Setbacks are Setups for Comebacks | Hope Carpenter

Hello, guys. I am so excited about tonight's message. I'm hope carpenter, hope carpenter ministries redemption church in San Jose, California, and greenville, south Carolina. I church all over the world. So glad that you decided to be with us tonight. Call your friends, your girlfriends, your aunties, your boo boos, all those people that you love and tell them that tonight I have a word that's going to encourage you. You know, we all have setbacks. Everybody has setbacks. But I'm going to talk about comebacks tonight. Comebacks tonight. So get your pen and paper, get ready to receive a word. So, lord, I just decree and declare tonight that this word is going to go across the airwaves and it's going to touch people's lives, it's going to touch people's hearts, and it's going to encourage them in the name of Jesus. So if you're on YouTube, Facebook, live, wherever, thank you for being here tonight. Connect with me on hopecarpenter.com so we can get to know each other. Are you ready? Already told you that. We always get so bum fuzzled and just so knocked off of our chair, so to speak, about our setbacks. But God is the God of comebacks. Why? Because he has a life designed for you that is a good life. It's to give you a hope. It's to give you a future. He bled and d so that you could live an abundant life. He doesn't want you wallowing around in misery and anxiety and sleepless nights and fruitless jobs that are going nowhere and just relationships that just hit dead ends all the time. God wants you to prosper and be in help even as your soul prospers. But listen, there's plenty of people in the Bible who give us 100% examples. And let's talk about Joseph tonight. He faced some pretty impossible obstacles, and most of them weren't even his fault. Have you been there where you feel like all of this stuff's coming at me, coming at me, and I didn't sew for this? See, that makes it just feel so much more unfair. But what God did through him, well, it changed the fate of the entire Jewish people. And if you haven't read about his story in a while, I encourage you to go back and read it. It's in Genesis 37 through chapter 50, but check out this verse in 37:3. Now, Israel loved Joseph more than all his children because he was the son of his old age and he made him a coat of many colors. Joseph, it said, was his father's favorite Listen, I know we're not supposed to have favorites, right? So we'll just leave that right there. But that could not have felt good to the other 11 brothers, right? For sure it didn't. But you know what they did about it? Let's just say they didn't take it well. They threw him into a deep, dark pit all because they were jealous of his jacket. Y' all a jacket man. The pain we cause people over such trivial things. We get upset with people because maybe they're skinnier than us or they have a cuter figure than us, or their hair's longer and it flows better, or they drive better. Such trivial things that we put all this bitterness in our heart and we put all these feelings into the atmosphere. And we stir up all this strife over dumb things. Then Joseph was sold to Potiphar into the Egyptian military. Joseph must have been so hurt and so angry with his brothers and confused even about why God had allowed this to happen. Have you ever questioned God? I have. How many times have I looked to heaven with tears streaming down my face and asked why? Listen, I've brought a lot of pain on myself. I'm sure you have, too. And because it's the things that I've done. It's the sowing and the reaping. Listen, I lost so many things that were precious, precious to me because of the things that I had done. But Joseph hadn't even brought this pain on himself. Still, he worked so hard and proved trustworthy. And he became the chief servant in Potiphar's house, put over all of his affairs. But of course, listen, he wasn't home free. Guess what? He was betrayed again. Potiphar's wife plotted and schemed to seduce Joseph. And when he denied her, she accused him of pursuing her. It was another lie, another accusation. Joseph was again thrown into prison unjustly after he had worked so hard to make something out of a pitiful situation that he didn't even deserve or ask for. I'm sure he was so overcome with despair, anxiety, frustration. Listen, I know I would have been, but Joseph, listen to me. Joseph refused to allow outside situations and circumstances to define him, no matter how awful the situations he found himself in. Listen. He chose to rise above it and to keep fighting. Joseph is my hero. I want to be like him when I grow up. He got thrown into prison again, but that did not stop him either. There he went, interpreting dreams, using his gifts. He wasn't sitting around in a corner sucking his thumb and ticked off and cussing everybody out on Facebook and talking about people. No, he helped people in whatever situation he found himself in. Now, it would be such a great story if I told you that because of his good attitude, Joseph immediately got out of that prison and tiptoed through the tulips into his wonderful trouble free life. But of course he didn't. He sat in that prison forgotten for years. Joseph didn't deserve to go through any of this devastation. But fast forward to the end of the story. Genesis 50:20. If any of you know me, you know I love this scripture. And it tells us why. Say why. It tells us why he was allowed to go through it. Listen, there's always a why. There's always a why. God is the master puppeteer of your life. He sees the ups and the downs, the good and the bad, and he's up there pulling those strings because he knows the end result already. There's always a why. Why we go through what we go through. There was a famine in the land, and its effect stretched into Canaan, where Joseph's father, Israel and brothers lived. They heard that there was food stored in Egypt and Israel sent some of his sons to Egypt to buy food. Now, mind you, Joseph had pressed on, waited, had been released from prison and now had a family of his own. He had in fact risen to the position of vizier, which was basically the highest ranking advisor and was second only to the pharaoh in Egypt. Listen, he'd done good. He had come out of this thing. He had some setbacks, but he had come back. And this is exactly who's who Joseph's brothers had to come to. They had to come to him to beg for food. Listen, isn't that how God just tends to work? Joseph had reached some degree of happy, fulfilled life, but there was something missing. Listen. There was no resolution, no answered questions about why he had to go through all of this hardship. Listen. There was just a past full of pain, regrets, bad memories, heartache. And when Joseph came face to face with his brothers after all of these years, he tested them to see if they felt bad for how horribly they had treated him. He saw the pain on their faces and the tears in their eyes. He saw how much they needed the grain that only he could give them. Listen, he. He could have chosen to withhold the very thing they wanted and needed. He had that power. He had that right. But Joseph had been through many, many, many trials and. Listen, trials do something for you that nothing else can. Whew. He had seen how faithful God had been to him through it all. And he realized that God had put him in this place for this very moment. Do you hear what I'm saying? Joseph realized that God had allowed him to face trials so that he would understand how important it is to allow restoration and redemption to come full circle. When their eyes met again, with tears streaming down their faces, Joseph said to his brothers, you intended to harm me, but God. Whoa. God intended it all for good. Can somebody say that about your life? Listen, he brought me to this position. This is Joseph, so that I could save the lives of many people. Genesis 50:20. Did you get that? Joseph didn't try to get back at him. He did not try to say, nope, I know what you did to me. You ain't having none of this grain. No. Joseph recognized that what is brothers did out of jealousy was the same exact thing that God intended to use for good. It wasn't one or the other. It was both. Their selfish actions allowed God to prove how faithful he was. Listen, if you don't go through a trial, you have nothing to overcome. If you don't go through a test, you won't have a testimony. Do you hear what I'm saying? Sometimes you do have to go through things so that God can get all the glory. So that you can turn around and say, it was not me, but it was only God. Listen, but that's not the whole verse. People often quote that verse the first part, but they leave out the second bit. God didn't just allow bad things to happen to Joseph so that God could show how powerful he is. He allowed bad things to happen so that Joseph could be in the exact right position to save the lives of many people. God took this horrible situation and turned it into something beautiful. Joseph suffered through terrible circumstances, but listen, that's what he needed to go through so that. So that he would be exactly where God wanted him to be when the exact right time came. God does that for us, too. Listen. He uses the terrible situations we face to refine us, to shave us, to strengthen us, and to get us to where we need to be to allow redemption and restoration to happen through us. God loves to take our mistakes, our sins, and the awful things that we have to face and use him for his glory. But that does not mean it's easy or painless and that it just happens. Joseph had to be ready when the time came. He had to be willing to go through means that he had to do the hard work of forgiving and moving past his pain so that he could be ready to be used by God at the right time. Come on, Y', all, how many of us are still holding on to all of this past junk, all of this past pain that God wants to process through so that he can use us at the right appropriate time? But no. We're sitting here saying no, it's my right. Oh, I want to hold this grudge because they didn't have a right to do what they did. I was 100% in the right, and they were in the wrong. So I'm choosing no. No, I will not be good to them. No. The Bible says what? Bless those that curse you. Do good to those who spitefully use you. And Joseph was willing to go through the process. He was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers, imprisoned for things he didn't do, lied about and betrayed. Listen, it's not even in the same category as the mess I made. But I do believe that God still uses the terrible circumstances in our lives, whether we've caused them or not, for his glory. In fact, Scripture's full of examples of God redeeming people's mistakes to help them walk in their purpose. Remember Jonah? Maybe it's been a while since you heard that story. You know, the whale? There's a whole lot more to it than just a big fish. God had a purpose for Jonah, and he told Jonah very clearly what it was. God told Jonah. He said, go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me. Jonah was a prophet. And back in those days, God used prophets to deliver messages, usually warnings about repentance when they had gone astray to his people. I don't know about you, but I sure wish God would be as clear with what he wants me to do as he was with Jonah. I would gladly do what he asked. Well, I think I would. You know, he's been very specific with me before, and I've disobeyed. What about you? Why can't he just be that clear and direct these days as he was back then? But Jonah was told to go to Nineveh to tell people there that had it all wrong. We're not told what they were doing in Nineveh that was so evil, but other places in the Bible. See the Book of Nahum. Bet you hadn't read that in a while. Indicate that prostitution, greed, witchcraft, plotting evil against the Lord were all factors. But Jonah doesn't want to go to Nineveh and tell them to return to the Lord. So he gets on a boat headed for Tarshish, the exact opposite direction. Wait. Stop. Isn't that what we do. We know God's got a call on our life. We know what God wants us to do. And we think we can turn around and run the other direction and run from it and that it's going to be okay and God's going to forget, huh? To flee from the Lord. I may not be a Bible scholar, but I'm pretty sure that trying to flee from the Lord is not only just a bad idea, but it's pretty pointless. God's everywhere. You can't run away from God's call on your life. God was not having any of this mess. The ship encountered a huge storm. Many of you know the story, but if you don't go back and read it. And the sailors started throwing cargo overboard to lighten the ship. And they all started calling out to their own gods to save them. All except Jonah, a real class act, who was asleep in the bottom of the boat, blissfully unaware. The captain woke him up and told him to pray to whichever God he served. Eventually, the sailors drew lots to see whose fault the storm was, which seems totally reasonable. And when Jonah came up short, the sailors asked which God he served. He told them, I'm a Hebrew, and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land. That's Jonah 1:9. You have to admit, that's a pretty great answer. But no matter what, you know, he still got in trouble. So when the soldiers, they heard this, they were terrified because Jonah had already told them he was running from a task given to him by God. So they asked Jonah how to please his gods. And Jonah told them to throw him overboard and that the storm would stop. And to their credit, the soldiers didn't want to toss him over to the side of the boat, which meant Jonah would certainly die. And instead, they tried to row back to shore. But when the storm got worse, they cried out to the Lord. These men who all worshiped their own God, suddenly praying to Yahweh, the one true God, and asked for forgiveness for what they were about to do. And then, at Jonah's insistence, they threw him overboard. And the storm stopped and the sea grew calm. We're told at this, the men greatly feared the Lord. Remember, we're talking about the why and how God wants to use it. We're told at this, the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him. Do you see what I'm talking about? Even while Jonah was desperately running away from God's purpose for him, God still used his messed up circumstances to bring these sailors to Christ. God used Jonah's mistakes for his own glory. And we haven't even gotten to the well yet, right? Scholars disagree on whether it was a whale or a big fish or some kind of crazy sea monster. But whatever it was, know this. God provided it for Jonah. Scripture says now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Jonah wasn't just randomly swallowed by a fish. God put it there to keep him alive. So. So Jonah didn't drown in the sea. So pay attention to this because it's important. God did not abandon Jonah even when he disobeyed him. I just want to pound on this. God did not abandon him. To Jonah, it probably felt like things couldn't get any worse. You ever been there? I don't even want to try to imagine what it would have been like to be inside a fish for three days. Oh, gross. Yuck. But God provided that fish. Listen, how many times has God provided for you? And it wasn't what you thought it should look like, but when you look back on it, it was actually provision. Because when Jonah was running from him, God still cared for him and gave him what he needed. Even though it may have felt like punishment at the time. God provided for me in my darkest days. He provided a secluded little white house in the middle of nowhere of North Carolina for my incubation and protection so that I could heal in private, in a family setting, in a loving setting. God cared for me and loved me to life. He provided people like Lee and Denise Boggs and provided their own grandchildren for me to love on while I couldn't love on my own. He provided a lady named Debbie Linhart in a small Baptist church where nobody even knew my name, along with horses, cows, rocking chairs, front porches, beautiful sunsets, rooms with no Internet and television. It may have felt like punishment at times, but God used it all. He knew exactly, exactly what I needed. And he positioned me exactly where I needed to be for my healing to take place. Do you ever feel like that when you're living with the consequences of your bad choices and sins? It can be hard to feel like God's there, but he is. He is providing for you in ways that you don't understand and can't even feel fathom. God wants you to walk in your purpose. And even at your lowest points, he provides for you to get you there, even when you can't see it. Eventually, Jonah got there while he was in in there, in the belly of the fish. Jonah cried out to God, and he promised to do what God had called him to do. So God commanded the fish to spit him up onto dry land. God told him once again, go to Nineveh. Preach repentance. And this time, Jonah listened. And the people of Nineveh paid attention to the message. They repented, stopped their evil ways, turned back to God. And even though he tried to fight it and messed up in a huge, big way, eventually Jonah surrendered to the Lord. And God used Jonah for the purpose that he had set him out for. I am here to tell you today, it doesn't matter how many times you've messed up. It doesn't matter how many times you've said no. Get back up. Do you hear me? Get back up. You who are listening to me in a prison tonight, you who are in a hospital tonight, you who are alone tonight in a hotel room, get back up. God's purpose is still yes. For your life. God's. God's vision and plan, the way he created you, what he created you for, is still yes and amen. Tonight, Jonah's mistakes did not disqualify him from the purpose God set out for him. Listen. And when he even got off track, God used the mess that he had made for his glory. Anyway, that should make you want to get up right where you are and do the happy dance. Have you ever felt like, Jonah? Have you ever strayed so far from the path that you wanted to walk that you didn't know how you could even get back? Or how you even ended up there? Have you ever, like Sarah, given up on waiting and taking matters into your own hands? God is still there with you. You cannot possibly go so far off the path that God can't use your mistakes for his glory. It's not possible. He wants to redeem them, and he wants to bring you through them and into his freedom. I don't know the storms that are raging in your life tonight. I don't know what sin or bondage you're holding back or what habits you're trying to surrender to him right now. But I pray that today, right where you are, you will trust that God, who made the sea and the dry land, will bring you through whatever it is that you are facing. I pray that you believe in your innermost being that he will provide for you in the midst of all of it, in the midst of the most chaotic situations, the most desperate situations, and will use you for his glory no matter what. Listen. That's the God we serve. That's the God I know. That's. That's the God I have based my whole life on because I've seen him do it time and time and time and time and time again. Not just in my life, but in my family's life, in my children's life, in my friend's life, in my parents life, in everybody. I know there's never a time in our life that we don't go through storms and we don't go through trials. But listen, God is wanting to see what we are doing in the midst of those storms, in the midst of those trials. If we will see, submit our heart, if we will posture ourself and say, God, use this. God, use this for your glory and for my good and for the salvation of many. What are you going through right now that God has his finger on? Just waiting for you to say, God, use this. Instead of being mad about it, instead of being critical, instead of being angry, instead of forgetting God and not going to church and not doing the things that you know are right. What could you be going through that God so desperately wants to use? What? Where are you in life that God wants to situation you and position you right there? Because he knows who's coming up, who's coming around the corner, who's going to move to that city, who only you can minister to. God wants to. To use everything. Listen, nothing is wasted in serving God. Nothing. He uses it all. The good, the bad, the ugly. Listen, I want to encourage you tonight. Don't give up on God. No matter what you're going through. God wants to use it and I know that he's going to use it in your life. Come on, won't you stand up right where you are and give him a shout of praise? You say, maybe I don't feel like it. Well, guess what? Get up and do it anyway and say, God, you can use this. You can use my situation, you can use my circumstance, God, so that you can get glory and for the salvation of many. God's waiting on you. God's waiting on you. He's waiting on you. So Lord, tonight I thank you that there is a comeback right around the corner. For the people listening to me, no matter what they've gone through, how far down they are tonight in life, life, that God, you have positioned them for a comeback. And I pray tonight that faith would rise on the inside of them to believe you to be that kind of God. The same God that you were for Joseph, the same God that you were for Sarah, the same God that you were for Jonah the same God that's who we serve and I thank you Lord that the most messed up situations can become beautiful in your hands. I love you Jesus I thank you for what you've done in my life and I know you want to do it for the people listening Tonight I give you praise, glory and honor in Jesus name. Listen if you haven't connected with me go to hopecarpenter.com I want to reach out to you I want to send you weekly encouragement. Got lots of things going on. We have a women's conference right around the Corner in September. HopeCarPenter.com has all of the information. I love you so much and I want to see you be the best you that you can be. I want to see you have everything that God says you can have. I want to see you do everything that God says you can do and I want you to be everything that God says you can be. I love you until next week. God bless you.