May 26, 2025 • 25 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Maybe for you times have been tough, really really tough.
Here's Pastor Jeff Shreve.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Some tests are harder than others.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Tests are part of life, and some tests are long,
and some tests are hard, and some tests are really
more like pits, deep dark pits. Hey, what do you
do when the bottom drops out and you find yourself
in a deep dark pit? Risco with real truth, real.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
From this whome.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Welcome to from his Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve, where
today he continues his practical and timeless study of the
life of Joseph in the series entitled Dreams and Detours. Well, obviously,
every person on this planet has, at one time or another,
had dreams that were shattered. Detours had to be taken,
(01:05):
and life's highway was unexpected and unpredictable. The big question
is how do we get out of the pit. And
that's the name of today's lesson from Pastor Jeff's series
Dreams and Detours. It could be a financial pit, a
health pit, a psychological pit, or a spiritual pit. Today,
Pastor Jeff will share how to handle the detours that
(01:28):
keep us from the dreams that God has planned for
our lives. Joseph surely found himself in a literal pit,
and not even because of his own actions, but through
God's grace. His life is an example for us to
take a long, hard look at ourselves, our circumstances, but
most importantly, at the Lord. Now we'll hear part one
(01:49):
of this lesson today, part two tomorrow. If you have
a friend who needs this inspiring encouragement, go to Fromhishart
dot org and click the listen link. You can download
pre MP three of the broadcast and pass it on
to them. Let's get started digging out of the pit.
Open your Bible to Genesis chapter thirty seven, as Pastor
Jeff helps us to learn how we got in this
(02:11):
pit and how to get out of it.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Everyone in life will experience some pit situations. We're in
a study on the life of Joseph, and one of
the things we find out very quickly in the life
of Joseph, is that Joseph had his fair share, maybe
more than his fair share, of pit experiences. Hey, pitt
(02:35):
experiences hit everybody, and they can come as they came
in Joseph's life, just like that, when you least expect it,
the bottom can drop out, something can happen even driving
home from church today and a major accident can occur.
I had a customer of mine years ago when I
worked in the chemical business, and his wife was driving
(02:58):
on a road in Huntsville, just her own business, going
to a craft fair or something like that, and a
man fell asleep at the wheel and hit her and
hurt her, damage her body to the point that she
was never the same. That guy died in that accident,
and my friend, my customer, said, you know, my life
(03:19):
has changed so much because of that day. And he said,
sometimes I get so angry. I want to go to
the cemetery, dig up that man's dead body and beat
him for what he did to my wife. Hey, things
happen like that, and all of a sudden, you're in
this deep dark pit. All of a sudden, you get
go to the doctor on a regular visit and they
come back and they say you have cancer. All of
(03:41):
a sudden, your spouse comes home and says, I don't
want to be married to you anymore.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
I found somebody else, and boom, you're in a pit.
All of a sudden. As a student, as a kid.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Growing up in a family, all of a sudden, the
family disintegrates. Man life is hard at times, and pit
hit everybody. Joseph had a pit experience. We're going to
read about it today. We're in a series on the
life of Joseph called Dreams and Detours. You remember, Joseph
(04:12):
was the one that God gave him a dream that
his brothers were going to bow down to him. Joseph
is the eleventh son of his father Jacob. Jacob, whose
name was changed by God to Israel, had twelve sons,
the twelve tribes of Jacob, the twelve tribes of Israel,
and Joseph is the favorite son. Joseph is the son,
(04:34):
as the Bible says, the son of his old age.
Joseph is the first son of the wife that he
loved the most, Rachel. Jacob put all his focus on
this one son, Joseph. And the brothers didn't like that,
and they didn't like Joseph, and they let it be known.
In Genesis chapter thirty seven, I'll begin reading in verse
(04:56):
twelve says, then his brothers went to pasture the their
father's flock in Shechem, and Israel said to Joseph, Israel
and Jacob are the same person, said to Joseph, are
not your brothers pastoring the flock and Shechem, come and
I will send you to them. And he said, I
will go. Then he said to him, go now and
see about the welfare of your brothers and the welfare
of the flock, and bring word back to me. So
(05:17):
he sent him from the valley of Hebron, and he
came to Shechem. That was fifty miles, so that was
a long trip. It would have taken him probably three
days or so to do that. And a man found him,
and behold, he was wandering in the field. And the
man asked him, what are you looking for? And he said,
I'm looking for my brothers. Please tell me where they
are pastoring the flock. Then the man said, they have
moved from here, for I heard them say, let us
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go to Dothan. So Joseph went after his brothers and
found them at Dothan. Dothan was another fifteen miles, so
he had traveled sixty five miles to go check on
his brothers verse eighteen. When they saw him, his brother
saw him from a distance, they could tell it was
Joseph because Joseph had a long coat of many colors
that Daddy gave him. Didn't give any of the other
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brothers anything, but gave one to j Joseph because he
loved Joseph so much. So they saw him from a distance,
and before he came close to him, they plodded against
him to put him to death. And they said to
one another, here comes this dreamer. Now, then come let
us kill him and throw him into one of the pits,
and we will say a wild beast aboured him. Then
(06:19):
let us see what will become of his dreams. But Ruben,
Ruben is the oldest son, he's the firstborn son. But
Ruben heard this and rescued him out of their hands
and said, let us not take his life.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Ruben further said to them.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Shed no blood, throw him into this pit that is
in the wilderness, but do not lay hands on him,
that he might rescue him out of their hands and
restore him to his father. So it came about when
Joseph reached his brothers that they stripped Joseph of his tunic.
He the very colored tunic that was on him, and
they took him and threw him into the pit. Now
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the pit was empty, without any water in it. Then
they sat down to eat a meal. Joseph had come
a long way to check on his brothers. And when
he meets his brothers, they abuse him. They strip him
of that robe that was a symbol of his dad's favoritism,
and they throw him in a pit. Hey, what do
(07:15):
you do when the bottom drops out? You don't expect
it to happen, but it does, and you find yourself
in a deep, dark pit.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
What are we to do?
Speaker 3 (07:27):
There are three imperatives that I want you to see
in this passage.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Imperative number one. Imperative means you must do it.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Imperative number one take a long, hard look at yourself,
a long, hard, sober look in the mirror. Maybe you're
here today and you are in a pit. You say, Jeff,
you know I'm going through a terrible test. It's a
severe test, and I feel like I'm in a pit.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
What am I supposed to do? Well, look in the mirror,
look at yourself.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
As the book Jim Collins book Good to Great says,
every great company, the CEO and the board of directors
they have to ask, they have to face the brutal facts.
They have to look in the mirror and say, what
are we really? What's our company really? And every person
has to do that, especially when you're in the pit.
It's time for some evaluation and you ask yourself some
(08:15):
hard questions that we don't normally like to ask ourselves,
a question like this, what did I do to bring
about this pitiful situation?
Speaker 2 (08:26):
You're there in the pit and you say, well, what
did I do? Lord?
Speaker 3 (08:31):
What was my fault? What was my guilt in this?
How did I end up in this pit? Was it
something that I said? Was it something that I did?
Job knew a lot about pits. Job had some of
the worst pit experiences that anyone has ever gone through
in life.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
You read his story in the Book of Job.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
You find out that Job lost all his wealth, and
he lost all of his children, all at the same time,
and then Job lost all his health just boom, just
like that, and he was covered head to toe in
sore boils, and he was sitting in the ash heaps
scraping himself with a piece of pottery.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
And Job wanted to know, what have I done?
Speaker 3 (09:14):
He asked the question in Job six twenty four, Show
me how I have aired?
Speaker 2 (09:20):
He's in a terrible pit? What have I done?
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Lord?
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Show me?
Speaker 3 (09:25):
David said in PS Someone thirty nine, Search me, Oh, God,
and know my heart, try me and know my anxious thoughts,
and see if there be any hurtful way in me. God,
show me, is there something wrong within me? What did
I do to get in this pit? Now for Joseph,
what did he do to get in this pit? One
(09:45):
of the commentators I read, he said, well, he thought
Joseph was kind of a little cocky brat. And he said,
you know, Joseph is just a braggart. He's telling his
brothers how they're going to bow down to him, and
then he's he's wearing his coat everywhere he goes, just
to sh show his brothers that he's Daddy's favorite. And
so he said that Joseph had a pride problem, and
(10:06):
Joseph's pride brought him low, as the scripture says in
the Book of Proverbs, a man's pride will bring him low.
So he's down in a pit? Why because of pride?
And God is dealing with his pride. Well, I read that,
and I thought, you know, Joseph probably dealt with pride
like everybody deals with pride. But I don't think Joseph
was just this arrogant, cocky seventeen year old Joseph was
(10:28):
a man of God, and the Bible says, as for
the proud, his heart is not right with him. God
is opposed to the proude. He gives grace to the humble.
Joseph was walking with God, not perfectly, because nobody walks
with God perfectly. But Joseph loved God, and Joseph walked
with God. And I don't think Joseph had this giant ego.
I think Joseph is a humble guy. So here's Joseph
(10:50):
and he's in the pit, and he said, what did
I do to get.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
In this pit? Well, the answer is he didn't do
very much to get in this pit, you know.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
And sometimes when you pit, you ask yourself, did I
do something? Lord, show me where I have aired? And
the message comes back from God just says, it came
to job, you haven't done anything, just as it came
to Joseph. Joseph, you really haven't done anything. This is
outside of your control now. For you and for me,
we have some times where we hit a pit where
(11:19):
we hadn't done anything. Somebody did something to us and
that caused a pit experience to.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Take place in our lives.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Just like my customer who had his wife get hit
by that man that fell asleep in the wheel. That
happened to him. He hadn't really done anything. It just
came upon him. You know who did something? You know
who asked the question what did I do to get
in this pit?
Speaker 2 (11:41):
And he knew the answer.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
It was all on him, the prodigal son, because the
prodigal son is the one that left his father and says, father,
I can't wait around for you to die.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Give me the inheritance that belongs to me.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
And when he took the money, he spent it on wine,
women and song, and he ends up with nothing, and
he ends up. His pit was a pig sty, and
the Bible says that he was long and eat the
pig food. And he came to his senses, and he says,
do not my hired men, my father's hired men. They
don't eat pig food. They have enough to eat. I
know what I'll do. I will get up and go
to my father and say, father, I have sin and
(12:12):
done what is evil in your side? And I'm not
worthy to be called your son. When he asked the question,
why am I in this pit? It was all on
him wasn't on the dad, It wasn't on anyone else.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
It was on him. He was the one who walked
away from God.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
And so sometimes we asked the question what did I
do to bring this about?
Speaker 2 (12:30):
And the answer is, where you didn't really do much.
It's really not on you. And sometimes it's all on us.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
Sometimes it's because of our lust, because of our selfishness,
because of our pride, because of our greed, we find
ourselves in the pit.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
In that instance, when it's all on you.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
You do what the prodigal did, and you get up
and you go back to your father and you repent,
and you turn your life over to him and turn
it back to him. But the first question, what did
I do to bring about this pitiful situation?
Speaker 2 (12:55):
The second question, what.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Shall I do about this pitiful situation?
Speaker 2 (13:01):
So I asked the first question, why am I here?
What did I do? And then I asked the question, well,
what shall I do now?
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Job's wife told him Job, you need to curse God
and die. You're in a terrible, horrible pit and everything
life just stinks, and why don't you just curse God
and die? Well, that's one option, not a good option,
and not good to do, And you know what Job did.
Job asked the question eighteen times in the Book of Job.
(13:31):
He asked the question why, why God?
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Why God? Why God? Why God? Why God?
Speaker 3 (13:35):
That we do that all the time, that's normal natural.
Jesus upon the Cross cried out, my God, My God,
why hast thou forsaken me?
Speaker 2 (13:44):
So it's normal.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
It's natural to ask the Lord, why am I in
this terrible situation? Why am I facing this terrible, horrible test?
Why do I not see any way to get out
of this? But you know what, God doesn't normally answer why.
He doesn't answer that question. God is not in the
business of it, exling, He's in the business of sustaining.
Ninety nine point nine percent of the time when you
and I asked why, we just hear silence from the Lord.
(14:08):
He doesn't answer. Typically doesn't answer the question why. So
why is not that great a question? You know what's
a better question? A better question is how, Lord, how
do you want to use this in my life?
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Another good question.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
Is what, Lord, what do you want me to do
now a family life? One of the speakers told me
this years ago, and I've never forgotten it.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
I really, really, really like it.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
He said, you know, when you're talking to couples, he said,
many times you have an abusive situation, somebody that came
from an abusive situation. So many women now are coming
into marriage and they've been emotionally abused by a father
or a brother or a stepfather or something like that,
or maybe physically abused or maybe sexually abused, and they
(14:57):
come in and they have.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Lots of scars and lots of the issues.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
And he said this, he said, you know, with those people,
what happened to them is not their fault, but it
is their problem. And if you're here today and you say, well,
that's what happened to me, something outside of my control.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
I didn't bring it about.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Sometimes a person that has had those terrible things happen
to them, they can start feeling guilty, like, well, maybe
I caused this somehow. But listen, if you're a little
kid and somebody did something horrible to you, you didn't
cause that. It's not your fault, but it is your problem.
So what am I going to do now? Curse God
and die is not the right response. Playing the blame
(15:37):
game is not the right response. Playing the victim card
is not the right response. It's God. I'm going to
trust you, even though I don't understand what's going on.
Show me what to do next. So when you find
yourself in a deep dark pit, the very first look,
take a long look at yourself. Second imperative, make a
(16:00):
long look at the situation you now, as Joseph no
doubt looked at himself. Did I do something Lord to
cause my brothers to do this to me?
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Lord?
Speaker 3 (16:12):
As I look within, I don't really see that there's
a lot going on there, that there's a lot of
fault on Joseph's part that would cause him to be
in this terrible situation where his brothers are talking about
killing him. So then he looks at the situation and
we we back up and we say, okay, what can
I learn from this whole situation? And you know, Joseph's
(16:32):
problems they began way before Joseph was even born, because
Joseph was born into a disfunctional family. Here is Joseph's
family tree. Jacob had his wife Leah. She was the
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one that he got saddled with. She was the one
he got tricked into marrying because he loved Rachel, the
third one one over there.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
He loved her. He thought he was marrying her, but her.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Dad did a switcheroo and put Leah, her older sister,
into the bridal chamber into the honeymoon chamber there, and
when Jacob woke up, he was like, wait a minute,
I thought I was marrying Rachel. And here I got Leah.
Remember we said Leah was she looked a lot better
in the dark. And so Lea he gets her, and
he's like ah. And so he says to Daddy Laban.
(17:29):
Laban was Lea's daddy, and Rachel's daddy said, hey, you
swindled me.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
He said, I want to marry Rachel.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
And he said work for me for seven more years
and you can marry Rachel.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
And so he has.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
Leah and Leah has six sons, you see the sons there,
and Rachel can't have any kids. And so Rachel gives
her maid bill Ha to Jacob and says, have children
with her. And since she's my maid there kind of
let be like my kid. And so bil Ha has
(18:01):
two kids, Dan and Naptlai. And then Leah sees that
and Leah says, well, wait, you take my maid Zilpah,
and you have some children.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Buy Zilpa, and so Zilpa had.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Gad and Asher, and then God opens up Rachel's room
and Rachel has two boys, and she has Joseph in
a code of many colors to show him, and then
the youngest Benjamin.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
So it's a disfunctional family.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Listen, when you have four wives and four sets of
kids from these four different women and you're all kind
of living together, major dysfunction, major dysfunction. So family dysfunction
produces family disaster.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
You can mark that down.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Now, here's the thing that we see from this family
and multiple wives was never God's plan, but it was
very culturally accepted, and so things were very, very different
back in this time period that we're talking about. Obviously,
that doesn't work for today, although many people have that situation.
Want like, well, I was married to this one, we
(19:01):
had two kids, and then I divorced her and married
to this other one. We got two kids, and then
I'm over here and I'm over there. And some people
have never been married and they have four or five
six kids by four or five six different guys.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
What a mess? What a mess?
Speaker 3 (19:14):
Well that was kind of Jacob's situation. But here's the
thing that made his family dysfunctional. Not only that that's
a big one, but Jacob was a passive dad.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Listen, guys, all you dads.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
You cannot, you cannot, You cannot be passive in your family.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
It's not going to work.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
God has called dads to be the leader in the home.
He's called husbands to love their wives. And when a
husband loves his wife and they have kids, then he
is to lead in the family. And we have lots
of families where the wife leads the family.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
The wife wears the pants and the.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
Husband tends to you just kind of back off and say,
as one man told me, he said, well, you know,
I handle everything from the mailbox out into the world,
and she handles everything from the mailbox into the house.
She takes care of the homestead and all the things
that go on at home. And I just go out
and slay the dragons and make the money. And when
I come home after slaying the dragons and making the money,
(20:19):
I just come home and kind of pour myself a
cocktail and sit on the couch and don't do anything.
And he thought that was okay. That's not okay. It's
not okay. God has called a man to lead his family.
He's called father to lead his children if he's In
six verse four, it tells us this, and fathers, do
(20:42):
not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up
in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. That responsibility
is on a dad. Does the wife help? Of course,
what's the wife's job. She's the assistant coach. The husband
and the dad he's the head coach. Wife's the assistant coach.
And just like in football, the assistant coach helps the
(21:03):
head coach, but the responsibility falls on the dad, and
he's to make sure that his home is run correctly.
And listen, wives, let me just encourage you as your
husband leads. Let him lead, don't fight him for the
steering wheel. Back off of that and say, listen, yours
my job is to be assistant coach, not head coach.
God has given you the job of being head coach.
(21:25):
God has made you husband designated driver for this thing
called family, and so I'm going to let you lead.
You're creating a dysfunctional family. Ladies, if you wear the
pants and you control the home, it's not to be
that way.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Good words for both husbands and wives today on from
his heart and this lesson called how Did I Get
in This Pit? From Pastor Jeff Shreeve's series Dreams and
Detours Lestens from the Life of Joseph. Maybe, just like Joseph,
you have hit rock bottom. You're in a pit and
you don't know how to get out. So many people
(22:06):
live their lives that way. Maybe you're there right now.
Maybe you're at rock bottom. If you've listened to just
a minute or two of the day's message, you know
from Pastor Jeff that there is hope, and in his
timely series Dreams and Detours Lessons from the Life of Joseph,
he can help you navigate the stormy seas with real hope.
You can find out how to get this series when
(22:28):
you visit us online at from his Heart dot org
click the listen tab. You know, there's another kind of
pit that Christian's fall in two that is harmful to
the Kingdom of God. It's called the apathy pit. Many
Christians believe it is always someone else's job, responsibility, or
joy to tell another lost person about the love of
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God found in Christ. Many people shrink from this responsibility
given to us by Jesus in scripture to go and
tell well this month, we aired a new series from
Pastor Jeff that'll help you learn why and how to
become a bold testifier to the love of God to others.
The new series is called Bold as a Lion, and
it's our gift of thanks to you for your support
(23:11):
of any amount from His Heart this month. You can
request it on a USB flash drive, digital download, CDs,
or DVDs your choice. Call eight six six four zero
Bible eight six six four zero Bible or go online
to from his Heart dot org when you make that
gift this month, and we'll send it right out to
(23:31):
you with enormous thanks for helping us continue to boldly
proclaim the Lord until he returns again. Call eight six
six four zero Bible or go to from his Heart
dot org. God bless you for joining with us in
this effort. Well, thank you for being here today on
from His Heart. I'm Larry Nobles inviting you to be
here tomorrow for part two of How Did I Get
(23:53):
in This Pit? That's on Wednesday, when Pastor Jeff Shreeve
will open up God's word and share real time truth,
real love, and real hope from God's Heart. Here on
from his Heart Twas from his Heart is the listener
(24:39):
supported broadcast ministry of doctor Jeff Shreeve, speaking the truth
and love to a lost and a hurting world. Remember,
no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful
plan for your life. Find out more at from his
Heart dot org.
Maybe for you times have been tough, really really tough.
Here's Pastor Jeff Shreve.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Some tests are harder than others.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Tests are part of life, and some tests are long,
and some tests are hard, and some tests are really
more like pits, deep dark pits. Hey, what do you
do when the bottom drops out and you find yourself
in a deep dark pit? Risco with real truth, real.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
From this whome.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Welcome to from his Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve, where
today he continues his practical and timeless study of the
life of Joseph in the series entitled Dreams and Detours. Well, obviously,
every person on this planet has, at one time or another,
had dreams that were shattered. Detours had to be taken,
(01:05):
and life's highway was unexpected and unpredictable. The big question
is how do we get out of the pit. And
that's the name of today's lesson from Pastor Jeff's series
Dreams and Detours. It could be a financial pit, a
health pit, a psychological pit, or a spiritual pit. Today,
Pastor Jeff will share how to handle the detours that
(01:28):
keep us from the dreams that God has planned for
our lives. Joseph surely found himself in a literal pit,
and not even because of his own actions, but through
God's grace. His life is an example for us to
take a long, hard look at ourselves, our circumstances, but
most importantly, at the Lord. Now we'll hear part one
(01:49):
of this lesson today, part two tomorrow. If you have
a friend who needs this inspiring encouragement, go to Fromhishart
dot org and click the listen link. You can download
pre MP three of the broadcast and pass it on
to them. Let's get started digging out of the pit.
Open your Bible to Genesis chapter thirty seven, as Pastor
Jeff helps us to learn how we got in this
(02:11):
pit and how to get out of it.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Everyone in life will experience some pit situations. We're in
a study on the life of Joseph, and one of
the things we find out very quickly in the life
of Joseph, is that Joseph had his fair share, maybe
more than his fair share, of pit experiences. Hey, pitt
(02:35):
experiences hit everybody, and they can come as they came
in Joseph's life, just like that, when you least expect it,
the bottom can drop out, something can happen even driving
home from church today and a major accident can occur.
I had a customer of mine years ago when I
worked in the chemical business, and his wife was driving
(02:58):
on a road in Huntsville, just her own business, going
to a craft fair or something like that, and a
man fell asleep at the wheel and hit her and
hurt her, damage her body to the point that she
was never the same. That guy died in that accident,
and my friend, my customer, said, you know, my life
(03:19):
has changed so much because of that day. And he said,
sometimes I get so angry. I want to go to
the cemetery, dig up that man's dead body and beat
him for what he did to my wife. Hey, things
happen like that, and all of a sudden, you're in
this deep dark pit. All of a sudden, you get
go to the doctor on a regular visit and they
come back and they say you have cancer. All of
(03:41):
a sudden, your spouse comes home and says, I don't
want to be married to you anymore.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
I found somebody else, and boom, you're in a pit.
All of a sudden. As a student, as a kid.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Growing up in a family, all of a sudden, the
family disintegrates. Man life is hard at times, and pit
hit everybody. Joseph had a pit experience. We're going to
read about it today. We're in a series on the
life of Joseph called Dreams and Detours. You remember, Joseph
(04:12):
was the one that God gave him a dream that
his brothers were going to bow down to him. Joseph
is the eleventh son of his father Jacob. Jacob, whose
name was changed by God to Israel, had twelve sons,
the twelve tribes of Jacob, the twelve tribes of Israel,
and Joseph is the favorite son. Joseph is the son,
(04:34):
as the Bible says, the son of his old age.
Joseph is the first son of the wife that he
loved the most, Rachel. Jacob put all his focus on
this one son, Joseph. And the brothers didn't like that,
and they didn't like Joseph, and they let it be known.
In Genesis chapter thirty seven, I'll begin reading in verse
(04:56):
twelve says, then his brothers went to pasture the their
father's flock in Shechem, and Israel said to Joseph, Israel
and Jacob are the same person, said to Joseph, are
not your brothers pastoring the flock and Shechem, come and
I will send you to them. And he said, I
will go. Then he said to him, go now and
see about the welfare of your brothers and the welfare
of the flock, and bring word back to me. So
(05:17):
he sent him from the valley of Hebron, and he
came to Shechem. That was fifty miles, so that was
a long trip. It would have taken him probably three
days or so to do that. And a man found him,
and behold, he was wandering in the field. And the
man asked him, what are you looking for? And he said,
I'm looking for my brothers. Please tell me where they
are pastoring the flock. Then the man said, they have
moved from here, for I heard them say, let us
(05:37):
go to Dothan. So Joseph went after his brothers and
found them at Dothan. Dothan was another fifteen miles, so
he had traveled sixty five miles to go check on
his brothers verse eighteen. When they saw him, his brother
saw him from a distance, they could tell it was
Joseph because Joseph had a long coat of many colors
that Daddy gave him. Didn't give any of the other
(05:58):
brothers anything, but gave one to j Joseph because he
loved Joseph so much. So they saw him from a distance,
and before he came close to him, they plodded against
him to put him to death. And they said to
one another, here comes this dreamer. Now, then come let
us kill him and throw him into one of the pits,
and we will say a wild beast aboured him. Then
(06:19):
let us see what will become of his dreams. But Ruben,
Ruben is the oldest son, he's the firstborn son. But
Ruben heard this and rescued him out of their hands
and said, let us not take his life.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Ruben further said to them.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Shed no blood, throw him into this pit that is
in the wilderness, but do not lay hands on him,
that he might rescue him out of their hands and
restore him to his father. So it came about when
Joseph reached his brothers that they stripped Joseph of his tunic.
He the very colored tunic that was on him, and
they took him and threw him into the pit. Now
(06:53):
the pit was empty, without any water in it. Then
they sat down to eat a meal. Joseph had come
a long way to check on his brothers. And when
he meets his brothers, they abuse him. They strip him
of that robe that was a symbol of his dad's favoritism,
and they throw him in a pit. Hey, what do
(07:15):
you do when the bottom drops out? You don't expect
it to happen, but it does, and you find yourself
in a deep, dark pit.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
What are we to do?
Speaker 3 (07:27):
There are three imperatives that I want you to see
in this passage.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Imperative number one. Imperative means you must do it.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Imperative number one take a long, hard look at yourself,
a long, hard, sober look in the mirror. Maybe you're
here today and you are in a pit. You say, Jeff,
you know I'm going through a terrible test. It's a
severe test, and I feel like I'm in a pit.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
What am I supposed to do? Well, look in the mirror,
look at yourself.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
As the book Jim Collins book Good to Great says,
every great company, the CEO and the board of directors
they have to ask, they have to face the brutal facts.
They have to look in the mirror and say, what
are we really? What's our company really? And every person
has to do that, especially when you're in the pit.
It's time for some evaluation and you ask yourself some
(08:15):
hard questions that we don't normally like to ask ourselves,
a question like this, what did I do to bring
about this pitiful situation?
Speaker 2 (08:26):
You're there in the pit and you say, well, what
did I do? Lord?
Speaker 3 (08:31):
What was my fault? What was my guilt in this?
How did I end up in this pit? Was it
something that I said? Was it something that I did?
Job knew a lot about pits. Job had some of
the worst pit experiences that anyone has ever gone through
in life.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
You read his story in the Book of Job.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
You find out that Job lost all his wealth, and
he lost all of his children, all at the same time,
and then Job lost all his health just boom, just
like that, and he was covered head to toe in
sore boils, and he was sitting in the ash heaps
scraping himself with a piece of pottery.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
And Job wanted to know, what have I done?
Speaker 3 (09:14):
He asked the question in Job six twenty four, Show
me how I have aired?
Speaker 2 (09:20):
He's in a terrible pit? What have I done?
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Lord?
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Show me?
Speaker 3 (09:25):
David said in PS Someone thirty nine, Search me, Oh, God,
and know my heart, try me and know my anxious thoughts,
and see if there be any hurtful way in me. God,
show me, is there something wrong within me? What did
I do to get in this pit? Now for Joseph,
what did he do to get in this pit? One
(09:45):
of the commentators I read, he said, well, he thought
Joseph was kind of a little cocky brat. And he said,
you know, Joseph is just a braggart. He's telling his
brothers how they're going to bow down to him, and
then he's he's wearing his coat everywhere he goes, just
to sh show his brothers that he's Daddy's favorite. And
so he said that Joseph had a pride problem, and
(10:06):
Joseph's pride brought him low, as the scripture says in
the Book of Proverbs, a man's pride will bring him low.
So he's down in a pit? Why because of pride?
And God is dealing with his pride. Well, I read that,
and I thought, you know, Joseph probably dealt with pride
like everybody deals with pride. But I don't think Joseph
was just this arrogant, cocky seventeen year old Joseph was
(10:28):
a man of God, and the Bible says, as for
the proud, his heart is not right with him. God
is opposed to the proude. He gives grace to the humble.
Joseph was walking with God, not perfectly, because nobody walks
with God perfectly. But Joseph loved God, and Joseph walked
with God. And I don't think Joseph had this giant ego.
I think Joseph is a humble guy. So here's Joseph
(10:50):
and he's in the pit, and he said, what did
I do to get.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
In this pit? Well, the answer is he didn't do
very much to get in this pit, you know.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
And sometimes when you pit, you ask yourself, did I
do something? Lord, show me where I have aired? And
the message comes back from God just says, it came
to job, you haven't done anything, just as it came
to Joseph. Joseph, you really haven't done anything. This is
outside of your control now. For you and for me,
we have some times where we hit a pit where
(11:19):
we hadn't done anything. Somebody did something to us and
that caused a pit experience to.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Take place in our lives.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Just like my customer who had his wife get hit
by that man that fell asleep in the wheel. That
happened to him. He hadn't really done anything. It just
came upon him. You know who did something? You know
who asked the question what did I do to get
in this pit?
Speaker 2 (11:41):
And he knew the answer.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
It was all on him, the prodigal son, because the
prodigal son is the one that left his father and says, father,
I can't wait around for you to die.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Give me the inheritance that belongs to me.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
And when he took the money, he spent it on wine,
women and song, and he ends up with nothing, and
he ends up. His pit was a pig sty, and
the Bible says that he was long and eat the
pig food. And he came to his senses, and he says,
do not my hired men, my father's hired men. They
don't eat pig food. They have enough to eat. I
know what I'll do. I will get up and go
to my father and say, father, I have sin and
(12:12):
done what is evil in your side? And I'm not
worthy to be called your son. When he asked the question,
why am I in this pit? It was all on
him wasn't on the dad, It wasn't on anyone else.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
It was on him. He was the one who walked
away from God.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
And so sometimes we asked the question what did I
do to bring this about?
Speaker 2 (12:30):
And the answer is, where you didn't really do much.
It's really not on you. And sometimes it's all on us.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
Sometimes it's because of our lust, because of our selfishness,
because of our pride, because of our greed, we find
ourselves in the pit.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
In that instance, when it's all on you.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
You do what the prodigal did, and you get up
and you go back to your father and you repent,
and you turn your life over to him and turn
it back to him. But the first question, what did
I do to bring about this pitiful situation?
Speaker 2 (12:55):
The second question, what.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Shall I do about this pitiful situation?
Speaker 2 (13:01):
So I asked the first question, why am I here?
What did I do? And then I asked the question, well,
what shall I do now?
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Job's wife told him Job, you need to curse God
and die. You're in a terrible, horrible pit and everything
life just stinks, and why don't you just curse God
and die? Well, that's one option, not a good option,
and not good to do, And you know what Job did.
Job asked the question eighteen times in the Book of Job.
(13:31):
He asked the question why, why God?
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Why God? Why God? Why God? Why God?
Speaker 3 (13:35):
That we do that all the time, that's normal natural.
Jesus upon the Cross cried out, my God, My God,
why hast thou forsaken me?
Speaker 2 (13:44):
So it's normal.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
It's natural to ask the Lord, why am I in
this terrible situation? Why am I facing this terrible, horrible test?
Why do I not see any way to get out
of this? But you know what, God doesn't normally answer why.
He doesn't answer that question. God is not in the
business of it, exling, He's in the business of sustaining.
Ninety nine point nine percent of the time when you
and I asked why, we just hear silence from the Lord.
(14:08):
He doesn't answer. Typically doesn't answer the question why. So
why is not that great a question? You know what's
a better question? A better question is how, Lord, how
do you want to use this in my life?
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Another good question.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
Is what, Lord, what do you want me to do
now a family life? One of the speakers told me
this years ago, and I've never forgotten it.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
I really, really, really like it.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
He said, you know, when you're talking to couples, he said,
many times you have an abusive situation, somebody that came
from an abusive situation. So many women now are coming
into marriage and they've been emotionally abused by a father
or a brother or a stepfather or something like that,
or maybe physically abused or maybe sexually abused, and they
(14:57):
come in and they have.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Lots of scars and lots of the issues.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
And he said this, he said, you know, with those people,
what happened to them is not their fault, but it
is their problem. And if you're here today and you say, well,
that's what happened to me, something outside of my control.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
I didn't bring it about.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Sometimes a person that has had those terrible things happen
to them, they can start feeling guilty, like, well, maybe
I caused this somehow. But listen, if you're a little
kid and somebody did something horrible to you, you didn't
cause that. It's not your fault, but it is your problem.
So what am I going to do now? Curse God
and die is not the right response. Playing the blame
(15:37):
game is not the right response. Playing the victim card
is not the right response. It's God. I'm going to
trust you, even though I don't understand what's going on.
Show me what to do next. So when you find
yourself in a deep dark pit, the very first look,
take a long look at yourself. Second imperative, make a
(16:00):
long look at the situation you now, as Joseph no
doubt looked at himself. Did I do something Lord to
cause my brothers to do this to me?
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Lord?
Speaker 3 (16:12):
As I look within, I don't really see that there's
a lot going on there, that there's a lot of
fault on Joseph's part that would cause him to be
in this terrible situation where his brothers are talking about
killing him. So then he looks at the situation and
we we back up and we say, okay, what can
I learn from this whole situation? And you know, Joseph's
(16:32):
problems they began way before Joseph was even born, because
Joseph was born into a disfunctional family. Here is Joseph's
family tree. Jacob had his wife Leah. She was the
(16:52):
one that he got saddled with. She was the one
he got tricked into marrying because he loved Rachel, the
third one one over there.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
He loved her. He thought he was marrying her, but her.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Dad did a switcheroo and put Leah, her older sister,
into the bridal chamber into the honeymoon chamber there, and
when Jacob woke up, he was like, wait a minute,
I thought I was marrying Rachel. And here I got Leah.
Remember we said Leah was she looked a lot better
in the dark. And so Lea he gets her, and
he's like ah. And so he says to Daddy Laban.
(17:29):
Laban was Lea's daddy, and Rachel's daddy said, hey, you
swindled me.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
He said, I want to marry Rachel.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
And he said work for me for seven more years
and you can marry Rachel.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
And so he has.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
Leah and Leah has six sons, you see the sons there,
and Rachel can't have any kids. And so Rachel gives
her maid bill Ha to Jacob and says, have children
with her. And since she's my maid there kind of
let be like my kid. And so bil Ha has
(18:01):
two kids, Dan and Naptlai. And then Leah sees that
and Leah says, well, wait, you take my maid Zilpah,
and you have some children.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Buy Zilpa, and so Zilpa had.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Gad and Asher, and then God opens up Rachel's room
and Rachel has two boys, and she has Joseph in
a code of many colors to show him, and then
the youngest Benjamin.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
So it's a disfunctional family.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Listen, when you have four wives and four sets of
kids from these four different women and you're all kind
of living together, major dysfunction, major dysfunction. So family dysfunction
produces family disaster.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
You can mark that down.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Now, here's the thing that we see from this family
and multiple wives was never God's plan, but it was
very culturally accepted, and so things were very, very different
back in this time period that we're talking about. Obviously,
that doesn't work for today, although many people have that situation.
Want like, well, I was married to this one, we
(19:01):
had two kids, and then I divorced her and married
to this other one. We got two kids, and then
I'm over here and I'm over there. And some people
have never been married and they have four or five
six kids by four or five six different guys.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
What a mess? What a mess?
Speaker 3 (19:14):
Well that was kind of Jacob's situation. But here's the
thing that made his family dysfunctional. Not only that that's
a big one, but Jacob was a passive dad.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Listen, guys, all you dads.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
You cannot, you cannot, You cannot be passive in your family.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
It's not going to work.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
God has called dads to be the leader in the home.
He's called husbands to love their wives. And when a
husband loves his wife and they have kids, then he
is to lead in the family. And we have lots
of families where the wife leads the family.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
The wife wears the pants and the.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
Husband tends to you just kind of back off and say,
as one man told me, he said, well, you know,
I handle everything from the mailbox out into the world,
and she handles everything from the mailbox into the house.
She takes care of the homestead and all the things
that go on at home. And I just go out
and slay the dragons and make the money. And when
I come home after slaying the dragons and making the money,
(20:19):
I just come home and kind of pour myself a
cocktail and sit on the couch and don't do anything.
And he thought that was okay. That's not okay. It's
not okay. God has called a man to lead his family.
He's called father to lead his children if he's In
six verse four, it tells us this, and fathers, do
(20:42):
not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up
in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. That responsibility
is on a dad. Does the wife help? Of course,
what's the wife's job. She's the assistant coach. The husband
and the dad he's the head coach. Wife's the assistant coach.
And just like in football, the assistant coach helps the
(21:03):
head coach, but the responsibility falls on the dad, and
he's to make sure that his home is run correctly.
And listen, wives, let me just encourage you as your
husband leads. Let him lead, don't fight him for the
steering wheel. Back off of that and say, listen, yours
my job is to be assistant coach, not head coach.
God has given you the job of being head coach.
(21:25):
God has made you husband designated driver for this thing
called family, and so I'm going to let you lead.
You're creating a dysfunctional family. Ladies, if you wear the
pants and you control the home, it's not to be
that way.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Good words for both husbands and wives today on from
his heart and this lesson called how Did I Get
in This Pit? From Pastor Jeff Shreeve's series Dreams and
Detours Lestens from the Life of Joseph. Maybe, just like Joseph,
you have hit rock bottom. You're in a pit and
you don't know how to get out. So many people
(22:06):
live their lives that way. Maybe you're there right now.
Maybe you're at rock bottom. If you've listened to just
a minute or two of the day's message, you know
from Pastor Jeff that there is hope, and in his
timely series Dreams and Detours Lessons from the Life of Joseph,
he can help you navigate the stormy seas with real hope.
You can find out how to get this series when
(22:28):
you visit us online at from his Heart dot org
click the listen tab. You know, there's another kind of
pit that Christian's fall in two that is harmful to
the Kingdom of God. It's called the apathy pit. Many
Christians believe it is always someone else's job, responsibility, or
joy to tell another lost person about the love of
(22:49):
God found in Christ. Many people shrink from this responsibility
given to us by Jesus in scripture to go and
tell well this month, we aired a new series from
Pastor Jeff that'll help you learn why and how to
become a bold testifier to the love of God to others.
The new series is called Bold as a Lion, and
it's our gift of thanks to you for your support
(23:11):
of any amount from His Heart this month. You can
request it on a USB flash drive, digital download, CDs,
or DVDs your choice. Call eight six six four zero
Bible eight six six four zero Bible or go online
to from his Heart dot org when you make that
gift this month, and we'll send it right out to
(23:31):
you with enormous thanks for helping us continue to boldly
proclaim the Lord until he returns again. Call eight six
six four zero Bible or go to from his Heart
dot org. God bless you for joining with us in
this effort. Well, thank you for being here today on
from His Heart. I'm Larry Nobles inviting you to be
here tomorrow for part two of How Did I Get
(23:53):
in This Pit? That's on Wednesday, when Pastor Jeff Shreeve
will open up God's word and share real time truth,
real love, and real hope from God's Heart. Here on
from his Heart Twas from his Heart is the listener
(24:39):
supported broadcast ministry of doctor Jeff Shreeve, speaking the truth
and love to a lost and a hurting world. Remember,
no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful
plan for your life. Find out more at from his
Heart dot org.
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