In this small group study Dr. Tony Evans uses the epic faith, life, and career of Joseph to teach that God is more interested in your development than your arrival. Like Joseph, a kidnapped and enslaved boy who grew up to save an empire, the obstacles and obstructions in your life can lead to real accomplishments. Granted, detours are anything but convenient. They take you out of the way. They are longer than you originally had planned to travel. But they are necessary. God allows detours in your life because He cares more for your character than your comfort, more for your purity than your productivity. He cares about your destiny!
LifeWay
Day 1
Scripture: Genesis 37
Positive Interruptions
A detour is an unplanned, often unexpected, shift in the route we were taking to get where we were trying to go.
When we get in our cars, we do so with a destination in mind. We plan to go somewhere. We typically know how we plan to get there, which highway we are going to take—even which streets we are going to turn onto in order to arrive at our destination.
And if we don’t, we at least type in the destination address into our smartphone app and rely on an automated voice to guide us every step of the way.
Whether we are following our own mental map or the one in our phone, sometimes we run into a detour—some closed end that requires us to make a U-turn or go down a path we had not previously expected.
I don’t know about you, but I like to get to where I am going without any detours. When I take a long road trip with the family, I won’t even stop for normal things like food and bathroom breaks, unless my family insists, so you can imagine how I feel about a detour. It’s not good. I sigh. I moan. I wonder why on earth did this have to happen to me right now.
Have you ever done something similar? You can admit it, too.
Few of us like to be stalled for any reason, even if it’s just someone cutting us off in traffic and forcing us to slow down. But detours are necessary if any improvement is going to be made on the paths we travel or if any wreck is going to be cleaned up or hazard avoided. Detours are designed for our own good, regardless of how we view or feel about them.
They are a good thing that often feels bad.
Divinely designed detours in our lives are also positive interruptions designed to divert us to a better path so that we might have the opportunity to reach our destination well. What’s more, they often provide the development we need in order to reach our destiny. How we view our detours will often determine how useful they wind up being, which is why we are going to spend the next few weeks examining the purpose, power, and perfection of the detours God both uses and allows in our lives.
Day 2
Scripture: Genesis 39
Under Construction
Part of my role as pastor involves mentoring and counseling. With a fairly large church, you can imagine the number of calls I get. I can honestly say I enjoy this aspect of being a pastor immensely. Not too long ago, one of the men from the church came over to my home to meet with me. He had been going through a rough time.
As he sat in my family room, head hung low, he lifted his eyes to mine and said, “Pastor, I feel as if my detour has met another detour and they got married and had a baby detour.” In other words, he felt as he were running into detour after detour after detour and that the detours merely kept replicating and multiplying rather than taking him anywhere meaningful.
It is easy to feel that way when God is taking you to your destiny. This is because before you can ever get to where God wants you to be, He has to do some twists and turns. In life, as it is often on the road, detours exist because construction is taking place. When you are on a highway and there is a detour, it is usually because workers are trying to fix, build, correct, or improve something.
Similarly, God will take us on a detour because He is constructing something in our lives as well. Granted, detours are anything but convenient. They take you out of the way. They are longer than you originally had planned to travel. But they are necessary. God is more interested in your development than your arrival. He cares more for your character than your comfort, more for your purity than your productivity.
Day 3
Scriptures: Genesis 40, Genesis 41
Patience and Purpose
Several years ago I had gone with my wife to Hawaii for a speaking engagement. Since we don’t get over to Hawaii very often, we decided to add on a few additional days for rest and relaxation. The plans had been made. The weather was perfect. I finished my speaking engagement and we were both ready to relax.
The first few days went by fine but then something happened that I will never forget. Before I could even know what hit me, I was suddenly ravaged by a pain level I had never felt before. Now, I’m a man, and if you know me at all, you know that I pride myself on being a “kingdom man.” However, in this moment in time, even a kingdom man had to yell out in agony. I suddenly had a lot of compassion for any woman who has ever given birth. The pain was so unbearable that I could barely speak and I felt like I was about to pass out.
Lois quickly arranged for transportation, and we headed to the nearest hospital. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful for hospitals. I’m thankful for doctors. And I appreciate the fact that they have to gather all of the proper information before they can begin administering treatment. I don’t want them to make a mistake, so I understand that processes are important. However, when you are seized by unspeakable pain, filling out forms or waiting in a chair for them to call your name is the last thing you want to do. Minutes felt like a millennium. If you have ever been in an emergency room, then you know exactly what I mean.
Waiting is no fun when you are in pain. In fact, waiting is no fun anytime. Really. We get impatient in lines that are too long at the store. We sigh in traffic that impedes our forward progress at the speed we want to go. We want our food as soon as we place the order. Our nation is certainly the home of the free and the land of the brave, but it isn’t exactly a melting pot of patience.
But patience is a virtue we all need. So when God puts you or me on a detour that seems to be taking too long—and especially when the wait includes pain—patience, when practiced rightly, can quite possibly even speed up the path to your purpose.
Day 4
Scriptures: Genesis 45, Genesis 46, Genesis 47
Pardon and Unforgiveness
Unforgiveness. Bitterness. Resentment. Regret. Languishing over the loss of the past. All of these things, and those other things similar to them, hinder us from reaching our destiny. They keep us trapped on detours for far too long. They weigh heavy on us, causing our shoulders to slump and our smiles to turn downward.
Far too many people are failing to reach their destinations because they are still feeling loaded down by the pain of the past. The weight of yesterday continues to weigh them down today, keeping them from moving freely into tomorrow.
Nothing, and I mean nothing, will hinder you arriving at your destiny like this thing called unforgiveness. Unforgiveness includes holding on to past pain, past hurts, past grudges—the weightiness of regret, remorse, and revenge. Unforgiveness is that one thing above all else that will block God’s movement in your life taking you from where you are to where you are supposed to go.
When you hang on to the weight of yesterday, it will hinder the progress to tomorrow.
Unforgiveness is that critical area that must be addressed if you are going to reach your destiny.
If anyone had a right to be angry, bitter, and hold a grudge, it was Joseph. But Joseph chose another path. Joseph chose another approach. He chose a different perspective.
If you and I want to be set free from unforgiveness, Joseph’s perspective on pardon must be our own.
Day 5
Scripture: Genesis 50:1-20
Meant for Your Destiny
Meant.
The word can be defined as the past participle of “to mean” which is to intend for a particular purpose and destination. You’ve probably heard someone say something they probably shouldn’t have said or done something that lacked tact, but someone else tried to cover it up with, “They meant well.” What they were saying is that even though what the person said or did created a negative reality, that was not their intention. They hadn’t meant to cause harm.
But that was not the case with Joseph’s brothers when they stripped him of his coat and dumped him in a pit. Nor was that the case when they greedily plucked him from the pit and sold him for a profit to slave traders headed to a foreign land.
Joseph’s brothers meant anything but well. They meant to cause him harm. They meant to ruin his life. They meant to dethrone him from the position of importance he had come to believe he would one day hold. They meant to harm him. Actually, they meant evil.
But God.
Those two words are two powerful words. When you come across “but God” in Scripture, pay attention. What comes next will usually change the entire situation. Especially if “meant” is added after them.
But God meant ….
Genesis 50:20 shows what God can do with something meant to harm you. He can not only protect you in it, but He can also promote you because of it. The exact thing Joseph’s brothers had meant to cause him harm was the exact thing God used to promote him to his destiny.
Day 6
Scriptures: Genesis 50:20, 1 Timothy 6:15
God Is in Control
Providence is one of the most important things you need to know in your Christian experience. The first most important thing, of course, is the gospel. You need to know how to come to faith in Jesus Christ for your eternal destiny through the forgiveness of your sins.
But following the truth of salvation, the second most important thing you must know in your Christian life is this concept of providence. Providence is the hand of God in the glove of history.
First Timothy 6:15 reminds us that God is the ruler over all and brings everything to pass in His perfect timing. We read, “…which He will bring about at the proper time—He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords.”
God’s sovereignty means that He is the absolute ruler, controller, and sustainer of His creation. He is the One who has the final say. Nothing, absolutely nothing, sits outside of God’s sovereignty. There are no events over which He does not rule. There are no situations that happen which He does not either create or allow.
Your boss does not have the last say.
Your spouse does not have the last say.
Your parents do not have the last say.
Your health does not have the last say.
Even you do not have the last say.
God created this world and all that is within it—and He rules over all. This is how we know detours are always for our good.