, in fact, sometimes even using their behavior to accomplish His good, perfect will.

Wow! So remember, in the good things and in the bad things, remember that in all things, only God is truly on the throne. And we can trust that even when we can't see that. And because of that, you'll get through this, church. You really will.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You for this time we have together. We pray that You would plant the seeds of even deeper hope and faith and expectation in our hearts today as we are just in awe of how You can work. And Lord, I pray for those who don't yet know what it's like to be a follower of Jesus, and yet You're tugging on their heart right now. I just pray that in their own words they would say, "Yes, Lord Jesus, I want to follow You. Lead me from this point forward. Take my sin, take my rebellion, take my dysfunction, and Lord, would You exchange, give me life and a new heart and forgiveness because of Your love and Your grace. And Lord, lead these folks from this moment forward." I pray in Your name. And all God's people said.