All right, Destination, get your fans out. You're ready. We are in a brand new message series. Okay, now I want to start it out with a really big question.

Have you ever noticed how life can change because of just one decision. >> Just one text, one click, one conversation, one yes, one no, one signature around the mortgage line, one decision can change a career. It can change a marriage by either building it or breaking it. It can create joy or create years of regret. Just by one dis decision.

And the strange thing is is we all think that we're going to recognize like the moment that we're going to be able to see this decision that's going to change our lives. We think it's going to be a really big deal and really obvious, but it rarely is because most of the big decisions in our lives start out almost looking completely ordinary until you're sitting looking back at that decision, that one friend you made, that one person you contacted, the one person you met, whatever the decision was that led to even deeper decision making. And it's only afterwards that we realize, oh man, that was the moment or moments that everything changed. Because for us, our life is just an accumulation of all of these little decisions that we have to make. Does anybody else here get decision fatigue.

Like, hey, like you are constantly, all of us are constantly making thousands of really little decisions like what are we going to eat after this. What am I going to do about how am I feeling right now. Whatever it is, right. You make little decisions about that. But we also make these big monumental kind of decision making.

Should I move to Florida. Well, if you like it this hot, then you should. No, stay here. Really though, like I like being here. , and all of these decisions that we make just shows us that if decision-m is that big a deal, maybe one of our greatest spiritual skills that we can develop is learning how to make good god centered decisions.

>> And so that's what we're going to be doing for the next six weeks. We are going to open up the word of God and we're going to follow the life of a man named Joseph. Now, when I say Joseph, I'm not talking about Mary and Joseph from the Christmas stories, okay.

I'm talking about the OG Joseph, and he's back in the book of Genesis. And this is a guy who's going to face a ton of betrayal, temptation, injustice, power, forgiveness, and all while gaining eventually this unimaginable success. And at every point in this story, , Joseph is going to have a big decision to make. And here's my prayer for you in this series.

My prayer for you is that as we look at Joseph's life, that you would not only learn how to discern and make good decisions, but to make God decisions. Make decisions that are Christ centered and that work your lives into glorifying him, right. Because that's what we want to do.

We want to work our lives into a place where it works for our good in its glory. That's what it says in Romans. So, are you guys ready for this.

>> Are we ready. So, today we're going to be talking about before we get to scripture, today we're going to be talking about how emotions can product decisions. Okay, we're going to talk about emotionalbased decision. So before we even dig into it, I want to tell you about what I mean by an emotionalbased decision. I grew up in Atlanta, Circle Vines kind of area and there is a street in that neighborhood called Bur Street.

Birch Street kind of connects all of the neighborhoods and so everybody knows Birch Street in the area and Birch Street had been around for years and there was a section of Birch Street that kind of veers off to the left. Well, years before this road was really established, it used to veer off to the right. And when this road veers off to the right, what happens is it is a straight shot into a I kid you not, race car, NASCAR like turn to join up with the other side of Birch Street.

Now, amongst 16 to 18 year olds in our high school who had their license, you guys know where I'm going with this. The flex was Erin's cracking up because we beat her up with this together. , the question was, "How fast have you gone down Old Birch Street. " And that was the flex for boys. It was like, "How fast can you go.

" And that's, you know, where you got your man constant, okay. And I'm here to say, Mom and Dad, I never did it. But that doesn't mean I wasn't immune to it, okay.

So, I was riding in the car with a friend. I promise it was a friend. That's not me. Riding in a car with a friend and I was just getting to know this friend. He brings me to and from school and he is having a horrible day like you know hormones on high.

He's mad at you know whatever this girl did or whatever it is. He is just limited. And this is the first time I've seen him like this and so he's very emotional. He's like, you know, mad and and just really in that emotion.

And so we're driving home on Birch Street and he takes a hard right turn to go down Old Birch and floors it. I'm like, okay, here we go. , I'm just in the back seat.

What am I going to do. And he takes that turn and he hits just this little patch of sand and does a full 360 and turns us around and then just keeps driving. And then get this, because that happened, he gets even more emotional.

Okay, my point is is that just a second earlier or a second later, that could have been a very different ending. I could have been tumbling through a ditch, right. And it taught me something. It taught me number one, stop driving with this guy. If if I'm going to do that, I want to be the one behind the wheel.

And number two, this is the most important thing it taught me that emotions are real, but they make really bad decision makers. And that's the whole point of this first message is that emotions for you and I, the things that we feel are very real to us, but they make really bad drivers and decision makers. And so my goal is that in this message, in this time together, that you would be able to discern by the word of God, the works of the Holy Spirit in your life, how to discern the difference between emotional driven decisions and God centered decisionmaking. So, now are we ready for scripture. Pull your Bibles open to my lucky number, page 33.

We're going to be in Genesis chapter 37. , and asking this big question, am I making an emotionally driven decision. , I want to say too, if you're new and checking us out for the first time, , we love the word of God.

We open it every single week. And so, if you don't have a Bible, I want to invite you, take this one home with you. Open it up and see how it transforms you and your decisions.

The other two things that I want to say before we dive into scripture is man like behind the scenes, I've been so excited for this message series. Like I've had it in my head before even destination started. And so I'm really hope that that God blesses you guys from this message.

So, feel free to take out your phone, take out a notebook, and write some stuff down because I really feel like God's going to speak to you through this message. , and number three, and probably most important before we read, context. Okay, Genesis is that first book of the Bible.

You know, the one that you read and then put your Bible reading plan shortly after, right. , it's it's that one. And we're coming to the end of the book of Genesis and we're coming up on the heels of the story about Jacob and then we hear about his son Joseph and Joseph kind of gets to end the book of Genesis.

And so that's kind of the context of what's going on here. So if you read with me in verse one and we'll just kind of get a little bit more context from Genesis here. It says this. Jacob lived in the the land where his father stayed, the land of Canaan.

This is the account of Jacob Stanley. Joseph, a young man of 17. Remember that, okay.

He's the guy from Florida down old street. Joseph, 17, was jending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Ba and the sons of Zeila, his father's wives, and brought their father a bad report to them. Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons because he had been born to him at an old age and he made him an ordinary robe for him. This is where we get that term you know Joseph with the technicolor dreamo. It's a really nice, bright, loud, , amazing, admired, , kind of, you know, apparel, right.

And it says, "When his brothers saw their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and couldn't speak a kind word to him. " Okay, this is like the equivalent of if your dad got your brother or sister, bound for me, I'm an only child. Your brother or your sister a fullon beautiful dream car and then just said well you got your shoes walk like that is why his fathers feel this tension is because Joseph gets this really great treatment now look at what happens in verse 5 Joseph had a dream when he told his brothers they hated him all the more he said listen to this dream I had we were binding sheets of grain helping us with yield But suddenly my sheep rose above and stood upright while your sheep gathered around mine and bowed to it. Okay, what this is saying is basically, hey, I'm going to be better than you guys.

Okay, not only did I get this coke, but now I'm going to be elevated above is what this dream says. And then his brothers respond. His brothers say, "Do you intend to rule us. Will you actually rule us. " And they hated him all the more because of his dream.

And what he had said. Okay, so you think Joseph learned, he's got a coat, he says a dream. Look what happens in verse 9.

Then he had another dream and he told his brothers, "Dude, Joseph, read the room. " Okay, this is a bad idea. They already hate you, okay. They're already mad at you. He says, "Listen," he said, "I had another dream.

" And this time, the sun and the moon and the 11 stars were bowing down to me. When he told his father this as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him. He got mad at him and said, "What is this training guy. Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow to the ground before you. " His brothers were what is it that jealous of him.

But his father have this matter in part. So his father gets angry, but he's also keeping it in mind that hey, maybe there's something to this. It's kind of like what Mary did to Jesus when Jesus was born, right.

Only Mary never rebuked Jesus cuz he was a baby. But here's the point is right here in verse 11 something happens because Joseph 17 years old still living at home tells his brothers tells them all of these things and then shares this dream and then his brothers react in jealousy. Now, today out of the six weeks of the series is the only time that we're really not going to look at Joseph's decision, but the result of some of the decisions his brothers make.

And in verse 11, they make this decision or they they have this emotion that starts and you see it. It says jealousy. It says they were jealous.

And what they didn't hear is God has a plan. What they heard was Joseph is going to be greater than me. And that's the point when jealousy and pride started to show itself.

And that for us is one of the biggest emotional drivers that you and I have is it's this jealousy that's rooted in pride. Like, have you ever noticed how easy it is for us, like Joseph's brothers, to see somebody else's blessing and then let it become our burden. I'm going to let you sit with that one for a minute cuz that one like it convicts me.

Like, somebody gets a promotion, somebody announces that they're pregnant, somebody buys a house, somebody gets engaged or starts succeeding, and there comes a point in a time. Maybe it's at the beginning, middle, wherever it is. Then you stop celebrating that and you're like, "Hey, when it's my turn, like what about for me, right. " And his brothers, that's what they do.

They hear this and his father and they automatically just rebuke Joseph and why, like, why can't they just like ask him some follow-up questions or why can't they just be happy for him. And so you have to wonder like where does that jealousy come from for his brothers. Where does it come from for for us. And I think it's where we need to get real about what jealousy is.

You see, jealousy isn't fully just wanting what somebody else has. It's believing that you deserve it more than they do. And so jealousy becomes our pride naturally. And here's the big destination.

The truth is is that jealousy, comparison, envy, all of the things that the marketers and social media, the world is trying to invulge you and get you to feel. All of those things rob you of your joy. Rob you of the joy that Jesus has for your life.

And what that jealousy is really rooted in what about me. Don't I deserve that. Don't I don't I give that in my life. And throughout God's word in so many places, it says that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

And so if we want lasting joy, we have to be able to throw away all of that pride that comes from comparison and envy and jealousy and start living into our blessing instead of trying to live into the blessing of others. And what do I mean by that. What I mean by that is when you and I see all of these blessings that other people are giving and we start to let that become our burden like I need that in my life.

I need the camper up north. I need the vacation. I need the bigger higher paying job.

I need whatever that thing is that we put. That income is then our earning. And what happens then is we end up missing all of the blessings that God has intended for Gaus, right. Each one of you has unique blessings unique to you that God wants to entrust good to you that he wants him to give to you in your life because he is a good God.

But what ends up happening is we ignore those blessings because we want what somebody else has for their blessings for us, right. And so we'll ignore the blessings and let it become our burden. Look, God has a specific blessing, specific blessings for all the parts of the Lord.

And even for our story collectively as destination church, our story, our blessing is going to look different than all the other churches down the street, right. All of them have this unique carcass. And so what Joseph's brothers are doing is they're they're missing what purpose God might have for their life because they are rooted in this pride in this jealousy that's like what about me.

What about me. What do I get out of this. And so this is what happens. Let's read on the story.

Let's look at verse 12. Now his brothers had gone to graze their farmers flocks near Sheph. And Israel said to Joseph, "As you know, your brothers are raising flocks of Sheckchum.

Come, I'm going to send you to them. Here's Joseph's response. Very well, he replied. >> Let's just hang out here just for a second. This one response, this one small decision of saying very well changes the entire course of Joseph's body.

It's a very simple ask from Miss Father. Go check on the bellies. And he goes and so this simple decision leads to Joseph wandering and looking around for his brothers. And then you kind of go down to verse 18.

This is what happens when he comes up on his brothers. But when they, that's his brothers, saw Joseph in the distance, they could see him from a far distance. Before they reached him, they plotted to kill him. Here comes that female.

Sounds like a jealous statement. Here comes that dream. They said to each other, "Come now and let's kill him. " Get thrown into one of the Swiss fence and say that a ferocious angel occasion. Then we'll see what comes up with James.

When Reuben scares one of the brothers that we get to meet Reuben. When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. Let's not take his life.

He said, "Don't shed any blood. Just throw him into the sister. " Which, by the way, he's a very, very large pit. Okay, that's what a sister is.

And throw him here in the wilderness, but don't don't lay a hand down. Reuben said this to rescue him from them and taking him back to the throne. Okay, let's pause on his first brother, Reuben.

Okay, Reuben now has this decision to make. How am I going to interject with my brothers wanting to know Joseph. And his emotions start to play into his decisions.

And it shows us the second emotional driver, self- congratation and fear. Think about this for a second. Reuben, he's the oldest brother.

And depending on how you read this, it can be very tricky to kind of discern because you can read Reuben as almost a hero like person or a villain like person, right. You can look at Reuben and say, well, he's a heroine for just agreeing to hurt his brothers at all, right. Or to hurt Joseph at all. But he's a hero because he speaks up and he has this passion for not wanting to kill his brother. But then he's a villain because he kind of like possibly just presents a little bit of an alternative that's not as bad but could lead to this same exact outcome, right.

But then he kind of devises a plan. And you don't know, you don't know the heart or the intention of where everybody was at here, but he devises this plan. And I got to believe this is just Josh Williams here, okay. This is not a biblical commentary, okay.

I got to just I got to I got to put that out there. I got to believe that there's a little particle like how can I get just a little just a little bit of credit for this father, right. Is that what it says in the end.

It says, "I'll bring him back to the father. I'll rescue him. " So, it depends.

You could look at Reuben as a hero or you could look at him as a villain. But here's what we know that what he is doing in this passage is really a self-preservation for himself that is rooted in this fear, right. He's got this fear about what's going to happen and how it's going to happen. And before we're too hard on, here's what we ended up. We gave this to Okay.

And man, this is hard cuz I knew this too, right. We are masters of taking the path of waste. This is awesome.

Whatever is going to feel logical or comfortable or work or feel good, that is the thing that we wreck neighborhoods. I'll give you an example. All of us most likely after today are going to drive on Highway 65, right. I'll pray for you. , as we driving traffic on Highway 65, if you only need to get gas, , what is the logical thing to do.

The logical thing to do is to turn to the side that you are commuting on, right. You don't want to cross 65 if you don't have to or unless it's just a really nice gas station, right. And then you're looking for the cheapest prices, right.

You're looking for what gas can get you a really good outcome in price. And we do this. Why everyone.

Because it's logical, right. It makes sense. We're trying to always make the logical decision of what makes sense.

And what happens is that logic sometimes is very very want and very correct and very wise. But other times it is rendering prohibited fear. Logic can be really logical or sound really logical but be disguised as fear.

And so here's what I ask to you is don't make fearbased decisions that are disguised as logic. And now I want to give you a few examples of that. And these are going to be hard.

And and honestly, they were supposed to be up on the screen, but we're we're troubleshooting it right now. The screen feels hot, too. I want you to just listen to these because this is an these are kind of examples of what happens in our hearts and in our inner dialogue when we're making these self-preservation fear-based things.

If we're saying a phrase like, "Man, I want to do something, but it's just not the right time for me. " Really, what we're saying in our fear is, "I'm afraid. " Some of us might say, "Well, I just I I want to talk to somebody about my faith at work or in this place, but I just don't want to make it awkward.

When really, the fear and self-preservation is that I'm afraid of contention. Some of us might say, "Well, I just don't want to rock the boat. I don't want to cause conflict when really I don't think that God can help me through that conflict. We'll say something like God will understand if I liked right in in acting out obedience or trusting him when really the fear response is that I'm afraid of what we could do. You guys want some more.

Feel convict again. We're only at number four. We got a couple more left. How about this one.

I'm just trying to be smart when really I'm just trying to protect myself or somebody else will say something I don't need to do it when really fear self-preservation says really I just don't want your responsibility or how this last one it's probably not at that individual when really I just don't want to deal with them and see this is some of the decisions these are some of phrases in our inner dialogue that we will say to ourselves to convince ourselves that we're being logical and not theory. Now hear me on this, okay. Logic, wisdom, knowledge, they are all good things, but we must check our hearts to make sure that fear is not the final decision maker. And don't misar me on these phrases because God isn't calling you to be reckless. He's not calling me to start unnecessarily conflict or ignore any kind of wisdom.

What we need to be doing is be people that are asking instead of how can I preserve and protect myself, but instead asking what can I do that honors God. What can I do that glorifies God the most. I know this. This is a hard word.

I can see you all thinking it like, "Dang, I feel convicted. " I felt convicted writing it. A s this this yucky feeling of having to know and check my own mark that man, sometimes I will say those exact phrases straight out of my journal.

By the way, I will say these exact phrases and not realize that they are revealed completely in view just like Ruben. And so Ruben has this response that is rooted in this and it drives his decision. But then in verse 23, what happens because of that decision is they strip Joseph of his robe.

They throw him in his pit with no food and no water. And they spot Ishelites off in the distance. And these Ishawites are people that are willing to buy table of people.

And so they devised this plan. And then another brother thinks of this Judah. Look at verse 26. Judah said to his brothers, "What will we yank.

What will we yank if we kill our brother and cover up his blood. That that's selling him to the Ishelites and not Lady. After all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood. His brothers agreed.

So when the M Medite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up and sold him for 20 shekels of silver to the Ishelites. Okay, so now we meet Judah. And while Reuben is driven by the spear, Judah is driven by something different. He's driven by self-interest. That's rooted in his dream.

And how do we know this. It is by the first thing that we hear from Judah. He says this, "What will we gain.

What will we gain if we kill our brother. What's in it for us. " That's essentially what he's asking him.

What's in it for us. What do we get out of this. We just get blood on our hands and and and then what. So, he's saying, "Hey, let's let's get something out of this before we're too hard on you. " He gave us the food, right.

You love to say, "Well, what's in it for me. " when giving, when helping, when serving, when blessings and hotels, what's in it for me instead of asking what's in it for them. How does what I'm doing glorified on his name. You see, your brothers here overall, they're not motivated by necessarily God-given decision making.

They are motivated by these emotions. And as I said in the beginning, the emotions are real. They're real for the brothers of they being fearable decision makers.

And so the brothers are they have this pride and this jealousy. And Ruben has this fear and self-preservation. And Judah has this greed and this self-interest and all of them lead to this outcome that changes the course of Joseph's life and their lives forever.

And how does this story of emotional decision end. Joseph, you can read the rest during during the week in chapter 37. But this is what happens.

Joseph is taken like Egypt and then Joseph's father is just passively shattered in rest because they come back with a bloody robe and they convince their father that Joseph is dead and now for the father listen that he had decision. You see emotional decisions with emotional intentional problems. And that's why we need to bring more resources to the discernment of the Holy Spirit.

You have to bring decisions with the one that sees all and knows all because all. Now, does that mean you need to stop and pray for 30 minutes to figure out where you're going to get off of some sit. That's not what I mean. That means practice helping with discerning Holy Spirit leading your life on a regular basis so that when you're making your decisions, you don't make emotionally driven decisions like Joseph's brothers. Now, here's where I want to end.

I want to go back for a second because this is the describe and you guys did know this like on week one, okay. And so anybody who participles here just be like, "Did you watch it online. " Because okay, I got this bit of information that I need to share before you get.

Okay, ready. Ready, Bible nerds. Okay, just me.

, the interesting part about the last rabbi that we just talked about, the Judah, Judah is in the Jesus. And what's interesting about this is we're going to follow the story line Joseph's flag. But throughout the Old Testament, what we're doing, and that's the New Testament Christian, is we're following Jesus's faith flag.

And Judah, the brother that just said, "What would we get is if Jesus is faking love. My gift, you have some messed up family. Jesus got some messed up things, too. And that's the truth.

And here's what is so interesting about this is Judah sells out Joseph for what. 20 shekels of silver. You know who else got handed over for money by a person that they trusted. Judas by Judas.

Now, the difference between Judah and Judah is that Judah at the end of the story is going to have a redemption. And so, hang in there with me because at the end, you're going to see Judah's redemption. But here's the good news for us is that Judah has redemption and that means human arms on desert. That means that through Jesus for whatever decisions we have to make or have made good look or bad through Jesus we can be forgiven and through Jesus we can go to him with the difficult decisions through Jesus we can make better decision decisions through this we can discern better decisions through time with the father and time discerning the Holy Spirit and how speaking to us, we can discern better decisions.

>> And that is what we're we're all striving towards is these god centric decisions. And let me just tell you, Jesus is always the best decision. >> Jesus is always the best decision because our greatest need is not just to make good decisions.

It's to make God centered decisions. And he sees all and he knows all and you can help us through all. And so destination, hang in there for this message series, okay.

Because in this series, you're about to continue to learn and to grow in some of your decision making discernment and in some of the ways that we hear God and reading scripture and seeing this story of Joseph unfold that through all of these unfair trials that he is about to go through, how he discerns and makes decisions. But I want to end by just simply praying for you. So, would you just close your head or close Oh, God. Close your eyes. , words are hard.

, and just take a moment for reflection. I'm going to invite the worship team up. And I just want to really just simply invite you into a space of making a decision this morning. And maybe for some of you, the decision is our relationship with us.

The decision is I have made terrible decisions in my life. And I promise you, as somebody who did not know a thing about Jesus until I was 16 years old, I can tell you that trusting in your life to Jesus is the best decision you will ever make. And so if you're here today and you have not made that decision, I want to meet you today. I want to meet you at the back table message.

I want to just pray with you as you process their decision. But for the rest of us, I want to pray that in all of your big decisions, all of your little decisions, that you would run to God. That you would run to scripture. That you would run to the one that sees all, knows all, is above all, and know that he is working for your good and his glory.

God, we thank you so much that you are here, that you are present with us. God, we put away self-interest in God. We put away and rebuke self preservation and fear and pride and jealousy and all of the things that we us away from here, Jesus.

Help us to make the decisions that glorify you, that honor you, that bring us praise and glory and all of the things that you deserve because we know God that we are that you love us, that you want good for our lives. And so help us in making amazing decisions. It's in Jesus name.