Faithfulness, Integrity & Endurance: Joseph’s Blueprint for God’s Calling

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Pastor Brent McQuay (00:00):
Foreign. Welcome to another episode of Between
Sermons. I'm your host, Brent McQuay. I
get to be the lead pastor here
at Disciples Church. And this show is
all about taking that Sunday sermon and

(00:20):
turning the monologue into a dialogue. So
we're gonna. Today we're gonna dive in.
We're gonna have a great conversation digging
into the life of Josh Joseph. So
we kicked off a new series, but
before we get into all that. Taisha,
how you doing today?

Ti'heasha Beasley (00:33):
I'm good.

We're just having a great conversation about
what a co host is.

Co host? Yes. Can you inform the
people that you're the host and I'm
the co host?

That. So I don't know where you
get this as co. Like, co is
equality. There's an equality here, Taisha. Co
host means. So in my world, co
host means you do all the work
and I get to just sit there.

Marcus Ivy (01:00):
Thinking, that's.

The definition of a co host.

I'm definitely gonna have the definition.

Marcus Ivy (01:03):
All assistants do all the work anyway.

I know, right?

That's true.

That's. That's very true. So, yeah, anyway,
they just make their bosses look good,
Right?

Marcus Ivy (01:10):
Right.

Well, I don't mind any of those
things, but we have today with us,
I'm gonna say Pastor Marcus Ivey, because
that's all I heard on Sunday. What
do you think about that?

Marcus Ivy (01:23):
I mean, it is what it is.

Okay, well, Marcus Ivey.

Marcus Ivy (01:26):
Yeah.

Marcus Ivy, what is your authority, official
title here at Disciples Church?

Marcus Ivy (01:30):
I'm the discipleship coordinator.

Awesome.

Marcus Ivy (01:32):
Yes.

Probably a pretty important role at Disciples
Disciples Church. I know it might be
a little vital in there.

Right, Right.

I was talking to somebody and I
was like, yeah, when you name your
church Disciples Church, you better have a
really good plan for making disciples.

I know that I. I actually have
a story, but I'm not going to
share it. But anyway, no, it was
just.

Who teases a story like that?

No, because I don't know, I'm always
like, is this appropriate? It was just
fun, funny. Like a church was thinking
about changing their name to something similar.

Oh, really?

And they didn't. And it's just because
of, like, the. The.

They weren't ready for it.

They weren't ready. And so it's such
a heavy mantle to just Disciples Church.
But I'm glad gives us focus here,
making disciples.

Marcus Ivy (02:17):
I was talking to, actually, one of
my co workers. Not co workers. My
old co workers. On. On the way
here.

I thought you were retired. What happened?

Marcus Ivy (02:25):
You went back, you're back in prison.
And so he so he just.

Clarity.

Marcus Ivy (02:32):
Marcus worked at the prison. I worked
at the prison. I was not in
prison, but we were talking about D.C.
and he actually checked us out a
little. He lives closer to another church,
so he went out there, but he
was like, man Disciples Church. Like, they.
That's amazing. He was like. Like people.
He's like. It's so defined. He was

(02:52):
like, you go to all these different
long name places and stuff, and it's.
It's hard, you know, the identity of
that church is hard. He was like,
man. He said, that's the most straightforward
thing I ever heard in the name
of a church. I'm like, yeah, well,
we got one.

Thing we're trying to do.

Yeah, it's Pastor Brett, right?

Come on. We got to keep it
simple.

He's so simple, so straightforward.

Simple.

But he's very straightforward.

I am very simple. You don't make
it complex on me. I. I'm so
simple.

Simple minded podcast. You are not. You're
like, is it women are like spaghetti
and men are like. Or am I
getting that wrong?

I've never heard that before.

Marcus Ivy (03:25):
Anyway, please continue that Venus and Mars.

That's all I heard that pretty.

Marcus Ivy (03:29):
Not no spaghetti.

Women are spaghetti and men are lasagna.
Is that what. What.

Somebody let me know in the comments
if you heard something similar to that.

I'm more of a fan of fetuccini.

Myself, but it's just like. Anyway, we're
gonna keep going. It's like the complexity
of things.

Marcus Ivy (03:46):
Okay.

I feel bad for people that are
only listening to this podcast and not
seeing it because they're missing all of
the hand motions of what a spaghetti
is a spaghetti.

Anyhow, we had. Right. We started a
new sermon series here called that was
tripping people up.

Marcus Ivy (04:04):
Titled Call.

Titled Call. Look at you. I like
the grammar. Titled.

Marcus Ivy (04:09):
Titled Call.

We're gonna add that to the announcements.
Titled Call.

Gonna stick with. It's called Called.

Marcus Ivy (04:14):
Cause I was saying called.

We're doing a whole series called.

Marcus Ivy (04:18):
No, no. So in my introduction, I
was. I was like, yeah, it was
starting this called. Called. I was like,
that don't sound right.

It's tripping you up. So we started
a new sermon series, and you had
an opportunity to open it up. First
of all, how was that pressure to
kick off a whole new series?

Marcus Ivy (04:34):
A whole new series at dc, right?
I was, yeah. Very, very humbling. Honestly,
I'm like, oh, okay. To start a
series, right? So I got this. Come
with the.

You gotta come.

Marcus Ivy (04:48):
I gotta come with definitions and all
types of stuff.

And you Did.

Marcus Ivy (04:51):
But it was. Yeah, it was cool.
It was cool.

It was good. It was a good
sermon series. So you kicked it off
with Joseph.

Marcus Ivy (04:57):
Yeah.

So tell us a little bit about.
Okay. Tell us a little bit about
this. Wow.

Such a subtle day. Whoa. Such a
subtle day.

Marcus Ivy (05:12):
Do you know, that's been haunting me
since I got off the stage? Like,
man, it was good. It was good.

And long history was good. It was
on point. But I promise you, if
you was not. If you was in
the building, you.

Marcus Ivy (05:25):
Don'T know about Joseph, you know, and
that wasn't. Man, I left out so
much.

Yeah.

Marcus Ivy (05:31):
And. Yeah, I think. Yeah, it was
hard to get all of that in.

Sorry. I'm going to do the same
thing with David.

Marcus Ivy (05:36):
Oh, man.

And then the week after, and the
week after, like, the next 85 years,
we're just going to talk through David.

Marcus Ivy (05:43):
Right.

And. Well, at least we'll know. Like,
you can't walk away and be like,
I don't know about the story of
David or Joseph or the other people
we're going to highlight in this series.
So tell us a little bit, summarize
a little bit about what you taught
on. On Sunday before we dive in,
man.

Marcus Ivy (06:01):
Joseph, like I said, is probably one
of my most favorite people in the
Bible. Him and David. I can't wait
till next week. Like, David's my guy,
but just to see, like, this young.
This young dude, you know, have this
conversation with, you know, God and he's
giving. He's revealing stuff to him, like,
where they do that at. I wish
I had that relationship with God at

(06:23):
a. At that age. You know what
I'm saying? How much more would I
be? But everybody got to go through
their thing. But anyway, just looking at
his story and how he navigated those
things, like, he was a brave little
dude, you know what I'm saying? Like,
said to be 17, and we laugh
about it, but, like, to really. To
have this meeting in your house and
say, y' all gonna be bowing down
to me. It's hilarious. Yeah. And it's.

(06:45):
Yeah. Very intense. So, anyway, so all
of this stuff happens. Get to hear
that, the dreams, like, he's an awesome
man of God, just kind of going
through his life and the challenges he
came up with. And honestly, you know,
he didn't even do anything wrong. You
know, we get a lot of, you
know, that why me? Things. But, like,

(07:07):
Joseph didn't do anything. Like, he got
thrown into the fire in the pit.
They was trying to kill him. Potter's
wife and all that stuff. So Just
to watch him navigate those, those things
in his life, it really gives me
hope. Like, man, like, that's like, I
can do that, you know what I'm
saying? And you know, thank God that,
you know, I have a relationship with
them so that I can rely on

(07:29):
that. But you know, I've done some
stuff. Joseph didn't do anything.

So yesterday in our small group, we
talked about the message and one of
the things that was brought up was,
is it his fault he was thrown
into the pit because he was kind
of bragging like, y' all gonna bow
down? So do you think he was
bragging? Was that like pride or was
he just like Shar out of excitement?
Like, you guys are going to bow
down to me one day. Like, how

(07:55):
does this unpack? I don't, I don't
know. I know scripture don't really talk
about his heart position.

Yeah, I, I'll jump in. I would
say, like, I don't know that we
can accuse him of pride.

Okay.

But that was, accuse him of foolishness.

Okay.

Because was it wise for him to
share that? No. Did God tell him
in the dream, you need to go
tell your brothers about this?

No.

So like Joseph, that to me that's
like the most 17 year old thing
to do.

Marcus Ivy (08:24):
Typical.

Like you're so excited because God gave
you a word, you're just going to
tell everybody and it's like, yeah, maybe
that wasn't for everybody in the moment.

Marcus Ivy (08:32):
Yeah.

And so like it's a fun, I
don't know, thought experiment conversation though, because
some people be like, well, if he
didn't tell him, then he wouldn't have
been in the pit and he wouldn't
have been sold and he wouldn't have
been Potter's house. He wouldn't have been
in the prison. So he wouldn't have
been with the Pharaoh.

Marcus Ivy (08:45):
Right.

And it's like all those things work.
It's like, okay, yeah. But God worked
all things together for good. Which means
God could have done even greater if
Joseph just kept his mouth shut from
17 to 25.

But here we go. Cuz we always
have this thing about God's sovereignty and
how it was his sovereignty that he
was foolish.

Yeah. Could, could God have done all
the things that God accomplished without Joseph
ever going to prison?

Absolutely.

And I would say yes, yes, God
could have.

I agree.

So, okay, should Joseph have kept his
mouth shut? Probably.

Marcus Ivy (09:24):
Like many of us should probably keep
our mouth shut.

Sometimes you share, sometimes you don't.

Yeah, that was good. But I think
it works out because in this story,
it talks about how God used all
of those things for the good of
the story. So even, like, you know,
how his brothers betrayed him. Like, not
even betray him. Like. Like, threw him.
Sold him into slavery, threw him in
a pit. How the Potiphar's wife and

(09:55):
I can. Y' all nerd out there.
It. Does she really not have a
name in scripture, or is there a
name and we just.

Marcus Ivy (10:03):
Wife.

I mean, she. She had a name
in real life.

In real life, but it never said
it in. Yeah, the Bible just doesn't
tell us anywhere.

Because the Bible does that to a
lot of people.

Okay.

Like, there's a bunch of people, like,
are just referred to as, like, the
servant of.

Marcus Ivy (10:15):
Right.

Yeah.

This other person. And it's like, well,
they played a pretty vital role, but
we don't even get their name. It's
not important because the. The story of
the Bible is not about people. It's
about God.

Yeah, it's not about people. It's about
God.

Marcus Ivy (10:27):
Could you imagine being referenced in the
Bible? What do they think? And not
be named.

What. What would they say? What would
they say if they referenced you?

Look, I think the servant is like,
oh, my goodness, I'm in the Bible.
Like, this is amazing.

Yeah, that's true. So. So thinking about
the story, let's. Let's make it more
relatable. So to you, do you have
a similar journey as. First of all,
do you know what your calling is?
Let's start there.

Marcus Ivy (10:51):
I'm called to teach. To. Yeah, to
teach, to empower, to pour into people.

How did you come to that, man?

Marcus Ivy (11:00):
So I had this lady in my
life. She was a teacher. She was
my pastor's mother, and we called her
Sister teacher. Yeah, Sister teacher. You're talking
about one of the coldest.

Good. It's called. Called she.

Marcus Ivy (11:17):
She. So she was so cold, she
has a library in her. In her
house.

Wow.

Marcus Ivy (11:22):
And she would go get these books.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer and all these dudes. What
is all this stuff? So she.

You gotta read Dietrich.

Marcus Ivy (11:31):
Oh, man. Yeah, she's the mom.

You know, y' all older than me,
so.

Marcus Ivy (11:37):
But anyway, yeah, so I think I've
always kind of been in the leadership
from Little League, captains of football, tracking
all that stuff. But, you know, getting
into a ministry once I got saved,
I was at that position. Like, what
am I here for? I think I
may have mentioned before, like, it was
one day. It was a watershed moment.
Like, I was saved, and I just

(11:58):
threw myself across the bed. Like, what
am I supposed to be Doing. And
then that's kind of, you know, start
going to some of her classes and
just, you know, her just calling on
you. Well, not even calling you, making
you do stuff. Like she made my
wife teach Sunday school one day. And
so just coming up from her and
her pouring in and just kind of
bringing those things out that were already
in me. So I love teaching. Just

(12:19):
gotta learn how to shorten it up
a little bit.

But yeah, no, I said, yeah, no.

No, that was my favorite thing. Like
walking out of the sanctuary, Marcus grabs
me, he's like, do I need to
shorten up that intro? And I was
like, yeah, I didn't even sugarcoat or
nothing. I was just like, yeah, I'm
on.

Marcus Ivy (12:38):
A forever, like delete. But. But also.
So. So yeah, so a sidebar. So
I know you said like 3,500 words.
It's like 35 minute sermon. I think
I got to just stick with like
1500 because I do a lot of
ad libbing and it's like you don't
account for that. But anywho.

Yep.

No, I think that's good. The reason
I asked that question is because I
run into a lot of individuals who
are part of church in general and
they really do not know what their
calling is. Like, we talk about purpose
and I don't know if those two
are kind of like the same in
one, but it's like, I don't know
what I'm called to. Like, I didn't

(13:17):
get a dream from Jesus saying that
people will bow down to me. Or
I didn't have someone speaking to my
life or prophesying to my life and
say, this is what I believe God
is calling you to do. So I
first, let's start there. Like, how can
we encourage people who didn't have that
moment to really take inspiration from the
sermon? Because if you don't even feel

(13:38):
called, the whole story doesn't even resonate
with you. You know what I mean?

Marcus Ivy (13:43):
So my calling didn't come from that.
Like, it wasn't. I didn't look up
in the sky and saw called to
teach in the sky. It was developed.
Okay, so. And a lot of times
that's where your calling comes from. Things
you already been doing. And it's just
developed over time. And eventually if you
look back, you're like, oh, that's why
I was doing that. Or that's why

(14:03):
I was there. And I think that's
why I let a lot of people
take this call being called weird. I
remember hearing stories back in the day
when you were called the first thing
they say, oh, he a preacher?

Yes.

Marcus Ivy (14:14):
Like, I'm not just called to do
that. And so I had a story,
one of my pastors, like, yeah, the
guy said he was called. So, like,
they would put you up next Sunday
to literally preach.

Wow.

Marcus Ivy (14:24):
And he said he had experiences like
that. You're called. And so many people
I think I may mention, like, it's
undefined, it's unnurtured. So you get this
calling, and it's like you're getting thrown
in the fire, but you don't even
know what it is you're called to
do in many cases. So it's not
as clear, I don't think undefined in
everyone. But I think once you get

(14:45):
it, I think one of the most
important things to do is make sure
that you nurture, that you get with
people who has that same calling to
kind of flush some things out and
just make it better.

Yeah, I think something that could probably
help people is that everybody has the
same calling. It's the how that kind
of varies from person to person. So.
So everybody is called to. The way
I define is three things. Everybody is
called to glorify God, to follow Jesus,
and to love one another.

Like.

Like scripturally based. Like, that is our
calling. Like we are to glorify God.
That's how you live your life. That's
worship. That's prayer. That's dedication to Him.
It's just how you live. You're called
to follow J. Follow his teachings, do
what he tells you to do. One
of those teachings just happens to be
love one another. But that shows up
so much in scripture that it is.
Clearly it's a calling of every believer.

(15:35):
It's how we're supposed to be identified
as disciples, by the love we have
for one another. So everybody is called
to love one another. It's the how
we do that. I do that not
exclusively, but I do that a lot
through teaching. But other people will do
that through acts of service. They'll do
that through administrative giftings. Like how you

(15:57):
do these things, how you glorify God,
how you follow Jesus, and how you
love one another is going to vary
from person to person. But what you're
called to do is just that. The
problem is a lot of times we.
We mix up that biblical calling to
like, these very specific how calls.

Yeah.

Like, David was called to do all
those things, but he was also to
do those things as the King of
Israel. Right. So, like, how was different
for David as we'll get into Next
week. But the what we're called to
do, it's the same for all of
us.

So let's stay there for a little
bit. Because I, I think that there's
people watching that may feel like, well,
what if I'm not called to leadership?
What if I'm not called to being
the king, or in this case, the
President of the United States or a
pastor or like, is because all of
the people we're highlighting, they had great
callings. And see, I even hate saying

(16:54):
that. So how do we encourage people?
You get what I'm saying?

I think we need to start recognizing
that the greatest calling is to do
the thing that God created you for.
And so the greatest calling is not
to be on a stage. It's to
do what God called you to do.
Like, for me, being the pastor who
stands on the stage, like, that's not
what's important. What's important is that I'm

(17:21):
obedient to God, that I am glorifying
him with my life, that I am
following Jesus, that I am loving others.
Right. So that's what becomes most important.
The problem is we see somebody that's
got, you know, 10 million followers on
Instagram, and we're like, man, look at
them walking in there. But you could
also look at the guy that's cleaning
out the bathrooms in the church. Yeah,

(17:42):
you should have the same reaction of,
man, look at them following in their
calling.

Marcus Ivy (17:46):
Yeah. I mean, and I think that's
why, you know, looking at all those
definitions and going back to some, some
of the teachings from Sister Teacher, like,
I got files and stuff, we dealt
with that calling. We were in a
class, it was called Ministers on a
Mission. So. And we talked about and
defined and so the inward call, you
know, that's the first and important. You
gotta have the inward call. And that's

(18:07):
to follow Christ. Like you said, that's.
That's the most important. So let's, let's
start there, everybody. Then you have the
things that God calls you to do.
That's the inward your. The things that.
So you're out with your inward. Like
the things you're supposed to do, your
passion, desires, those things that. Your gifts
and stuff like that. And then you're
upward, like, how am I going to
activate these things? You go out and

(18:27):
love on people. You go out and
serve and stuff like that. So, yeah,
that inward, outward and upward, that, that
made it so clear to me. And,
you know, so you won't be searching
around for, like you said, like, what
about just the average Dog Joe. I'm
not, I don't have this or whatever.
But so the inward, outward and upward,
that made it so simplified for me.

Yeah. And I think in general we
just need to kind of change the
definition of what like purpose or calling
really means, because it is as simple
as like being called. Biblically, you serve
and you're loving. I think just society
in general, which causes. I know we
talked about mental illness and health and

(19:08):
anxiety last week, but I think all
of that comes from the pressures we
get from like in society to be
this grand thing, to have the 10k
followers to be on the stage, like
that is the goal. And we need
to stop creating goals like that and
really walk out the journey.

Just be faithful.

Just be faithful. And that was, that
was a part of, you know, your,
some, one of your points, being faithful.
Let's talk about those points because I
really liked how you broke down the
points you had. Being faithful, having integrity.
And the last one was enduring endurance.
So how, how, okay, in this story,

(19:49):
how does the faithfulness key or point
relates to Joseph's story? Because I mean,
he was thrown in jail. Was it
once or twice? Because I feel like
he got out and then got thrown
back in.

Marcus Ivy (20:00):
No, he's just thrown in jail once
every time. Just once.

I'm adding more to his story.

Marcus Ivy (20:05):
I mean, the pit might as well
have been in jail.

Yeah.

So he's thrown in a pit, sold
into slavery, falsely accused, arrested, thrown into
prison, ignored, forgotten about, and then finally
released. I forget how many years is
it total? Like from the time he's
betrayed by his brothers. So he's standing
before Pharaoh. 20 years, 25 years.

Marcus Ivy (20:26):
So, so it's 13 years from the
time he was promised. Two years or
more waiting. So that's 15 and then
however many years. So it's like 22,
25. 22, 25 years.

Yeah. Somewhere in there. Yeah, that's what
I just remember that 20 year range.

Yeah, that. I mean that's intense. Like
to, to know. Yeah, I think I
would have gotten discouraged and be like,
no, absolutely.

Like there's people all the time that
are like, man, God, I got this
dream from God 20 days ago and
it still hasn't happened.

Marcus Ivy (20:54):
Right.

Why has he forgotten about me?

Marcus Ivy (20:58):
Yeah, calm down.

That's intense.

Marcus Ivy (21:01):
And even in waiting for something for
20 days, you got to remain faithful.
Just, just 20 over 20 years of
waiting on something. How many would just,
like I said, I would have bounced
probably at like year two. Like I'm
do something else. Right. But for him
to remain Faithful and know and trust.
What God said he was going to
happen was going to happen. And there's

(21:23):
no timeline in that. God is outside
of time. So I'm going to. I
have to remain faithful. Like, trusting God
is crazy sometimes, right? You know, in
our own mind and own self. Like,
how am I supposed to do this?
And you just got to be faithful.
You got to stick with it. You
got to stick with it.

One of the things that I love
about his faithfulness, like, I want to
connect his faithfulness to his attitude, because
I think that's where people were, like,
all right, well, I'm just gonna grit
my teeth and bear it. We don't
get that impression from Joseph at all.
Like, so he's sold into. He's betrayed
by his brothers and sold into slavery.
That's gonna give you a bad attitude.

Marcus Ivy (21:59):
Right.

And yet he served in Potiphar's house
in such a way that Potiphar was
like, this dude is amazing. So, like,
his attitude towards Potiphar, his attitude towards
the wife, his attitude as a servant
was exemplary. Like, it was amazing. Then
he's falsely accused of a crime he
didn't commit, thrown in prison, and his

(22:21):
attitude is. He's so faithful even there.
And his attitude is so amazing that
the guards are like, look, man, you
just run the prison yourself, take care
of things, man. You got this.

Marcus Ivy (22:31):
Yeah.

Like, it. So many times I think
people miss, like, well, I'll be faithful.
And it's just. They get a bad
attitude, and they just sit there and
like, well, I'm just. I'm being faithful.

Marcus Ivy (22:41):
I'm waiting on God, waiting until he
does his thing.

Like, I'm just going to be faithful.
And it's like, get the bad attitude
out of there, because that's not faithful.
Is not having a bad attitude.

Marcus Ivy (22:49):
Yep. Man, you better preach that pretty.
Like, yes.

Okay.

Somebody. Somebody burned my biscuits.

Somebody burned, right?

Is that what we said earlier? Somebody
burned my biscuits. Brent's in a mood
today.

Brent's in a mood and biscuits were
burnt. And that is a real thing.
Let me know if you agree. That's
a real thing. I don't even know
where that came from. I think it's
an old, like, England term or something
like that. But anyway, no, that was.
That's good, the attitude. So, okay, Pastor
Brent, since you spicy today, have there
been seasons in your life where you've

(23:25):
had to wait or where you feel
like, man, I don't. I know this
is not where God wants me to
be. Ideally, this is in the waiting.

So so yes and no. So the
way I view it, I don't ever
view waiting as just waiting. I view
it as preparation. And so like there
were seasons in my life where like
I knew that it was like it
was temporary, it was for a season.
I knew it wasn't the thing that
like I'm built for, but I, I

(23:56):
recognized that in that season there was
a lesson I was learning or there
was a skill that I was acquiring
or there was something that God was
doing in that season. So I needed
to just be fully invested in that
moment. And so, and I've, I've experienced
that my entire life and I, I
think that we never stop that moment.
Like I'm, I'm sure right now as
lead pastor of the church, some would

(24:16):
view that as like, well, you've reached
the, the pinnacle. Like you can't get
any higher than that. It's like, man,
I think it's still just God's just
preparing me for something. And so I,
I think. And that's not Brent saying
I'm leaving.

No, I know.

Marcus Ivy (24:29):
I'm just saying go back, rewind, see
what he said.

Not happening. But so I just, I
just recognize that like there, there have
defin times in my life when like
I knew that there was something different
or something more on the horizon, but
I didn't feel like I was waiting
for that moment. I was, I was
in school, I was in training, I
was in development.

Yeah.

Because there's a lot of things that
like I've known in advance. Like, hey,
God wants me to do this thing
in my calling, but I'm not ready
for it. And so there's a, there's
a preparation for it.

Like self aware.

Yeah. And so I like, and I
don't think like Joseph doesn't make as
good of a leader of the entire
nation of Egypt or second in command
of all of Egypt. He doesn't make
that great of a leader doing that.
If he hadn't first learned how to
care for his father's farm and then
learn how to manage a whole house

(25:27):
and then manage an entire prison. Like
there's lessons that I'm sure he's learning
in those places that make him better
equipped when all of a sudd. Now
he's got an entire people group that
he's, he's over. So like for me,
I, I, I don't know. I guess
I just have a weird relationship with
waiting than, than I think most. Like
I, I, the waiting isn't wasted.

Were you self taught or did you
just did You. Because everyone don't have
that gift or that.

Yeah, no. So. So naturally, I have
always been more self aware, and that
feels a little braggadocious or prideful or
something like, Joseph.

No one throws him in the pit.

I don't mean it like that. I
just. I recognize that, like, in conversation
with people, that maybe it's. You watch
too much American Idol back when it
was popular, and it was like, I'm
a great singer. And you're like, no,
you're not. All my friends say I'm
amazing. Your friends are lying to you.
Like, it's just.

They were encouraging them.

No, they were lying. They should have
been encouraging them to do something else.

Y' all are tough critics.

They should have been encouraging to take
vocal lessons or encouraging them to pick
up an instrument instead. You love music.
Maybe pick up the guitar.

Marcus Ivy (26:37):
This ain't the shower.

Okay, so.

So, yeah, so it's one of those
things where I think I grew up
thinking that everybody was self aware, and
then I started realizing that, like, not
everyone is. It's kind of like that
old saying that common sense isn't quite
so common, which is very rude to
say, but, you know, sometimes. But I
think that part of it, too, is
also just having great people around me.

(27:01):
Internship I was a part of, like,
they made everything into preparation, and it
was like, you know, even in times
when it's like, hey, we got to
wait here for eight hours before we're
gonna be able to do something. What
are you gonna do in those eight
hours? All right. Do some push ups,
do some setups, read your Bible. Like,
make the most of the time. And
so I think that just, you know,
watching my parents, seeing other leaders in

(27:23):
ministry, like, it was just. It was.
I had great examples around me, so
a little bit of both.

Yeah. That's awesome.

To answer your question.

Yeah. What about you, Marcus? Do you
feel like on that journey to getting
to where you are now, where you
are, where you are teaching, you said,
was what you felt like God was
calling you to do. How was that
for you? What was that process for
you?

Marcus Ivy (27:47):
I'm kind of the same. It wasn't
nothing where I was like, oh, I'm
waiting on this. But just like in.
In sports at a young age, always
being selected to be, like, the captain
of the football team, just, you know,
the process, even in that. At that
young age, you know, making sure that
I'm first in sprints or I'm, you

(28:08):
know, really taking on this leadership role
and just, you know, teaching others, hey,
you need to do this. You run
the route this way, whatever. Going up
to high school and, you know, just
in college and different organizations and stuff
like that. Just really taking advantage of
the times of development. And I think
most times, most people want to rush

(28:30):
those times. And then. So your preparation
of who you're becoming, it's not really
where it should be because you rushed.
You wanted to rush out of a
situation. And I'm not saying, you know,
that's a bad thing. You know, some
people just want to get out of
it. Maybe the fire is too hot.
But just kind of just taking time
to develop through all those different seasons

(28:51):
of life is, I think, what I've
learned the most.

That's good. So we know the biggest
part of this story and his calling.
I know next week we're probably gonna
talk about, like, mistakes and how your
mistakes can interfere with your calling. I
don't know.

I'm guessing, but maybe a little bit
next week. A lot of it. Probably
the week after that, because. So we're.
We're throwing a. We're throwing a curveball
in the middle of the series. So
the series we're doing was it five
weeks. So five. Five different people from
the Old Testament that had like a.
Like a clear. Like, this is what
they're supposed to do. And so we
got great people like Joseph and David

(29:28):
and Esther and Nehemiah. And then right
in the middle, we're throwing Saul in
there, who is a complete failure. And
we're going to. So we're going to
talk a lot about my wife.

Oh, wow.

Marcus Ivy (29:42):
That's going to be good.

That's going to be good. Okay. Yeah,
she's just as spicy. I think she
rubbed off on you, maybe.

Who knows? I don't know.

Yeah, yeah.

So we'll get into that a little
bit with David. We're gonna talk about
repentance a bunch, but.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, because we know we
can get in our own way. But
in this case, we. Joseph had some
real haters. Like, from day one, his
brothers. Then the. The sneaky wife of
pot, the Potiphar's wife, you know, the
person he felt favorite with. The wife
had a whole nother agenda. So, like,

(30:16):
how.

I feel like you really want to
give her a name.

I do.

Marcus Ivy (30:18):
Let's just name her.

Just give her a name.

Marcus Ivy (30:19):
Go ahead.

Go for it, Tyisha.

Marcus Ivy (30:21):
Just name her.

Name her Tiffany. Why? Why'd you go
for Tiffany?

Marcus Ivy (30:28):
Like that.

Okay. So random. Not because I know
any Tiffany's. All the Tiffany's I know
are great. I wrote a Fictional book
back in the day called Emotionally Discombobulated,
and the main character name was Tiffany,
so I just went with him.

All right, so Tiffany and Joseph.

So. Okay. No, but the.

The. This is why people tune into
the podcast, right?

Marcus Ivy (30:50):
Let's see what they.

The. The crate. The craziness we do.
There was a scripture, and I want
to pull it up, and I'm pretty
sure you hit on in your message,
but I thought it was a. It's
an amazing scripture. It says Genesis 50
and 20. It says, you intended to
harm me, but God intended it for
my good. I thought that was a

(31:12):
good message for the story. I thought
it was a good verse for the
story of Joseph because he had a
lot of people just interfering with that
calling. So first, can people. This is.
I'm being logical here. Can people really
interfere with an assignment or the calling

(31:36):
that God has on your life? Is
it really like a. Or is God
using those haters to push you where
you're supposed to be?

Marcus Ivy (31:44):
Everything is intended for good. Like, you
know, if you think of it like
that. So sometimes we focus too much
on the haters, right? And so we.
We can get drawn away because we
focusing on. But if God told you
something to do, ain't nothing. Ain't nothing.
Nobody can do. The hater, the liker,
or nothing. It is what it is.
So, no, I don't know. I know

(32:05):
can't no hater stop nothing.

But they. They kind of interfere.

Well, I was gonna say the only.
The only asterisks I put on that
is if you let them.

Marcus Ivy (32:12):
If you let them.

Right? So, like, I think. I think
people can interfere with what you're supposed
to be doing if. If you let
them.

Marcus Ivy (32:18):
If you folks start focusing on them,
man, like, get out of here.

Oh, man. This person said, I would
never be able to do this thing,
so why even try?

Mm.

Like that. That could shut you down.
But I think that the. The statement
that Joseph makes. What you intended for
harm, God intended for good or God
used for good. I think that ties
into New Testament. All things work together
for the good of those who love
him or are called according to his
purposes. I think that there can be

(32:47):
bad things that happen in your life.
I think that there are bad people
in your life. But even through all
that, God can use it. Like, even
the bad stuff. So does it necessarily
mean that that's what was supposed to
happen? Not necessarily. Like, some people can.
I mean, the devil shows up and
tries to throw curveballs and tries to
do. Do things to combat what you're

(33:09):
supposed to be doing. But at the
end of the day, if you start
thinking that people are more powerful than
God, you kind of got some messed
up theology.

Marcus Ivy (33:17):
Yep.

That's good. I mean, some people can
feel like they're being held back by
people.

Sure.

For jealous, like, reasons of jealousy.

And. And here's. Here's where we have
to be so careful with that. That's
why I think that labeling your calling
as three things. Called to glorify God,
called to follow Jesus, and. And call
to love one another, I think you
need to put more emphasis on that.
Because if you think that your calling
is, I'm supposed to be the lead
pastor of. Of Disciples Church, and then
somebody comes along and create some kind

(33:50):
of, I don't know, disruption to the
church, some kind of scandal, some kind
of issue. And now all of a
sudden, I'm no longer the lead pastor
of the church. Like, I have to
step down or something. Does that mean
that I'm no longer used by God?
Does that mean that I no longer
have calling? No, but my position is
gone. Like, if you think that your
calling is to be the. The vice

(34:10):
president of the company that you're at
and then you get fired, like, did
somebody just destroy your calling? No. Like,
that was a position. That was a
title. But that's not your calling.

That's so good.

You can lose your job and still
be called.

So it's the position that people are
focused on.

Yeah. Not necessarily calling titles and positions
get you. So if. If you're fired,
how can you glorify God? How can
you follow Jesus? And how can you
love one another? No longer working at
that company, you can still do all
those things. You're still called.

That is some true resilience.

Yeah. And I think it. It is
just the hard thing that I think,
especially Western minds, you know, American culture,
like, we've got this whole. You gotta
strive and fight for the top position.
I think that there's some greatness to
that, like American exceptionalism, like, I don't
think it's all that bad. I think
we just have to be careful when
we put so much of our identity

(35:05):
in. In that and what we've achieved,
because inevitably you fail, you mess up,
you. Something happens. And, you know, if.
If my. I don't know, my focus
is man, when. When our church has
this many people in attendance, that means
I've succeeded in my calling. Like, I'm.

(35:27):
We're gonna have a Sunday where, like,
everybody's on vacation and now all of
a sudden I'm gonna go home depressed.

Marcus Ivy (35:32):
Right?

Like, that's dumb.

Yeah. That happens, though, in real life.

Oh, absolutely.

Yeah. I think it's. What is it
the day after Sunday? Like, a lot
of pastors struggle.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Pastors struggle on Monday
morning.

Yeah.

Which is why we usually record the
podcast on Monday morning. I don't have
time to struggle if we're recording a
podcast.

That is hilarious.

Marcus Ivy (35:51):
That's why. No, no. Mondays off.

I do think that that is part
of it. I think there's a lot
of churches that take Monday as their
day off, and I kind of feel
like that's a bad idea. Like, yeah,
you're exhausted from Sunday. But a lot
of preachers, man, like, depression and stuff.
Like, rates in pastors is scary because
they put so much on. Success is
achieving something. Yeah, but man, like, just

(36:20):
be faithful. Like, who cares? The success
or not success. Like, be faithful.

So good. We have a pastor who.
Faithful. Right, Marcus?

And say, I was faithful. I said,
b. That's the goal. That's. I'm trying
to be faithful.

Okay with you today. So. So let's
go ahead and land this plane.

We didn't even get to his other
two points.

Marcus Ivy (36:48):
Integrity.

Faithful. What about integrity?

Well, you can talk about integrity. Yes.
Yep. Yes. Let's talk about integrity. Integrity
and enduring.

So he's always trying to land planes.

Marcus Ivy (37:01):
She, like, ready? I'm ready.

We're flying from here to California. You
want to stop in Texas?

I like stopping, actually. I just did
a road trip with my husband, and
I looked at him, I said, can
we stop at the gas station? And
he was like, why? I'm like, that's
the whole point of taking a road
trip is stopping.

Marcus Ivy (37:17):
Get there. That's the point of the
road trip, is to get there.

It's about the journey, not the destination.
Come on, Marcus.

It goes with the spaghetti and the
other stuff I was talking about.

I really want to know what the
other half of that.

That thing is like.

If women are spaghetti, what are men
like? What's the other half?

Marcus Ivy (37:34):
You.

You haven't given us the other half,
and it's driving me crazy.

What did Chat say? Okay, we'll come
back to that, as.

Marcus Ivy (37:40):
We probably be like, the meatballs or
something.

Probably.

What is this conversation? Maybe we should
have landed the plane.

No, let's talk about integrity.

So what was the third point?

Integrity and endurance. So we did talk
about enduring and being. Being faithful. Enduring,
I think, goes hand in hand. But
the integrity piece is big because there
probably was moments where he could have
dropped the ball. And that is something
I always think about. It's like, don't

(38:17):
drop the ball.

Well, and I'll just jump in, and
then we can finish with integrity. But
endurance is necessary because anybody can be
faithful in a moment. Can you be
faithful over a series of moments? Can
be faithful over time? Anybody can have
integrity in this situation. Can you be.
Can you have integrity for the length
of your life? Like, the endurance is.
Is how long you do this? Because

(38:39):
Joseph could have been faithful for the
first year, but it would be a
different story if he didn't continue being
faithful after the first year. He could
have had integrity in Potiphar's house and
then been cutting deals and doing shady
stuff in prison.

Yeah.

Getting his teardrop tattoo and all that.
Like, the endurance is necessary.

Marcus Ivy (38:58):
Yeah.

Okay. Integrity.

So you still stuck on enduring, right?

Marcus Ivy (39:06):
No, I'm. Man, where we at? Let's
go.

Okay. The spaghetti. We found something. Women
are spaghetti. Men are waffles. Waffles. What?

Waffles. That's not even the same food.

Women are interconnected with everything. Men are
compartmentalized.

Ah, I don't know. I feel like
I'm more like a pancake.

Marcus Ivy (39:26):
Absolutely no sense.

I knew I heard that.

Why are you mixing food groups? Like,
I was thinking pastas and sauces and
toppings.

Meatballs.

Marcus Ivy (39:34):
Meatballs.

Y' all are waffles.

Marcus Ivy (39:37):
Waffles.

I think our problem. Men are logical.
Is that what it is? So when
you said that women are spaghetti, our
logical side of our brain kicked in,
and we're like, well, what goes with
spaghetti? We're the breadstick, we're the lasagna.
We're the sauce. We're the meatballs. Like,
our logical brain was like, all of
the things that fit with spaghetti.

Yeah.

Marcus Ivy (39:58):
Who says waffles?

Spaghetti and waffles. Come on, man.

You know what? Let's tie this in.
This is probably how Joseph made it
and endured without complaining for 20 plus
years. Because a woman. Oh, we complaining.
We got a lot to say.

Just throwing all your people under the
bus.

No, I'm a woman, and I just.

Know all your people.

Like, we have all the emotions. You
went. Pretty says she would not complain.
So excluding pretty.

I feel like we just got into
a Taisha problem all of a sudden.

Women. Women.

All women. The other woman in the
room is like, not me.

Marcus Ivy (40:32):
Not me.

I'm gonna come back to that.

But spaghetti and waffles. Okay.

No, no, no. Okay. So in general,
we're talking about the integrity piece. Where
are some areas that Joseph. Why was
integrity Brought up in this story. Where
are some areas that Joseph could have
dropped the ball in this waiting period,
Man.

Marcus Ivy (40:53):
With Tiffany, like, no, please.

Okay.

Marcus Ivy (40:57):
With Potiphar's wife.

Yeah, let's not call her Tiffany.

I'm having such a hard time ever
hearing the story, reading the story and
not see Tiffany.

Marcus Ivy (41:07):
Yeah. So with Potiphar's wife, like, he
had an opportunity to really just go
there. I'm pretty sure, you know, she
had it planned out like she was
coming after him and for him to
stand his ground. I mean. Yeah, yeah,
he could have. He could have anywhere,
anytime. But, you know, he stood his

(41:27):
ground and just, you know, really stayed
faithful, showed integrity during a time where
he could have easily said, you know
what? Ain't nobody gonna find out what
would.

Have happened to Joseph if he would
have done that. Like, how would the
story have ended? Do you think we.
He still would have slid into that
position as king or. Or, like, Potiphar
would have found out?

Marcus Ivy (41:51):
Yeah, it would have been over. It
would have been over with a rap.
Yeah. He had his boys in the.
In the. He had his cup bearer
and his. The bacon jail because they
offended him. So.

So I don't know that we could
postulize, like, put that in there. What
would have happened?

I, like, I'm a storyteller.

Yeah. Yeah. So. So by comparison, we're
gonna get into David next week. So
would David's story have been different if
he didn't sleep with Bathsheba? Joseph's story
may have ended up being similar to
David's. Right, right. It could have been
that Joseph actually commits this sin, gets
thrown in prison. In prison, is convicted
by God, repents.

Yes.

In prison.

Marcus Ivy (42:29):
Yeah.

Right. Like, that could have been. And
we could still celebrate his life in
his story, even as a flawed individual.
Right. Like, the same way we do
for David. Like, we're like, man, David
is amazing. He's a man. He's my
favorite guy in the Bible. He's a
man after God's own heart. He broke
at least half of the ten Commandments,
like, very publicly.

Yeah.

And so, like, we can still celebrate
him. So, like, I think, yeah, Joseph's.
If he didn't have integrity, that the
story we tell would definitely be very
different. Right. What we are able to
emphasize and focus on would be very
different. But part of what makes Joseph
easy to celebrate and look at as
a model for us to try and

(43:09):
follow is that he did have integrity.

That's good. It's an encouragement how this
might be personal, but have there been
areas in your life where you had
to use integrity on your way to
where you are now.

Marcus Ivy (43:25):
Oh, yeah. Yep. And just real. I
have some. I probably need to write
a book on my job, but when
I was in my former career, we
would do these things where we would
go, you know, kind of search people
homes and stuff like that. And several
times I've come across thousands upon thousands
upon thousands of dollars and was an

(43:47):
opportunity where I could have. And no
one would have found out.

Wow.

Marcus Ivy (43:52):
And this was before the cell phones
and stuff. And it was just like,
you know, that. That moral law was
in me. Like, nah, I can't do
this. And I wouldn't. I wouldn't even
save then. So it's like, nah, I
can't do this. You know, what if
I. I don't even know what that
money belongs to. We think it's this,
but it could have been a child's
future. You know what I'm saying?

Yeah.

Marcus Ivy (44:11):
So, yeah, it was many a times
and a lot of those different occasions
like that where thank God for his
moral law being on my heart where
I didn't do those things.

Yeah, that's good. And I like how
it's like, we always talk about the,
like, the exposure like with David, but
like their God sees you right before
anyone else. And so that is. I
think he is the one that we
should be worried about taking account of
the things we are not being. Having

(44:40):
integrity with, you know, and so I
think it's more of a heart issue
in the. In this. This particular story
with Joseph. Like, it just showed that
his heart was, like, enduring. Well, because,
like, you think about the attitude, you
think about all of the. The moments
where he could have felt entitled to.
Yeah, do whatever, you know, but he

(45:03):
chose a different route. And I think
that's an encouragement for all of us.
It's like, it may not be a
moment where people gonna catch you doing
it or you might get away with
it, but it's like. Like a heart
thing. So that was good. So are
we ready to land?

You're so nervous about saying land the
plane.

I am so nervous because I don't
know when to say.

I'm giving you trauma around the phrase
land your plane.

Trauma all the time. So I think
this is.

I need to get you a T
shirt that just says time to land
the plane.

That has been. That has become my
thing.

Or maybe we could get like a
little flag and I could just like.

Hold up the flag when it's time
to land. I like that you could
be like, the Little.

I'll just like stick it like right
here in the, in the weird flower.

I don't know if pretty will like
that.

I don't know what I just wrote
on your set design.

So pretty. No. So that'll be good
since you're the host. So you kind
of like wave the flag when it's
time to land the plane.

I think it's more fun when you.

Marcus Ivy (46:04):
Think we're done and I'm going another
20, 30 minutes.

It makes sense. But no, I think
this story has a lot of, a
lot of nuggets and I think it's
a great tool to talk about with
your small groups. We actually did that
yesterday and it was, it was good,
good conversation came from it just to
see where people were with like this
journey because people are in different places
on this waiting period and being faithful.

(46:29):
And it's always amazing to be in
community with people and see where they
are and see how you can pray
with them and hold them accountable. So
yeah, let's give some good takeaways. How
can we wait? Well, what are some
things we can take away from the
story of Joseph to really help us
live a faithful life?

Marcus Ivy (46:49):
Yeah, just walk. Just continue to walk
in it. You know, it's something that
we have to be intentional about. You
know, for, for some having integrity is
very hard because maybe that's what they
grew up in. They've seen things, shistiness
around them their whole lives or whatever.
Maybe they have poor examples. So if

(47:10):
you're a Christian man, like, we can't,
we can't be that anymore. So we
have to be intentional about. Let your
yes be yes and you'll know be
no. We have to learn how to
wait. Right? You know what I'm saying?
Like a lot of times we get
so impatient when we're waiting and stuff
like that. But just, just trusting and
really digging into that, knowing that God
really is going to do what he
said he's going to do. And just

(47:31):
with the what is it? Encourage. What
is it? Oh, faithfulness. Just stay faithful.
Just stay faithful. And a lot of
times we like, oh, just do it
like Nike. Just keep doing it. But
it is like we really have to
be intentional about walking out this thing.
Those things right there will make your
call easy, you know, so just keep

(47:53):
walking in it. Don't let the person
that you on your job be like,
oh, you can't trust him. You know,
they're not a faithful for people man.
We, we had a lot of people
looking at us, so we, we have
to Walk in those things.

That's good.

Yeah, I like it. Yeah. I think
for me, I'm just. I'm really focused
on that. That endurance piece. That endurance
is. Is being faithful and having integrity
today and then doing it again tomorrow
and then doing it again the next
day, next day. And it's. How do
you show that you have endurance? It's
one day at a time. Like, you
got to demonstrate it today and tomorrow
and the next day and the next

(48:26):
day. But just focus on today. Be
faithful. Have integrity today.

Yeah, that's good. Do I have to
do one?

No, always. So give us that Taisha
wisdom.

I think that. And it comes from
God. I think that the biggest thing
I took away from this is it's
not about the destination. You know, it's
about the journey and how you live
out that journey. It's not about where
you land. I think the story kind
of. Kind of stops when he becomes
king. It tells a little bit of,

(48:59):
like, how he treated his brothers and
things. But we. With most of the
people that is. That are highlighted in
the Bible, like, we see where God,
they eventually land. But really most of
the chapters are filled with, like, how
they walked out that journey. So let.
If. If someone was going to write
a story about you, let it be
one where they can see that faithfulness,
where they can see that integrity, where

(49:20):
they can see the enduring and suffering.
Well, and just know that God is
with you. That's the biggest takeaway for
me. Like, God is with you in
the process. So I hope you enjoyed
this conversation. I am so glad I
was here with you today. Tune in
next week. We are going to be
talking about David. I like the story

(49:41):
of David, so I get to attack
Pastor Bren a little bit now. I'm
just playing. Hey, man.

There's so much to talk about with
David. We. We have more information on
David's life than just anybody else.

It's so much to unpack. So much.
But yeah, no. Thank you for rocking
with us today, and I hope you
tune in next week. Let us know
if you have questions. We are always
looking for the questions that we can
answer for you guys here on the
show. And until next time, I love
you. See you soon.

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