Bitter 2 Better -Pastor Hope Carpenter

I've been up all night and the weight of the word of God on my life. I got here this morning and I said, how does this man do this every single Sunday?

How does this man do this every.

Single Sunday and bring us such fresh bread? I mean, I just thank God for Pastor Ron and you need to pray for his strength and for his endurance. He's in San Antonio, Texas, this whole weekend teaching, and he did a youth conference and today he's preaching at Pastor Rick's church. One of our favorite friends, Rick Hawkins. So he's there preaching for him today. He'll be back tonight. So just always remember to pray for his strength because, I mean, I know firsthand what it feels like to minister just a little bit. I can't imagine the weight that he carries and, and the pressure of bringing you. And we do get it. Fresh, hot bread. You don't go to a church that gets some warmed over, crusted up, old sitting under a lamp kind of bread. It might be a different kind of church, but I can promise you, you're going to get fresh bread. You're going to get a word that changes your life. And I'm thankful for that. I'm going to preach today a message that is really my life. I'm ending out the series Bitter to Better Today. It's been a powerful series, hasn't it? My goodness, been so powerful. If you don't have it on cd, if you hadn't downloaded it, go to the bookstore, go to the lounge, get that, buy it online, because it will keep you when all hell's breaking out around you. It'll teach you how to go through the storms of life and be better, not bitter. So we're going to end that series today and I'm just going to tell you a few stories. At first, I got hundreds of these, but for time's sake, I'm going to narrow them down. Two or three, several months ago, I got a call. I remember it was on a Wednesday night and I was at home. I had had surgery and y' all were having church, but somebody called me and said, I got to speak to you right now. I got to see you. I'm just going through hell in my life. And I said, sure, come on over. And she said, began to tell me that she had confessed to her husband about having an affair and how devastated she was and how devastated her husband was and how devastated her children were and that her husband didn't want anything to do with her, that he wanted a divorce and wanted to kick her Out. And she had been fired actually from a ministry position because of it. So she was looking at her life and she was looking at it like she had lost everything. And she said, hope, life's falling apart. She said, and I'm just so hopeless right now. It just seems too big that God can't fix this. It's just too big. He's telling me he doesn't want anything to do with me. He's so angry with me. And I sat there and I looked at her right now and I said, you will get through this. I said, nothing is too big for God. I said, but it won't be quick and it won't be easy, but with God's help, you'll get through this and you will be a better person because of it. So several months later, several months later, I got a. We got a phone call and this gentleman who had been in ministry for many years, he had confessed to having an affair to why he confessed to his wife and his children. And his family, of course, was devastated. I mean, you can just imagine it. You can think about it right now and think how it would affect you and your family. And he actually was fired from his job as well because the girl was in the same place. They worked together, so they had to both be fired. And there was friction at work. He lost his house eventually. He lost his cars. His children had to be pulled from school. They were in private school. They were just a mess. They were devastated. His wife was so angry, his kids were confused. And he called me for advice. So I gave it to him. And this is what I said. I said, you'll get through this. I said, nothing's too big for God. I said, it won't be quick, it won't be easy, but with God's help, you'll get through this and you'll be better because of it. Well, about two or three months ago, this young girl came to me with tears in her eyes and just devastated. Looked like she was about to lose it all. And she said, pastor Hope, I just found out I'm pregnant. And she said, I'm an unwed mother. It was a one night stand. I'm all alone. He don't want anything to do with me. I was in college, I got a dropout. Everything I'd hoped and planned just looks like it'll never come to pass for me. I've disappointed my family, I've disappointed my church. I'm scared. I don't know what to do. And I looked at her and I said this. I Said, you'll get through this. I said, nothing's too big for God. I said, it won't be quick and it won't be easy, but with God's help, you will get through this and you will be better because of him. Cocky of me, right? Kind of cocky. How dare me speak hope into the life of such tragedy, such brokenness. How could I do that? Right in the middle. I'm not talking about months after. I'm talking about right in the middle of it when they're going through it. How can I sit there and say, you'll get through this and you'll be better because of it, While in their pit. Actually go to Genesis 37, verse 23. So it came to pass when Joseph had come to his brothers, that they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the tunic of many colors that was on him. Then they took him and cast him into a pit. And the pit was empty. There was no water in it. And they sat down to eat a meal. Then they lifted their eyes and looked. And there was a company of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead with their camels, bearing spices, balm and myrrh, the way to carry them down to Egypt. His brothers threw him in a pit. Now, the scripture describes that pit. It tells you that there's no water in it. Because if there were water in that pit, that would have broken his fall, right? There's no water in the pit. And it tells you that to tell you he went all the way.

He went all the way down.

He was bound. He had his hands and his feet bound. And he was thrown into the pit, cramped for space. His voice was hoarse from all the screaming.

Help. Somebody help me.

Can you imagine how long he screamed for help at the bottom of a pit? And it wasn't that his brothers didn't hear him, okay? Because it was 22 years later that they confessed after the famine had kind of tamed their swagger a little bit. This is what they said in Genesis 42:21. They said, we saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us and we would not hear him. We saw the anguish of his soul, but we wouldn't do anything to help him. Now listen, these are not lowlifes, okay? These aren't your modern day hooligans. These aren't hoodlums, These aren't lowlifes. These aren't reprobates.

This is a royal family. This is Abraham's great grandsons. Abraham. This is Jacob's sons. This is in the lineage of Jesus Christ.

Christ this is the royal family.

This is the who's who in Greenville, S.C. on every board there is. Come on, somebody.

I'm all that and a bag of chips. But still a dysfunctional family. They were family, but their hearts were hard as St. Stone Lunch was more important than their brother. They sat down to eat and heard him from the pit screaming for help.

This is messed up, y'.

All.

This is jacked up. They hated him.

Why did they hate him so bad? Joseph was the son of who? Rachel and Jacob. He had two wives, Leah and Rachel.

Who?

Who did he love?

He loved Rachel.

And when she died, this was the love child from Rachel. This kept his love alive, was Joseph. The brothers worked all day. He played all day. They had tattered coat. He had a brand new fancy coat. He had new coat and they hated him. They were jealous. They're having a family crisis. You're not the only one who has family crisis. You know what I say?

You got issues.

I got issues. All God, sharing God. None of us have reached that place called there. They took Joseph and they stripped him, they beat him and they threw him in a pit. They wanted to kill him.

They wanted to kill him and cover.

It up and say somebody, a beast, came and devoured him and ate him.

Listen, that's CSI Miami stuff. That's Cold Case Files. That stuff you sit at night and watch. This is what was happening to the Goody Two Shoes Royal family.

And here's the point, though. Here's the point.

Joseph never saw this coming. He never saw it. He was sitting at breakfast that morning.

Talking about his dreams.

Oh, one day, guess what? I dreamed y' all were gonna get to bow down to me one day. This is awesome. I mean, I got it good. Life's great. Got the new coat. Y' all ain't got a coat and y' all are gonna bow down to me one day. He never saw this pit coming.

And neither did you. Maybe yours came in the form of a diagnosis. A foster home, a divorce or a rape. Unwed pregnancy, lost your job. Joseph was thrown into a pit and forgotten. Maybe you were thrown into an unemployment line. Maybe you were divorced and abandoned. Now your kids won't even talk to you. Maybe you were thrown into a bed and abused. And when this happens to us, our life is reduced to one thing. And it's this.

Somebody get me out of this pit so that I won't feel this pain anymore.

That's not easy. Because pits don't have exits. They don't have easy exits. They don't have trap doors. They don't have ladders. There's no easy way out of a pit. And Joseph's story got worse before it got better. He was abandoned. He was enslaved. He was entrapped.

Then he was imprisoned.

But he never gave up.

Joseph never gave up.

He never let bitterness grab him. He never let it harden his heart. He not only survived Joseph, he thrived. He succeeded. He went to the next level.

Every time something knocked him down.

He was elevated to chief servant. He was promoted from being in jail to being over the jail members.

Pharaoh, the highest ruler in all the earth. Earth made him prime minister. And then he saved the whole world from salvation starvation.

What would Joseph's resume look like? Joseph, son of Jacob, hated by his family, mistreated, lied on, sold out slave. Graduated from the school of hard knocks. Director of global whatever to save everybody success.

He got through it.

Joseph got through it because nothing's too hard for God. It wasn't quick and it wasn't easy. But with God's help, Joseph got through it. And guess what? He became better because of it. And now here we are, 20 years later. 20 years later. And his brothers came to him. Can you imagine 20 years later when they're coming to Joseph and the roles are reversed? And they came in fear that Joseph would settle the score. I bet they came like this. Dude, you better put your coat up over your head. Get your hand out like that. Can you help me get some food? I hope he don't recognize me 20 years later. Put some dirt on your face or something. Dude, he's going to kill us. And you know, the scripture even says this. It says when he saw him coming, that he had to go away and hide himself. Because he was in such tears, in such a broken state. Because he loved them and had such compassion. Look, I might have had my shank out and ready. You hear me? One. Ready to go. Just so. Just one. God. Can I cut them one time?

God, Just one. Can I not give them?

Can I give them just one bite? But he didn't. And here's the explanation. Y' all ain't ready. Genesis 50:20. As for you, this is what he's saying to his brothers. He said, as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.

In order to bring about this present result, to preserve the lives of men. You tried to kill me. But if you had not put me in that pit, I wouldn't be able to stand here today and save your life. If I had not been through hell, if I'd not served jail time. If I had not done what I had to do to go through what I got to go through, God could not have used it to promote me and elevate me to bring life to you.

Today. You meant evil against me.

But God. You better look at somebody and say, but God. But God. In God's hands, intended evil always turns out to good. In God's hands, the evil against you always turns out for good.

Now, don't, don't, don't misunderstand me. Nothing I'm saying is glossing over the pain, the blood stain, the tears, the torment in his mind, the abandonment issues. But time and time and time again, God redeemed it for him. His torn robe turned into a royal robe. His pit took him to the palace.

His broken family were reunited, and they grew old together. That broken family was reunited and they grew old together.

Together.

Somebody needs to hear.

In this place today. God wants to restore your family.

What you thought was too big for.

God is not too big for God. God wants to restore you to your family. You meant evil against me. Joseph said, and he was using this Hebrew verb there for weave or plait. You ever plaited your hair, your children's.

Hair.

You wove evil. That's what the word meant, is weave or plait. You wove evil against me.

But God meant or rewove it together for good.

God is the master weaver. He stretches the yarn and he intertwines the colors, and he takes the twigs.

And the broken places and then he weaves them together with the royal pieces and the velvet strands. The pain and the pleasure, the good and the bad, the ups and the downs, the divorce and the rape, the abandonment and the loss of the job. He weaves it all together.

And God meant it for good in order to bring about that word. Bring about is a construction term.

Like.

The one we drive through every day.

On 85 and 385.

Y' all know what I'm talking about.

Boom, There it is. 385, 85. And you know it's coming.

You know it's gonna make you late.

You know, there's cranes, you know there's workers, you know, there's stop. You know there's gonna be detours and delays. You know it's frustrating.

And you say, how long is this gonna last?

But the designer of the project has.

A different attitude about the project, a different attitude toward the chaos. The designer of the project has to endure the same chaos.

Why?

Because they know it will get finished, and they know it will be better once it's over.

It's doable and it'll be better in the end. God is the master builder of your life. He redeemed the story of Joseph. Can't he redeem your story? Can't he do it?

Won't he do it?

He'll get you through this. You scared to death that he won't been there. We all do. You're scared the depression will never lift you. Scared the screaming will never stop you scared the feelings will never come back. Afraid the pain will never leave. Daniel had his lion's den, but what happened? He got out.

He got out.

Peter had a prison, but what did he do when he praised his way and he endured and he triumphed through.

The walls came down and everybody got free.

Jonah had a well, David had a Goliath. There was disease for lepers, doubt for Thomas, death for Lazarus.

But God gets us through stuff. God gets us through stuff. Look at somebody and say, God just gets us through stuff. I don't know how he does it. God just gets us through stuff. Look back over your life at everything that God has got you through. And you thought you were going to lose your mind. You thought you were going to lose your job. You thought you were going to lose your ministry. You thought you were going to lose all your money. But God gets us through stuff.

He gets us through the Red Sea. Sea. He gets us through the wilderness.

He gets us through the valley of.

The shadow of death.

He gets us through the fire. He gets us through the giants. He gets us through the storm. He gets us through the divorce. He gets us through the unwed pregnancy. He gets us through our kids on drugs, he gets us through it all.

This is what he said in Isaiah. He said, said, when you pass through the water, I'll be with you. And through the rivers I will not.

You won't drown. You're not going down. When you walk through the fire.

You.

Shall not be burned, nor shall the flames scatter.

It didn't say if you walk through the water. It says when you walk through the water. Why do we get so surprised when we go through stuff? When you walk through the water, when you walk through the river, when you walk through the fire, you gonna get through it.

But it won't be painless and it won't be quick. Sometime God takes his time. I don't know why God does it like he does it.

I don't know why God does it like he does it. I don't know why we have to go through what we have to go through. I've been on my knees begging God, God, why God? Why did this?

And why do my kids have to go through this?

Why did we have to go through God?

Why?

Joseph was 17 when he was abandoned. And he was at least, the Bible says at least 37 when he saw his brothers again. It was 120 years for Moses, not Moses, excuse me, Noah, to prepare the ark till the flood came. A 120 years. Can you imagine your preacher going around for 120 years preaching the same message every Sunday you come? It's going to rain next week. It's going to rain the next Sunday. My message for today is it's going to rain.

120 years.

80 years. God prepared Moses to do his work and listen. Jesus was on the earth at least three decades before he built anything other than a kitchen table. It's not going to be painless. It's not going to be quick. How long will God take with you? I don't know. But I do know this. It's not in minutes, it's not in a few days. It's when we can stand up one day and look back over our life and say, I stand and I see the goodness of God over the span of my life. But God will use this mess. God will use this mess for good. I promise you. God will use this mess.

See, we see a mess and God.

Sees a chance to build and to train and to discipline and to teach.

What is he doing?

He's training and teaching future prime ministers.

And future world changers and future future.

History makers and future marriage conference teachers.

And future school presidents and future women.

Who save a nation and help them be educated. If you could talk to Joseph.

If.

You could sit down and talk to.

Me.

Or you could sit down with that little 19 year old who found out she was pregnant, we would all say this to you. The pit forces you to look up.

Somebody up there has to come down here and help me. Somebody up there please come down here.

Help me. Give me a hand. God can redeem the story of your life. You don't have to end being bitter. If you look at it as the master weaver who has been weaving the good in the bad to this beautiful canvas of your life. I was praying for you last night. God spoke to me and said that there are people in here who are in that pit right now. I came for you today to tell you that you will get through this. Nothing's too big for God. It won't be quick and it won't be easy. But with God's help, you will get through this. And the best part is you'll be better because of it.

You'll be better because of it.

And usually even the strangest thing about God is he usually doesn't even use our pit experiences for us. What did he use Joseph's for? So that he could end famine in the whole nation. Why don't you stop resisting your trouble and let God use your trouble? I want to pray for you. If you say, I'm in the pit and I was about to give up, but this word came right on time. I want you to come down here right now. God's going to encourage you today. I can't make the trouble stop. This prayer doesn't do that. But as an act of obedience, God can meet you right here where you are.

You will get through this. You will get through this. You will get through this and you're gonna be better because of it. You will get through it. You will get through this. We all get through it. God gets us through stuff.

God just gets us through stuff. Come on. Just reach your hands up to him right now.

If you're in the bottom, you gotta look up the pit. Makes you look up the pit. Forces you to look up and say, I need your help, Jesus. I can't get out on my own. Come on, look up to him. God gets you through stuff.

Come on. Some of you just need to cry.

Some of you just need to get it out. Say, I've been strong. I've been trying to be so strong, but I can't. I'm about to break.

And you need your brothers and sisters just to hold your hand and to touch you.

That's what the body of Christ is about.

Every joint supplied.

Where I.

Where you're weak, I'm strong. Where you're strong and I'm weak. We're for each other. Other.

Oh, you will get through it. You going to get through it.

Everybody.

You going to get through it.

God, we thank you because you're the God that you made.

You going to get through it.

And you made.

The rest of you out there. If you've been through it and you can say, I can testify. God made a way and I. I've got through it. Come on, stand up and let your faith arise and begin to worship.

Encourage your sisters and brothers down here.

God, we give you the glory because you can make it.

God's going to get. God's going to make a way for you. God's going to make a way for you you feel like like you come.

Up against a wall.

God's going to make a way for you. He can snatch you out. He's going snatch you out. He's going to make a way for you. In Jesus name. Come on, stretch your hands up to Jesus. Say I'm at the bottom and I need you to come rescue me.

Say I don't know how get out. I don't know why. Don't know why, but I'm grateful. Said I don't know why don't know why but I'm grateful. Anybody grateful? Don't know why.

Don't know why but I'm grateful.

I don't know how you get it but I don't know why. Don't know nowhere.

Make a way. Make a way.

You're the God who make you're the God that can make ways out of no ways. And I don't know Said I don't know why oh no. Somebody lift those hands and thank you for making a way be better. It's not over. I said it's not over. The best is yet to come. The best is yet to come. I said the best is yet to come. You have a future. You have a future. It's not over. Look to the heels for come of your help. All of your help comes from the lord. I said all of your help comes from the lord. Don't know why but I'm grateful I'm so grateful. Is anybody grateful that he's making ways for you? Say you made a way prophesy say you made didn't look good but I.

Thank you you made a way it.

Didn'T feel good but you made it.

You made a way.

Now we're standing here it's only because you made now we're standing here so you're the only reason that I'm standing right now. Come on, say it again. Now we're standing here and it's only because you it's only because you make you made it some of your ways may not be made yet but prophesy, prophesy, come on, don't give up. There's a way that's getting ready to be made if you just keep saying.

Don'T give up don't know how, don't.

Know how but you but you're going.

To make it y don't give up.

Made you made you made it. Don't give up you made, you made. Hang on in there. It's not over until God says it's over. I said it's not over Until God says it's over. Cause you made all over the room.

Oh, your help is coming. Your help is coming. Your help is coming.

You made it. You made it.

Your help is coming.

You made it. You made it. You're the only one who can do it. You're gonna make it. You're the only one who can do.

It and you're gonna make it. Now I want everybody up here just.

To grab the hand of your neighbor. Somebody just be touching somebody. Hold somebody. So I'm so thankful for the Holy Spirit. I couldn't live without the power of the Holy Spirit in my life. The Holy Spirit is our helper. He's our helper.

If we weren't going to go through.

Anything, why would we need a helper? So I'm asking the Holy Spirit to come right now and be very real to you. Some of you don't know him like that. Maybe that's why you're still in a pit. You hadn't cried out enough. There is power in crying out. I'm going to tell you, there's no power in silence. There's power in crying out.

God has met me face to face the most when I've been on my knees and I said, God, I need you. When I've been in my shower and I've cried and cried so loud, hoping no one would hear me.

You got to cry out to the only one who can help you.

He's the only one who can help you.

So, Holy Spirit, I pray today that you would come and be their helper.

God, I pray that we wouldn't look.

To doctors and lawyers, secular books, friends and lunch dates and a new dress and girls getaway. None of those things fill the longings and the void in our soul. Jesus, you're the only one who can heal me. You're the only one who can make me whole and restore me. So, God, I pray today that you would be very real to these people came desperate in a pit. God, I pray they would leave encouraged that you will get through this. It won't be quick and it won't be easy, but if they keep pressing and they keep crying out that you will deliver them in their deuce sin in their due season. I pray for everyone around the altars at our campuses right now. You will get through this. You will get through this on the Internet.

You will get through this in Africa. You will get through this in France.

You will get through this in Germany.

You will get through this in Australia.

And China and Vietnam.

You will get through this. It's the Maldives.

You will get through this in the islands. You will get through this all over the United States. He is the master weaver of your life and he takes the good and the bad and he makes it work for our good. So be encouraged today. Leave this place knowing that God is working on your behalf. God is doing construction on your problems.

God is doing construction on the issues in your life. We don't know how long it takes, but the designer of the project knows.

That it's gonna get better when you're done. In Jesus name, if you'll just throw.

Your hands up and say, I'm not gonna be bitter. I'm gonna be better. I'm not gonna be bitter. I'm gonna be better. God bless you. I love you.

I'll see you.

See you next Sunday. Pastor Ron will be here with another powerful word.

I love you.

God bless you. Thank you for being here.