This Sunday the sermon at our home church of Meadow Brook Baptist was made for me! We have been doing a series on Joseph. We are following him from childhood to death in small steps. I included a short excerpt of Bro. Ron's sermon from our church website: http://www.meadowbrookbaptist.org/. I think that we can all find ourselves in this fascinating story of the Bible.
Here we discover an essential and simple truth, which is this: There is no ideal place to serve God except the place in which He has set you down. There is no ideal job for you to hold, no ideal neighborhood in which to live, and no ideal church to join.
There are good jobs, good neighborhoods, and good churches, but no ideal ones. People who search for the ideal circumstances forget that the ideal and the perfect are reserved for heaven! They launch forth on a journey destined to end in disappointment.
Joseph’s life, at this point, was far from ideal. He may have been tempted to run away, give up, or become angry. But here we discover him making the most of his situation.
Responding to similar circumstances makes us want to run. We say to ourselves, If only I could get away for a while, maybe a weekend at the cabin or a few days at the beach.
Refreshment and a vacation may be of temporary help, but we can’t flee from ourselves. I don’t know about you, but my biggest problem is not my circumstances. My biggest problem is me!
Maybe we think, I never bargained for this. I never imagined being trapped in this mess. No, we probably didn’t. But God has chosen to set us down in this environment. Even in circumstances like those that surrounded Joseph, we can trace God’s hand.
It is immediately apparent that Joseph was under the protecting hand of God.
I hope that I can remember that God has set me down in Birmingham, Alabama, as a Mother, Wife, Counselor, Daughter, Sister and Friend! Where are you "set down" and what are you going to do with the time you have?
