Why Everything That’s Good Doesn’t Feel Good

About why everything that's good doesn't feel good. Is that right, Marima? I think I messed up.

Okay. I was right. Okay, cool.

So it's amazing how we're so confused by our experiences. We think our experiences are confirming our life, but a lot of times the things we're experiencing are confusing our life. Okay, that's. Yeah, that's the name of why your setback is your setup. That's why your setback is your setup. That's the title that I wanted. That one. The thumbnail title. Why your setup is your setback. So.

In Genesis, chapter 42, we have a story. So. And I'm going to. What I'm going to do is I'm going to give you the backstory before I go into the big story, right? And in Genesis, chapter 42, we have the story of the famine and.

Jacob sending his sons, the ones that sold Joseph into slavery and came back and lied and told their dad he was dead, right? Because they hated him for his dream. It's so interesting how. How in life, we all go through those seasons, right? And it starts with, like, our dream, right? So we have these dreams, right? Then we go from dreams to. We start proclaiming our dreams, and we start progressing towards our dreams. And then before you know it, we have all these protagonists because we have a dream, right? They hate us. And so dreams then bring on the drama, right? So the dream, when you have the dream, you're excited, right? I got a dream. I have a dream, right? I'm excited. But then the drama comes, and I become exhausted, and I become so exhausted in the drama that I'm tempted to forget about the dream.

And then finally, I step into my destiny. When I step into my destiny now, I'm experiencing exhilaration. So I go from excited to exhausted to exhilarated because of the dreams and. And the drama and the destiny of my life. How many y' all picking up what I'm putting down? Does that, like. Does that resonate with y'? All? Cause, like, for me, I'm. Like, I've had so many seasons where I had this dream and I had this. And I'm working towards this dream, and it just seemed every. The more I worked on it, the more drama it brought. And then I'm. I'm going through this drama, and I'm exhausted, and I'm. And I can't. I feel like I can't think straight. I feel like I can't see straight. And then all of a sudden.

I come through the drama, and all of A sudden, the glories of the destiny are greater than the gore of the drama. And I'm like, wow.

I wish I could have had a clearer vision of this while I was in the valley of drama. Right. And so.

The reason I want to share this story with you, the scripture tells us In Romans, chapter 14, it says the things that were written aforetime were. Were written for our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the scripture, might have hope. Right? And so.

This story is a story about Jacob and his sons, but it's not just about Jacob as his sons. It's a story that we can see our own reflection in. And so what happened? Jacob had 12 sons and 10 sons he had by Leah. 12. Two sons he had by.

Rachel. And the two sons he had by Rachel were Joseph and Benjamin. And Joseph had a dream.

And Joseph made the mistake of telling his brothers his dreams.

And the scripture says they hated him for his words and for his dreams.

I want you all not to be surprised when people in your family don't can't understand your dream. They can't comprehend the dream that God gave you. Right. And some people don't like your dream because they're not the star of your dream. Right? Right. They don't like your dream because your dream elevates you above them. In fact, like.

Who do you think you are?

It's so interesting that the scripture says that Samuel anointed David to be the king in the presence of his brethren. The interesting thing about that was David didn't even get invited to his own coronation service until Jesse had paraded all of his other sons in front of Samuel. So nobody saw it in David but God. Just because the people around you can't see what God placed in you, don't make the mistake of thinking that God can't see it. He can see it because he's the one that put it there. He's the one that looked at your vessel and said, that's a good place for that vision. That's a good place for that dream. That's a good place for that seed, that person right there. I'm going to use them to do something. And when they do it, everybody looking at them won't be able to blame it on nobody but me.

So Joseph's brothers hated him, and first they wanted to kill him. Let's kill him now. I can't imagine. Like, I love my brothers, and there are times I wanted to maybe hurt him a little bit, but I never wanted to kill them. Like, really, that's Got to be some serious animosity right there. They said, well, you know what? If we kill him, we can't make no money off that deal. Let's sell him. You know what? That's a good idea.

So they sold him into slavery to these foreigners. Your older brothers who are supposed to be your protectors, your older brothers who are supposed to be looking out for you like I looked out for my younger brothers. When we were coming, coming up, my mom. My mom and dad used to say, if they fighting your brother, they're fighting you.

They weren't playing either. I remember. I remember I was in elementary school. I was playing baseball cards. I was probably in first or third grade or something like that. I was playing baseball cards with Richie Cuff. I was probably in third grade playing baseball cards with Richie Cuff. And he cheated and took my baseball cards because he was bigger than me. He was in my brother's grade, my brother Jeff's grade. Jeff. Richie Cuff stole my baseball cards. Jeff goes up to Richie Cuff, man, what'd you do, take my brother's. My brother's baseball cards, and Richie Cuff sucker punched him in the eye.

Right? And. And then. So Richie got. He got the best of both of us that day. But my brother Jeff stored it up. He. Oh, he found him later on, boy, and it was not a pretty day. It was not a pretty day for him. But that's another story. My point is. My point is, my older brother looked out for me. If my younger brothers got in a fight, if my older brother got in a fight, if one of us got in the fight, all of us got in the fight, all seven of us. You might could have handled one of us, but you can't handle all seven of us anyway, so. But that wasn't Joseph's brothers. Joseph's brothers, they hated him so much, some of them wanted to kill him. And the rest of them said, let's don't kill him. Let's make some money off this deal. Let's sell him. They sold him into slavery. Like, can you imagine being sold to people by the people who are supposed to love you, being sold to them? And then.

Like. Like, first they throw you in a pit, and then they leave you for dead. And you think you're gonna die and they come back and pull you out of pit. You're like, oh, okay, I'm gonna get out. They're gonna. They. They repented. No, they didn't repent. They gonna get paid, right? And then they sell you. And now you go into a foreign country, you don't see your mom anymore. You don't see your little brother anymore. You don't see your dad anymore. You're like, what did. I didn't even do anything right. Well, so Jacob's sons came back and lied to their dad. Now there's a famine in the land.

Joseph comes up with a plan for the famine before. Like, so there's seven years of plenty that are greater than any seven years ever before. And Pharaoh has this dream. Joseph said, well, the seven skinny, I mean the seven fat cows that came up, they're seven years of plenty. The seven, the seven full stalks of wheat, they're the seven years of plenty.

The seven sickly cows that came and ate the fat cows and they were still skinny. That's seven years of famine that's coming after seven years of plenty. And Joseph said, here's what, like that's what that means. And then Sparrow said, well, since you're the only one who could interpret the dream, you're probably the only one who knows what to do about it. By the way, I said this in one of my trainings before for entrepreneurs, if you can describe your prospects pain better than they can, they probably believe you have a better solution, right? So, so be really clear. So Pharaoh says, well, since you're the one who understood the dream, what's the plan? I'm going to put you in charge of it. Well, Joe said, here's the plan. When things are going good, we're going to put back 20% and we're going to save 20% in the seven years of plenty. So that saving 20% was they were taxing the people 20% and then they were saving 20% of all that they were getting and they were storing it up in storehouses for the seven years of plenty of. What do we learn from that? What we learn from that is we need to learn to think negative when things are positive. How's that for a motivational speech?

What does that mean? When things are going good. When things are going good, store up the good times because the bad times are coming. We know that life works in seasons. Yeah, it's summertime right now, but it ain't all right now, is it summer? I think it might be. It's fall. It was. Yeah, but, but I'm just saying in the illustration, it's summertime right now, but winter's coming, right? See, the ant is smart enough to think winter all summer. What does it say? It says In Proverbs, chapter 30, verse number 5, verse number 20, 25, it says the ants are people, not strong, but they do what they prepare their meat in the summer, right? When things are going good, you have to be preparing for when things are going bad. Like, like if there's a lesson that I've learned, I've learned that lesson. Like, like the first time I created wealth like I was, I mean, I was blessed to create some what was decent income and revenue. Man, I bought the million dollar mansion and I bought the hundreds of thousands dollars worth of cars and I was living like a king. And then all of a sudden.

It wasn't all of a sudden, but it felt all of a sudden to me, right? And we went from making hundreds of thousands of dollars a month to a couple years later living on borrowed money for two years.

So guess what now? Oh, we live so far below our means, our means ain't never gonna catch up. I mean, I mean, we ain't never gonna catch up to living up like we live so far below our means. And I have some nice stuff, but like, I don't live in a million dollar mansion or multi million dollar mansion. I could, I might one day, but it ain't today, right? I could pay cash for a multi million dollar mansion if I want. You go red check for one right now. But that ain't what I'm fixing to do. Why? Because hard times are coming. You gotta think winter, all summer. You gotta think bad when things are good. You gotta think negative when things are positive. That's what Joseph said. That's what Jake. That's what Joseph told Pharaoh. And that's what they did for seven years. When things were going good and everybody else was partying, Joseph was preparing while they were partying.

So guess what? Here's how bad this famine was. The whole world ran out of food except for Egypt.

That includes Jacob and his sons. Okay, watch what happens next.

So Jacob heard there was food in Israel. He said, y' all go buy some food in Israel. I mean, y' all go down to Egypt and buy some food. Not Israel, Egypt. Y' all go down to Egypt, buy some food. They went down to Egypt, bought some food. And.

Joseph recognized his brothers, but his brothers didn't recognize him.

He said, I'm about to have some fun with these jokers.

He said, y' all know y' all spies. Y' all ain't down here to buy no food. Y' all came down here to spy out the land. No, no, no, we're. No, we're, we're like. We are the sons of, of a man who has 12 sons. And one son is not. And he still has one younger son at home. Now, you lying. You know you lying. You're a spy. You came to spy out the land so you can come in and take our food. No, really, we brought money and everything here. We're willing to pay for it. They were scared. They're like, oh, man, this guy thinks we're spies. Said, okay, all right, here's what we're going to do. Just to prove that you're not spies. You said you got a. You got a younger brother. Okay, here's what you do. One of y' all stay here with me. I'm gonna sell y' all some food. Y' all leave one of them here. Y'. All. One of y' all stay here with me. And then y' all go get your youngest brother and you bring him to me so you can prove to me. Then I'll know you're not spies. Joseph. Joseph just wanted to see his little brother.

They said, okay. So they went back home with the food. They got home the money that they brought. Joseph instructed his sermons, his servants to put it back in their bags. Now they get home, their brother Simeon, still in Egypt. They go back, they open up their site. They're like, dad, I don't know what happened, but we paid him for the food, and then we came. And then he kept Simeon because he said he's not going to let Simeon go unless we bring Benjamin back.

So that's when we come into the story. Okay, here's what Jacob said.

Jacob said.

In verse number.

Verse number 29. All right, let's. Let's do. Let's do verse 28. It says, and he said unto his brethren, my money is restored, and lo, it is even. No, let's don't start there. Let's start in verse 29. And they came unto Jacob, their father in the land of Canaan, and told him all that befell unto them, saying, the man who is the Lord of the land.

Spake roughly to us and took us for spies of the country. And we said unto him, we are true men, and we are no spies. We be twelve brethren, the son of one father, and one is not. And the youngest is this day with our Father in the land of Canaan. And the man, the Lord of the country, said unto us, hereby shall I know that you are true men. Leave one of your brethren here with me and take food for the famine of your household and be gone. And bring your youngest brother unto me. Then I shall know that ye are no spies. And that ye are true men. So I will deliver your brother, and ye shall traffic in the land. And it came to pass that as they emptied their sacks, behold, every man's bundle of money was in the sack. And when both they and their father saw the bundles of money, they were afraid. Jacob, their father, said unto them, me, have ye bereaved of my children, Joseph? And Simeon is not. Joseph is not. And Simeon is not. That bereaved means literally. You've aborted my children. You've murdered my children. Their conscience. Can you imagine how their conscience is beating them up?

Their father even suspected they were the ones who killed Joseph. Like said, you have bereaved me of my children. Joseph is not. And Simeon is not. And you will take Benjamin away. All these things are against me. How many ever felt that way? All these things are against me. I lost my job. I don't have any money. All these things are against me. The doctor gave me bad news and my spouse wants a divorce. All these things are against me, Right? But I'm going to tell you something. Hear me when I tell you. You cannot know whether something is good or bad looking at it through the windshield of your life. You will only be able to tell if it's good or bad when you get past it and look in the rearview mirror.

Joseph said, all these things are against me. Nothing could be further from the truth. What do we learn from that? Well, everything that's good don't feel good. And everything that feels bad ain't bad.

Wait, wait, what? Everything is good. This is one of the best things that has ever happened to Joseph in his life. First of all, they got some food and didn't have to pay for it. That hadn't happened since the Garden of Eden, right? So y' all got some food, didn't have to pay for it. Second of all, your son, who you thought was dead for decades, probably, you're going to get restored, and you're going to get to see him before you die. You're living in a land with no food. You're about to move to the land where all the food is, and you're going to have the run of the land. And you're talking about all these things are against me. You know why? Because you're believing in what you see more than you're believing in what God said. God made Abram a promise.

God made Abram a promise. Here's what he said. He said, I'm going to bless you in ways you can't bless yourself. I'm going to give you things you can't get yourself. I'm going to make you something you can't make yourself. I'm going to take the source of your shame and make it the source of your fame. I'm going to bless those that bless you and curse those that curse you. And in you, all the families of the earth will be blessed. Guess what? That included Jacob. He forgot about that. And he said, all these things are against me. See, when I'm tempted to believe that all these things are against me, here's what I immediately remind myself of. It doesn't matter. Even if they are because of God before us, who can be against us?

It doesn't matter who's against me. It didn't matter that Goliath was 10ft tall. It didn't matter that his spearhead weighed 16 pounds. It didn't matter. It didn't matter that he was. That he was a giant and he had. He was so big, he had six toes on each foot and six fingers on each hand. That's a big joker.

It didn't matter. It didn't matter that everybody was afraid of Goliath. He was the champion of Gath. The champion was the person who went out and fought against another nation's champion. And whoever won that was the decider of the battle. It didn't matter. None of that mattered. Why? Because as soon as David heard Goliath cursing the armies of Israel, he remembered the promise of God. I'll bless those that bless you and curse those that curse you. And. And he knew Goliath couldn't win. Do you understand? Do you understand that all these things may feel like they're against you, but they're not. Stop lamenting your lamentations. Stop cursing your cursings. You're cursing your curses. Start asking yourself, what does God want me to get from this trial? Instead of begging God to get you out of the trial. Because God's more interested in you getting something from the trial than he is you getting out of the trial. We're more interested in getting out of the trial than we are getting something from the trial.

Everything that feels good ain't good. Everything that feels bad ain't bad. Every blessing don't feel like a blessing. This was a blessing that felt like a curse. Joseph said, all these things are against me. Do you know what Jacob. You know what Joseph said about the same situation? Jacob said, all these things are against me. Joseph, same situation. His brother sold him into slavery. He went to prison for a crime he didn't commit.

His brothers after Their dad died, was afraid. They were afraid that what he was going to do, he was going to get retribution on them because they sold him into slavery. They said, dad's dead now. Joseph is coming to get us. You know, he's the prime minister. He got the whole armies of Egypt at his disposal. We're in trouble now. And they went to him and they begged for their lives. And Joseph was crushed because they didn't get it. I don't want revenge on you. All I wanted was a relationship.

And he said, here's what Joseph said to his brother. The ones that wanted to kill him, the ones that sold him into slavery, the ones that went back and lied to their dad. Here's what he said. You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.

What does that remind you of? Reminds me of the fact that in the New Testament, it tells us that the princes of this world.

They didn't know who Jesus was because if they, if they would have known, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. They meant it for evil. God meant it for good. See, God can take something painful and turn it into something powerful. God can take something difficult and turn it into something dynamic. And so what we've got to do is we've got to learn how to trust that God is doing what he's doing. And what he's doing is more important than what any human is doing to us or against us. All these things are against me. No, all these things are for.

So.

America, in America, like segregation, racism, all that stuff is a blight.

It's like a horrible stain on the fabric of the history of America. It's a horrible stain. But here's, I think, those of us who are the descendants of the oppressed people in America, I think sometimes we forget.

The strength that we would not have had our ancestors not gone through that struggle. Because there is no strength without struggle.

There is no advancement without adversity. There is no destiny without difficulty. And we're so busy looking in the rear view mirror trying to fix what somebody else broke or trying to get somebody else to fix. Trying to fix what was broken for our ancestors or trying to get somebody else to fix what their ancestors broke that we're not even utilizing the strength that God gave us as we came through that difficulty to step into a new season. Joseph was sold into slavery and he became the prime minister.

Do you realize he never would have become the prime minister had he not been sold into slavery?

It was the difficulty that prepared him for what God already had. Prepared for him. It was the struggle that got him ready for what God already had ready for him. We need to stop. We need to stop thinking that all of the difficult things that have happened in our lives were bad things. They were just preparatory things. I was born in Tampa, Florida, right here in this city. I was born in Tampa, Florida, May 14, 1961. Y' all might want to write that down. I got a birthday coming up next year. I want something real nice. Just kidding. Okay. I was born May 14, 1961. This was during, like, times in America when segregation was still at. It was still rampant. I couldn't be born in Tampa General. I had to be born in Clara Fry Hospital. Now, some. I don't know. I don't know if y' all clarify. Hospital was a post Civil War hospital that was started by a post Civil war nurse because black people couldn't be treated in regular hospitals. Almost 100 years after the Civil War, I'm born in that hospital. Six years after the polio vaccine was discovered. I contracted polio as an infant. When I was a kid, I hated the fact that I had to walk with this stupid brace. I hated the fact that my left leg is, like, half the size of my right leg and it was 2 inches shorter by the time I was 13. I hated it. I hated the fact that other kids could wear Converse All Stars and Pro Keds and PF Flyers. There was no such thing as a Reebok or a New Balance or Nike. That stuff didn't even. That stuff was not even contemplated yet. Like, the fact that somebody would, like, spend a mortgage payment on some sneakers was not even a thought, right? I remember I asked my mom when I was, like, 12 or 13 for some converse All Star. She said, boy, if you think I'm buying you some $13 sneakers, you some kind of out your mind. $13 sneakers, right? Anyway. And so I got a job so I could buy my own Converse All Stars. And then when I had my own money, I. If you think I'm buying some $13 sneakers, you some kind of your mind. I bought the coaches 10.50, right? Anyway, I had polio as an infant. All my brothers can run. I can't run. All my brothers played sports in high school. I couldn't play sports because I can't run. So I learned how to fight real talk. But I hated it when I was a kid. But if I had a chance to do my life over and not have had polio, I would not take it. Like, if God said, I'm Going to let you do this whole thing over again? Oh, no. Sign me up for the assignment you got me ready for. Because I believe what God did for me was ordained that the enemy would afflict my body. Now, God didn't do it, but he ordained it. Why? Because God knew that in order for me to fulfill my assignment, my body had to slow down so my mind could speed up.

So the struggle in my body created a strength in my mind that I would not have had without it.

And if we go through life, somebody put my birthday on there in the comments. That is hilarious. Okay, all right.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. So I just noticed that. That's funny. That is hilarious. Okay. Okay. So all I'm saying is all of us are going to go through difficult things in our lives. Don't make the mistake when we're going through the difficulty. Don't make the mistake of thinking that all these things are against you.

Yeah, I know they treated you wrong, but all these things are not against you. Saul treated David wrong, but all those things weren't against him.

Just understand that God's plan is greater than any of our plans.

And he's got your best interest in mind, and it's going to work out exactly as he ordained it to work out from before the beginning of time.

All I need is the awareness.

Like, there are so many difficult things I've gone through in my life that I would not have chosen.

Why do you have. There are people south of us, 100 miles south of us, whose homes were destroyed. They lost loved ones in this hurricane. I wouldn't wish that on anybody.

But if you ask God to guide you and show you what you're supposed to get from it.

I think you'll be shocked when he shows you.

All I'm saying is this. I ain't smart enough to know something. People say, oh, this bad thing happened to me. This bad thing happened to me. That bad thing happened to me. I'm not smart enough to know. They'll get it for you, sister. Don't worry about it. They got you. All right, so. So I'm not smart enough to know, so I want to read something to you in.

Genesis, chapter 40.

Genesis, Chapter 47. Then Joseph came and told Pharaoh and said, my father and my brethren and their flocks and their herds and all that they have are come out of the land of Canaan, and behold, they are in the land of Goshen. And he took some of his brethren, even five men, and presented them unto Pharaoh. Watch what Pharaoh said. And Pharaoh said unto his brethren, what is your occupation? And they said unto Pharaoh, thy servants or shepherds? We both, and our fathers, and moreover, Pharaoh. And they said moreover unto Pharaoh, for to sojourn in the land or to like to be pilgrims in your land are we come. And thy servants have no pasture for their flocks. For the famine was sore in the land of Canaan. Now, therefore, we pray, let thy servants dwell in the land of Goshen. And Pharaoh spake unto Joseph, saying, thy father and thy brethren are come to thee in the land of Egypt, before thee the best of the land. Make thy father and thy brethren to dwell in the land of Goshen. Let them dwell, and if thou knowest any men of activity among them, then make them rulers over my cattle. And Joseph brought Jacob his father and set him before Pharaoh. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, how old art thou? And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, the days of the years of my pilgrimage are 130 years. Few and evil have the days of my years of my life been and have not attained unto thee. Unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers and the days of their pilgrim. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out before Pharaoh. And Jacob placed his father and his brethren and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, the best of the land, in the land of Ramses, the Pharaoh that commanded. And as Pharaoh had commanded and Joseph nourished his father and his brethren and all his father's house with bread according to their families. And there was no bread in all the land. Okay, that's going into the next part of the story, which I'm not going to go into.

Jacob missed the point. Few and evil have my days been 130 years. That's a few evil. You come into a foreign country and they give you the best of everything.

I'm going to end with this. He starts out with all these things that are against me. He ends up with few and evil have my days been. I submit to you that all of us, we don't see things the way they are. We see things the way we are.

If you don't like.

What you see.

Change the one Seeing.

If you'll begin to allow the word of God to adjust your perspective and bring into focus all the blessings, some of which were wrapped in curses. I think you'll be amazed and walk through the rest of your life with an attitude of gratitude for the blessings of the God upon your life. I trust that this is going to help somebody.

Share it. Like it? Comment on it. Subscribe and anything else. YouTube you can think of. I don't know. I know there's some other stuff that you can do, but I don't remember what they are, so. Cheryl, thumbs up. Give a thumbs up. Like it. Okay. All right. I appreciate y'. All. And by the grace of God, we'll see y' all next Wednesday. Not live, but we have a recording for next Wednesday because I'll be traveling again, so in the mean.