God of the Meanwhile

In one paragraph

Pastor Brian worked through the story of Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers, using it to talk about how God is always at work in circumstances that look, from the outside, like disaster. The thread running through the whole message was a single word from Genesis 39: "meanwhile." Whatever the people around Joseph were experiencing or concluding, God was quietly moving the story forward....

Read together

1. Genesis 37 Main teaching passage, the story of Joseph and his brothers
2. Psalms 139:5-6 Read from the Passion Translation to illustrate God working ahead in our future
3. Genesis 39:21 The Lord was with Joseph in prison and showed him faithful love, used to define the God of the meanwhile
4. James (unspecified verse) Consider it pure joy when you face trials of many kinds, cited to address enduring hardship

What was said

• When you catch yourself spiraling into worst-case thinking this week, pause and say out loud: 'Meanwhile, God is at work in this situation.'
• Think of one circumstance where you have been relying entirely on your own effort and wisdom to fix it, and bring it to God in prayer instead.
• If you need someone to agree with you in prayer over something hard, reach out to Lanisha or Lee and Colleen this week.
• Sign up on the clipboard at the table to join Tribe on the Wind River Reservation trip October 10 through 12, even if you are not sure yet and just put a question mark next to your name.
• Go to the Teton County Library tonight at 6 p.m. to hear from the parents of an Israeli hostage, as a tangible way to show support to the local Jewish community.

Talk about it

1. Brian talked about the brothers trying to solve their problem through their own wisdom and effort, and their best idea turning out to be 'let's kill him.' When have you tried to sort out a hard situation entirely on your own, and how did that go?
2. Jacob looked at the bloodied robe and jumped straight to the conclusion that Joseph was dead, when that was not what had actually happened. Can you think of a time when the evidence in front of you pointed strongly to one thing, but the reality turned out to be something different?
3. Brian pointed to Psalms 139 and the idea that God has gone into your future to prepare the way. When you lie awake running through worst-case scenarios, do you tend to picture God as part of that future, or does he get left out of the mental picture?
4. The sermon kept coming back to the word 'meanwhile' as the thing that changes how you read a hard situation. What would it look like practically, this week, to hold onto the 'meanwhile' in something you are currently walking through?
5. Connor mentioned from James that we are told to consider it pure joy when we face trials, and Brian added that few of us are willing to endure the pit or the prison where God's faithful love is most clearly seen. What makes it hard to trust that God is for you when you cannot see him working?