Skip to content The Purpose of Detours Oct 14 · 46 min ...more
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Dr. Tony Evans is the founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, founder and president of The Urban Alternative and author of over 100 books, booklets and Bible studies.
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0:00 Detours. Detours are distractions from the original intended route that you had planned to go.0:14 When we get in our cars, we get in our cars with the destination in mind. We plan to go somewhere. We typically know how we plan to0:26 get there, which highway we're going to take, which streets we're going to turn on to arrive at the destination that we're headed to.0:38 But along the way, on many occasions, we run into a detour. Something that takes us off of the preplanned route that we had0:50 determined to use to get where we hope to go. Detours are typically unexpected. You run into them. You1:02 run into a sign, or you run into a person who steers you, or a police who directs you in another route. And detours are1:13 normally out of the way. They take you off the beaten path. It takes you longer than you had planned to be using to arrive at1:25 where you were hoping to go. Often, detours are inconvenient. The straight line was a convenient line, but now a1:37 whole lot of folk are on the detour, slowing you down from getting to where you wanna go. Detours are typically inconvenient1:49 distractions, taking you off of your preplanned route to arrive at the destination that you are seeking to reach.2:00 If you are a believer in Jesus Christ today, you have a destiny. Now, from an eternal perspective,2:12 we know what our destiny is, and that is to be in God's presence forever, worshiping him and working for him in that2:24 eternal state. That is our eternal destiny. We know that. But our concern or our focus2:36 is on the historical destiny that he has for you in this life. There is a destiny in the life to come, but I'm talking about where he's taking you in the2:48 life that is. God has a plan for your life, a purpose3:00 for your existence. And the reason why you weren't taken to heaven the moment after you were converted is because there is a purpose on earth he desires you to fulfill.3:11 There's a reason why you're here. It's not just to work. It's not just to go through the motions. There is a God3:23 designed stamp on your life where he is taking you, but he rarely, and I do mean rarely, ever takes his3:34 children to their destiny apart from detours. In other words, he rarely ever takes you from a to3:45 b to c to d. He takes you from a to z to f to r to b to q.3:59 And you never know which letter he's pulling out of the hat next. Part of4:11 experiencing your destiny is understanding your detours. When you look at scripture,4:23 it is full of destinies being reached through detours. When God told Israel he was going to take them4:35 to their destiny in Canaan, they had to cross the Red Sea. But when you read the scripture, he didn't take them directly to the Red Sea. He took them down south, brought them back4:47 up before he let them cross the Red Sea. Took him on a detour. In fact, they wind up on a 40 year detour. Before the nation4:59 reached its destiny Moses was on a detour for 40 years. He knew what God wanted him to do, thought God wanted him to do it at 15:10 time. God had to take him over 40 years before he let him do it. Took him on a detour to the backside of the wilderness. Abraham was5:22 on a 25 year detour. God told him, this is what I'm gonna do with you. This is my plan. He never thought it5:34 would take 25 years for destiny to be reached because it seemed so real when he heard it. The greatest apostle in the New Testament,5:46 Paul, was taken on a 3 year detour to a desert where God took him off of the front page, took him into a detour, then brought5:58 him back before he let him fulfill his purpose. So let me repeat. God has a destiny for you, a place he wants you to6:10 be. And there is no better place for you than his place destined to you. But you won't get there in a straight6:21 line. There is no individual in the Bible who illustrates this principle of detours and its relationship to6:33 destiny like the life of Joseph. Now, I love a good suspense novel. I love a drama. I love a movie or a6:45 book with twists and turns along the way. Where they've got a story, and then they got a story within the story, and then a story within the story that's within the story that was in the story.6:56 So you got all kind of things happening at the same time. Now if I'm impatient, I'll go to the last chapter. Because then I can see where all this stuff winds up.7:09 Why don't we do that? Why don't we go to the end of Joseph's story? Look at Genesis chapter 50. This is the end of the story. We're gonna back up to the beginning of the story in7:21 a second, but let's go to the end because the end helps us understand the concept of destiny. And and I I challenge you to read the whole story, chapters 37 through chapters7:32 50 this week. 37 to 50 gives you the whole suspense novel. But chapter 50 gives you kind of the summary of the story. But Joseph7:44 said to them, that is his brothers, do not be afraid, for am I in God's place? You got a hint of destiny there. Destiny is being in7:56 the place God has for you. Am I not in God's place? As for you, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good in order to bring about8:08 this present result to preserve many alive. So therefore, do not be afraid. I will provide for you and your little ones. So he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. Please notice that phrase, as for you,8:20 you meant evil against me, and God meant it for good. Watch it. Watch it. That tells you something about destiny. It includes evil and good. It it's not all good8:32 going to destiny. There's some bad stuff on the way to destiny. There's some bad people on the way to destiny. In fact, in our lives, there8:44 have been some bad choices on our way to destiny. But don't get stuck there because he says, even though there's bad, he says, God was doing good. So you got8:56 bad and good simultaneously taking place in order to wind up in the place God has for you. Now what you don't wanna9:08 do is add more chapters to the book than is necessary. Because you're already in a detour, so you don't wanna detour in the detour that was9:20 detouring you. But nevertheless, that is the reality, and it involves some evil stuff that took place.9:31 Let's go back to the beginning of the story. Chapter 37. We find in verse 2, Joseph was 17 years9:43 of age. So we got a teenager here, where we're introduced to him in some detail. Joseph, he's9:55 17. At 17 years of age, he is the eleventh son of Jacob.10:09 Now, order to appreciate this and how the story unfolds and where the story ends, which we'll discover as we go along, Joseph is born into10:21 a dysfunctional family. Do I hear an amen? His family is10:33 toe up from the floor up. Let me tell you about his daddy, Jacob. Jacob, ever since he was a little boy, was a deceiver.10:46 He was a trickster. His name means trickster. Because he was always deceiving somebody out of something in order to get his way. He is a10:56 manipulator by trade. Anybody know anybody like that? Are you somebody like that? He is11:08 a number 1 manipulator in order to connive things to get from others what he wanted. He did this all of his life, which11:20 explains his children. Because his children became manipulators. Because what you and I pass on to our children are not only our11:32 looks, it's also our habits. Be they good or bad. So the deceiver gave birth to deceivers.11:45 Joseph had 12 boys by 4 different women, which explains a lot. 12 sons of Jacob came from 411:56 different women. So you've got all kind of dynamics as you got all these baby mama drama in the12:08 context of the chaos of the family into which Joseph is born. Joseph's oldest12:20 brother, Reuben, has sex with Jacob, his father's wife. Chapter12:31 35 verse 22. Oh, now you're reading your bible. Drama got good all of a sudden. Talk about12:43 scandal. So he has a relationship with his father's wife, and his father finds out about it. So you can imagine the dynamic12:54 there. 2 of his brothers, Simeon and Levi, are mass murderers. Simeon and Levi13:06 are mass murderers. Chapter 34 verse 25, they talk a whole time of men into getting circumcised. Meaning, get get spiritual. They get13:18 circumcised. And while the men were healing, they killed all the men. Because it's hard to fight back if you're a grown man and you've just been circumcised.13:31 They killed the whole town. So he's a murderer. He's got a brother13:42 Judah that has a sexual relationship with his daughter-in-law. I call this a messed up family. And13:54 that is the scenario into which Joseph was born. So if we look at family,14:08 we don't see a lot of the raw ingredients for a great destiny. Some of you here today, if you look at your family,14:20 how messed it up it was with your mom and your daddy and your siblings and your scenarios and or maybe even the blended situation and all and all.14:32 Yes. Chaos. But it gets worse. Verse 3 says, now Israel, that's Jacob. Jacob loved14:44 Joseph more than all his sons. So Joseph, who's right now the baby boy, there will be 1 to come after him, Benjamin. But Joseph, the baby boy right now,14:56 is the favorite of the daddy. Why? Because he was the son of his old age. In other words, this is the eleventh boy. But let me tell you why15:08 he's the favorite son of his old age. Because the mother of Joseph is Rachel, and Rachel was the wife that Jacob loved. He15:20 worked 7 years for Rachel, got tricks. The tricks that got tricked, wind up marrying Leah who he didn't wanna marry, and had to work another 7 years to get Rachel who15:32 he did wanna marry, because his father-in-law deceived the deceiver. He thought he was spending a honeymoon with 1 woman, woke up the next day, he married to a whole another15:44 woman. So Jacob loved Rachel. Rachel gave birth to Joseph. Rachel died a year earlier.15:57 So Rachel is gone. So the love he had for Rachel who gave birth to Joseph is transferred to Joseph. Joseph is his favorite because it came from Rachel.16:09 It came from Rachel. He loved him. Well, he loved Joseph more than all the sons because he was16:21 a son of his old age and made him a varied color tunic. A multi colored coat or you and16:33 I would say an elegant robe. Oh, this is getting tricky. He didn't make anything for anybody else. He made16:45 a robe for his favorite kid, the baby in the family. Now, you need to understand his robe. This is the robe of16:57 a king. Second Samuel 13 verse 18 talks about the robe the king gave, David, gave to his children, and it was an17:08 indication of royalty. This is like you having a bunch of kids, and on graduation day, you buy the baby17:20 kid a brand new car. And everybody else got a bike when they graduated. You're treating him like royalty.17:34 When he made them this special coat, notice what happened. Verse 4, his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all of his brothers, and so they hated17:45 him and could not speak to him on friendly terms. So now you got a sibling situation because daddy's playing favorite. Now let me tell you why they17:57 hated him all the more. Not just because he got a pretty robe. That would have been enough of itself, but that's a robe that goes to the oldest son. Because it was18:09 the first born who was to be the most recognized. And the firstborn got a double inheritance. In other words, the firstborn got twice as much18:21 as any other kid in the will. So they understood what this road meant. This road meant that he was gonna be treated like the firstborn even though at this point he's the18:33 last born, and it says, and they hated him and would not speak to him on friendly terms. They talked about him. They degraded18:44 him, and there were sibling conflicts. And some of you know what it's like not to be able to communicate with brothers or sisters or or siblings because of what went down18:56 with daddy and mama. That's the situation. It's a family disaster.19:08 But it ain't over. Because now Joseph has a dream. Verse 5, then Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated19:20 him all the more. Okay. Now they already don't like you, boy. But he now goes out, has a dream.19:32 He says, please, verse 6, listen to the dream I had last night. Verse 7, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field and low, my sheaves rose up and also stood erect and behold, your sheaves gathered around and19:44 bowed down to my sheaves. Now they already don't like you, boy. And you're gonna tell them you had a dream where they bowed19:56 down to you. So what was their response? Verse 8, and their brother said, are you actually going to reign over us? Or are you20:08 really going to rule over us? So they hated him even more for the dreams he dreamt and the words he told them. But not only that, we ain't finished.20:20 Verse 9, now he had still another dream. This boy need to stay up. This boy having too many dreams. He had another dream. And he20:32 related it to his brothers and said, lo, I have still another dream, and behold, the sun and the moon and 11 stars were bowing down to me. He related this to his father, to his brothers, and his father20:43 rebuked him and said to him, what is this dream you have? Shall I and your mother and your brothers actually come and bow ourselves down before you to the ground? His brothers were20:55 jealous of him Because he shared a dream.21:08 So we've got a confusing situation here. We've got a young man who's dreaming big dream. This is a big dream. In fact, it was a God given dream. It was a as you'll see it21:20 unfold, it was a God given dream of where he was gonna be 1 day. And don't we teach our children to dream? You know, we we ask them, what do you wanna be when you grow up? To grow up? That's that's21:31 asking from an employment standpoint about a dream. We're we're asking them about a dream. We in fact, we need to ask that more spiritually. What do you wanna be for God when you grow up? What do you wanna do? But what21:42 do you wanna be? We we're asking them to dream. We we we don't want them to say, well, I wanna stay here and live with you for the rest of my life. That ain't no dream. That's a nightmare on Elm Street. That's not what21:51 we're asking them. We're asking them, what do you want to become? What what are you looking forward to? He has a dream. So you've22:03 got family chaos. You've got a bad daddy background. Your your your birth mother has died. You you your brothers don't like you, can't stand you, don't wanna have anything to22:15 do with you, and now you're gonna tell them that you had a dream where they're gonna be serving you. Joseph has made 3 mistakes.22:27 3 very critical mistakes. Now we know his brothers got issues, his daddy has issues, but he's made 3 mistakes. Let me review22:39 Joseph's mistakes with you. Mistake number 1, the end of verse 2. And Joseph brought back a bad report about them to his father. He's a tattle22:51 tale. He go on, sneak it out. Me see what the boys are doing. Daddy, daddy, guess what guess what they did? Guess what they're doing? Well,23:03 now, if your brother is telling on you to your daddy, you're not gonna think much of your brothers, your brother. Now, let me tell23:14 you the theology of a tattle tale. Tattletales for tattletale's sake. Not because you're23:26 trying to help. You're trying to get folk in trouble. Is generally done to build up how I look.23:38 See, I'm gonna tell on you so you look bad, so compared to you, I look better. Because there's no indication he tried to correct his brothers, he just telling on23:49 them. So he is he is a negative, he got this negative thing going. Well, everybody got this negative thing going. But okay, he's 17 years old. So we understand it.24:02 You know, he's immature. So that's the first thing. Second thing he did was tell his dreams to folk who don't like him.24:16 You don't tell folk who can't stand you about dreams where they're gonna be underneath you.24:29 It's called haters. He going around telling the dream, and and they say, you what? You say, we're be24:41 bowing down to you? Some dreams you need to keep to yourself. Now they may be God given, but it's God given to you.24:53 Or people who are going to support it, not people who are hating you already. There's a third mistake he made.25:06 Sporting his tunic. Okay. Watch this now. We read in the beginning of the chapter, he's taking care of flocks25:18 with his brothers. His brothers already don't like him and speak harshly to him. He's taking care of flocks with his brother. Now he gets suited and booted. He's got on this25:29 multicolored, flamboyant tunic. Everybody else is riding up in a bike. He drives his car to the fly. Digging the scene with a gangster lean.25:46 He's sporting his tunic. The boy is looking good. And you'll see in a moment, he sported his tunic. He just wear it 1 time. In other words, he threw it25:57 in their face. I'm the favorite 1. I'm the royal 1. I'm with with the dream. Daddy loves me more than daddy loves you. And the proof is every day I get up, I'm I'm gonna wash this so I can wear it again tomorrow.26:12 You'll see in a moment. He sported his tunic, so he rubbed it in their face. So watch this. Joseph has a dream.26:26 Joseph has also been given a gift to interpret dreams. So that is his uniqueness, to have a dream and to interpret dreams, which is going to work well for26:37 him down the line, but Joseph is also immature. He's a tattle tale. He doesn't know how to transfer information to whom about26:49 what and when, And he wants to rub this favoritism in the face of his brothers who already doesn't like him. He is immature.27:02 So Joseph is gonna have to grow up before he can realize his dream, which means he needs a detour. Here27:14 it is. The purpose of detours is to develop you for the destiny God has for you27:26 while God is developing the destiny for when you arrive. God is doing 2 things at 1 time. He's developing you, maturity, through the things27:37 he takes you through for the destiny while he's working on the destiny for when you get there. Now it's nice if both of them happen at the same time,27:50 but I think for most of us, the destiny sitting there waiting for us to arrive. Because God has a detour and we create new ones.28:02 Alright. Here we go. When God is getting ready to move you to the next28:13 spiritual level toward your destiny. We'll talk about how to define your destiny. But when God is seeking to move you to your destiny, here it is, you28:25 won't like this, but I gotta tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth. So help me God. Things may get worse before they get better. And I know everybody looking for their blessing and28:37 all of that, that's half the truth. The other half the truth is in order to develop you, God will detour you. And I think most of us28:48 know, most detours occur when construction is taking place. There's a construction crew on the road creating a29:00 detour. The reason why God creates detours is because he's gotta do some construction in our lives first. He's gotta chip away at the parts that don't fit where he's29:12 taking us. He has to chip away at the things we're not ready yet. And depending on how we respond to the detours, tells us how long we're in29:24 the detours, and how long we're gonna be blocked from the destiny. So I got to tell you the truth. Things may get worse before they29:35 get better, because development is part of the process. See, we want the destiny. God wants to make sure you're ready for it.29:47 Because the worst thing you can have is to be somewhere God wants you to be and not be ready to be there. Because then you'll mess up the destiny. Everybody in my29:59 family will remember September first 2013 will remember that date. On September the first 2013, we gathered, and that's where my30:10 granddaughter, Carys, was surprised with an engagement ring from her boyfriend. Now, I struggle with that because that means in a few years I could be a great30:22 grandfather. I don't feel good about that. But that's another story for another day. But he took out a crackerjack box. He did. He30:33 poured the crackerjacks out and out comes his diamond engagement ring, he gets on 1 knee and hands her a bible, and then he says, will you marry me?30:45 And after all the crying and all that little soppy stuff, she she read to him. Now, if you run into her, she gonna make sure you see that ring.30:58 She walks around going, oh, the ring's on the left hand. Oh, how how you doing?31:12 Okay. She's got this engagement ring on. That engagement ring was purchased from a store where her fiance bought it,31:27 and he paid for it and he bought the ring, but the ring on her finger purchased from the store didn't start there looking good. That was dug up from the ground, and31:39 it was dirty. It had value, but the value was not now realized. It had to go through a process before it ever wound up on her finger. It had31:51 to go through some chipping and chiseling and cutting and shining and all of this before it wound up on the destiny of a finger coming out of a store. It had to be32:03 dug up from a dirty environment. I know many of us have dreams of shiny lives and gold lives and magnificent lives, but32:15 God says, I can't put you into my store until I clean you up first. I cannot give you your destiny if you will not allow32:27 me to shape your character. I can't give you your destiny if you do not allow me to deal with your sins. I cannot give you your destiny if you don't allow me to promote your32:38 righteousness. I can't give you your destiny if you don't allow me to mature you. So therefore, in order to give you your destiny, I've got to detour you first. You don't go from the ground to the store.32:50 You go through a process first of detour. And that means things may get worse before they get better,33:02 and they do get worse. His father sends him on a trip to see his brothers. He says, I want you to go check on the brothers.33:15 Because verse 12, they're tending the flock in Shechem. Now, when we open up this chapter, he was pastoring the flock with them. Now, his father33:27 sends them, you go check on your brothers. Why? Because they don't want him with him anymore. So he's no longer with him with them. He was with him when we started, but now after the dream, and after the33:39 coat, and after the tattletale in, we will shepherd without we don't need him. Why don't you stay home with daddy? So his father has to send him because he's no longer shepherding33:51 with him. So he goes looking for them. He goes to Shechem. He goes to Dothan. He's looking for them. And when verse 18. Here it is. When34:03 they saw him from a distance, and before he came close to them, they plotted against him to put him to death. Now you talk about haters.34:15 When your brothers wanna kill you, they don't like you. They came up with a plan to wipe him out. They34:27 said to 1 another, oh, I love this, here come the dreamer. Here come the dreamer. Okay. Watch this. Here comes somebody who think34:39 he's something. Because remember the dream was he gonna be over us. Here comes somebody who think he better than us, think he's higher than us. Oh, in other words,34:51 watch this, his God given calling was already being rejected by his own family because they weren't spiritual enough to understand it. So so if you're pursuing35:03 the Lord and folk don't understand where you're coming from, they may be your nuclear family, your extended family, it could be even your church family. They don't understand where you're coming from, but you know35:14 God is leading you. See, they're actually complimenting him in reverse. Here come the dreamer, but that's what he is.35:26 In fact, that is how God is going to use him as you'll see the story unfold. Now let's watch this as we come to a conclusion. They said, verse 20, let us kill him, throw him into the pit,35:38 and we will say a wild beast devoured him. Reuben said, no, no, no, no, no. Let's let's come on. We gotta come up with something. Let's not shed any blood. So it came about when Joseph reached, verse35:50 23, his brothers, they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the very colored tunic that was on him. I told you he was wearing this thing. I told36:02 you. Now he going to visit his brothers who are out with sheep, and he suited and booted up. So he wearing a suit, a a royal robe36:13 to hang out with some sheep and sheep herders. Alright? He's strutting his stuff. Watch this now.36:25 And they stripped him of it. Wait. What did they strip him off? They stripped him off something he36:37 held in high value because he's wearing this thing. It was given to him by his daddy. You see? Sometimes when God is36:48 taking us on a detour, he allows us to be stripped of things we love the most, Stripped of things we consider the most precious, the most37:00 valuable. He was he's taken away. It looked like he was finally climbing the hill. He was being recognized as royalty, And now he's been stripped.37:12 It's like when you've been working in a job and you've been giving it all you have and now you wind up with a pink slip when you've been doing better than everybody else and you thought that was gonna be a great career37:23 move and you've been stripped. You can be stripped of your dignity when you've given the best you have, and somebody you cared about walks out on you37:35 when you've been stripped. It's like when God told Abraham to offer up Isaac, the thing he loved the most. You're gonna strip me of the thing I love the37:47 most. God, how can you love me and allow me to be stripped of the valuable things in my life. Because when you're on37:59 God's design detours, things can get worse before they get better, especially when you're being stripped of something that you're wrapped in,38:11 that's covering you, that's close to you. It says, they stripped him of it, and they took him, verse 24, threw him into a pit. Now the38:23 pit was empty and without water. Oh, no. Anybody here today in a pit? That's a hole you can't get out of.38:35 That's a situation you can't fix. That's a wayward child that you can't control, that you won't listen to you, that's staying on drugs, and you're in a hole, and you can't get out of it, and38:47 you can't get them out of it, you're stuck. It's a it's a boss you can't get away from. It's a coworker who who won't leave you alone. It's a it's a it's a family member who's driving you38:59 crazy. It's a mate who is unresponsive, and you find yourself stuck. Because when God takes you on a detour, you often may wind up in a39:11 hole. He didn't create the hole. He didn't make the hole, but he was thrown into the hole. And it says there was there was no water.39:23 There wasn't anything to nourish him while he was there. There was no fuel for his well-being while he was there. It was a waterless in other words, it was a dry place.39:37 If you're here today and you want your destiny, I would not be being fair to the word of God if I didn't tell you that there are gonna be dry spots along the39:49 journey. There are gonna be places where there are no filling stations, where there are no off ramps for you to get something to drink, where there's gonna be dry spots whereShow more
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