Relationships in and out of Prison

CHRISTIANITY

Relationships in and out of Prison

LUTHER | Short Film (based on a true story of redemption)

Watch the true life story of Luther who has been in prison now for 20 years, a featured short-film (22 minutes) made in May 2022.

Relationships hurt. How you react to the circumstances —the pain, the betrayals, the losses, the conflicts — makes a difference.

How you handle unfairness determines the outcome of your relationships over time.

Take everything as from the Lord

Everything. Ending up in jail is not exactly in your plan. It was not in the of Joseph either. Review the last 11 chapters of Genesis where the story of Joseph begins and ends. In Genesis 50:20, he concludes after 13 years of betrayal by his brothers, being sold as property into slavery, falsely accused by his employer, thrown into jail, and ignored by his cell mate, he exclaims, “You meant it for evil. God meant it for good….”

Pattern of Detours

“Today, I want to look at the pattern of detours. Detours have a pattern about them, that you should look for — if you know you’re not in the place that you had planned to be in. And there’s not a person here today, who is not

• in a detour,
• come from a detour,
• headed to a detour
• because life is full of detours.

There are three things I want to talk about today about the pattern that detours take, the route of detours, because you know, detours usually have twists and turns. You’ve got to go up here and turn here and come back here and go in order to get back on the main road taking you to where you plan to go, and where God wants you to go with your destiny.

The first aspect of a detour, which we’ve kind of introduced is, a detour always involve test. I love 2 Chronicles 32:31because it says, “The purpose of a test is to reveal what’s in your heart.” God already knows what’s in your heart, but the test is designed to reveal it. Because our hearts are deceitful, the Bible says, they trick us.

And so, God wants you to really see what’s deep down inside of you, and it comes out with a test. So, a test is adverse circumstances. Joseph is in a test because he’s now a slave in a situation he never planned to be in. And it is, at first he is in a pit — no water, sold into slavery by his own family, and in Genesis 39:1, taken to Egypt, and Pharaoh’s captain of the bodyguard, buys him from the Ishmaelites. He’s been bought and sold like property. He’s in a bad situation.

But as we ended last week, it says the Ishmaelites were taking him to Egypt, and when we fast forwarded into the end of the story, Joseph says, “God brought me to this place.”

So, watch this. Now, don’t miss this. When you’re going through a test, I’m not talking about a test you create. I’m talking about one that God put you in. When you’re going through a test. don’t mistake the hand of man for the hand of God.

Don’t mistake the hand of God for the hand of man. You see, people put him in the situation. His daddy set him up for the situation and gave him a coat. His brothers were jealous of him, and his brothers put him in a pit. His brothers planned to kill him. His brother sold him. His brothers gave him to the Ishmaelites. These are people messing with this man’s life. But if you only see what people are doing, and you miss what God is doing, then you miss the divine purpose of the detour. People were allowed to be used by God to move him from where he was to the next step of where God wanted him to be. So don’t think just because it is people, it’s not God. It’s only not God if it’s sin, but if it’s not sin, then look for the hand of God, even though it’s coming through the hand of man. Joseph has had many reasons to believe God has abandoned him.

And you have those feelings when you’re in a deep pit. “Where is God? Why did God put me here? Why won’t God get me out of here? Or if he got me out of here, why didn’t get me out of here like this? So now, I’m nothing but cheap property. Where are you God?”

That’s what happens during a test. It seemed like God’s phone line is busy. He’s gone silent on you.” — Tony Evans

When you are walking in the direction that the Holy Spirit leads, you sometimes come across stones that lead to the next step. Other stones block your path. These stones are obstacles that you work, or walk around, since they block the way.

Closed doors or open doors —in prison or out of prison, blocked paths or next steps — God knows why the blocked path is the way forward.