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Genesis – people relating to God part 8
“Living a life of promise in a hostile world”
Genesis chapters 39-50
The life lessons of Joseph part 2
I don’t have a big sweet tooth
Oh
I will eat and occasional piece of pie or cake on Wednesday night at our pot luck meal
Every once in a great while I will buy a candy bar or a coke
Maybe a bag of maple nut goodies or cherry sours
But for the most part
Sweets are not a weakness of mine
I can kind of take them or leave them
But
There is a sweet food that I rarely can pass by
If I happen to ride by
Walk by
Or even drive by
A dewberry patch
That has ripe
Plump
Juicy
Berries on it
I just have to eat some
More than just some at times
Anyone here who has this weakness
Knows that as sweet as those berries are
As Good as they taste
They come with a down side
The biggest
Plumpest
Best
Berries are always deep in the bush
And
The vines they grow on are covered with Thorns
Not big thorns like on a mesquite or locust tree
And not the tiny almost invisible thorns on a prickly pear
But small
Evil thorns
Ones that dig in and are very hard to get out
They don’t hurt all that bad
But when you get a mess of them they can sure irritate you and are sure hard to get rid of
Always sticking at just the wrong time
If you get them in your gloves or jeans they can wart you for a really long time
On top of the thorns
Yellow jackets
Red wasps
And snakes often like the bushes as well
Life is a lot like those dew berries
You often can’t get to the best
Without going through the thorns
Or fighting the critters that try to stop us
Life
Can be
Very sweet
Very satisfying
But
But the joy of this life is often
Surrounded by the thorns of this world
There are many
Things
People
And evil creatures who want o keep us from the good stuff
As we begin to wrap up our series on People relating to God
In today’s second study of Joseph
I think it is important to lay out Joseph’s life
Some will be a quick recap
We will key in on a couple of verses
And then
I think it is important to reflect on our own lives as well
And try and see what this all means to us
First please open your bibles to
Genesis 50:20
“You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good”
Joseph is talking to his brothers here
Reminding them of their deeds
But showing them Gods plan
Everyone here has heard the phrase “God works in mysterious ways”
Life is never a straight line
In a perfect world we world go from point A to point B
With no detours
No obstacles
No wasps
Or snakes
And certainly no thorns
But this the road of this life is filled with twists and turns
Bumps and potholes
Sometimes it is very hard to see God’s hand in the circumstances or situations that you find yourselves in
Right?
I have no doubt that this is how it was for Joseph as well
I am sure He like we often do
Had trouble seeing the good
Or worse
Seeing
God in what was happening in his life
I have no doubt he had “why me moments”
I have no doubt he threw himself a pity part ever once in a while
Joseph
To quickly recap
Was the favorite son of Jacob also known as Israel
Jacob as you will remember was the younger of twin sons of Isaac
Isaac was the promised son of Abraham?
When he was just a pup
God had shown Joseph through 2 dreams that he was going to be the fulfillment of God’s covenant to His great Grandfather Abraham
Let me read that promise to you again
Genesis 22:17-18
17 I will certainly bless you. I will multiply your descendants[a] beyond number, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will conquer the cities of their enemies. 18 And through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed—all because you have obeyed me.”
We have studied in our morning Round pens and in our sermons about how
God
Passed that covenant to Abraham- his promise
To his promised son Isaac
Then to how he passed it to
Jacob
And now in this story
That promise is being passed to Joseph
You see
God had a plan to fulfill his promise
But
The thorns of life got in the way of the sweet stuff for Joseph
Let me remind you
He was beat up
Abused
Chunked in a well to die
Sold into slavery by his brothers
Betrayed by his masters wife
Thrown into prison – even though all he had ever done was right
In prison was forgotten about by those he helped
Joseph’s life had not taken the straight road
His life had been full of thorns for years
Kind of might want to make you say
If this is the promise
If this is how it is going to be
I think I’ll pass
Last week we saw that Joseph like Abraham—Isaac-- and Jacob was not perfect
He was just a man
Just a human
With faults ands weaknesses just like us
Joseph had allowed pride and arrogance to start a ball rolling that he could not stop
But we also know by reading and studying the story of Joseph that God’s plan shinned through
After all the bumps and road blocks
After all the thorns of life
Joseph was put into a position to fulfill God’s promise
Sometimes we tend to focus on others faults and weaknesses
But it is very important to try to see the good in everyone and in our selves
Joseph had a lot of good in him
Although he was not perfect he was faithful to God in the choices he made
He was faithful to God in the face of temptation
He resisted the repeated attempts by Potiphar’s wife to seduce him
And he knew and understood that on top of
Surrendering to temptation being a sin against himself
On top of it being a sin against Potiphar who trusted him
On top of the loss of trust and respect that could and would come from this
The best reason not to yield was that it was a sin against God
Also
Joseph resisted the natural urge to get revenge
I don’t need to completely rehash what his brothers did to him
But I can tell you
I have been mad at people in my life for a long time that did far less to me
If you are honest
I bet you can say the same
Joseph had every right to be mad
In the eyes of the world he had the right to get even
But once again
He realized that doing so
Would have been a sin against himself- lowering his morals – values- ethics- integrity
It would be a sin against his brothers-
Paraphrasing just a few verses
Love your brothers as yourself
Forgive as you are forgiven
But more importantly once again
Extracting revenge
Carrying the hate
The bitterness
The anger
Was a sin against God
You see by being obedient to God
By not sinning against God
God used the circumstances
The situations
The thorns
The hard times
To put Joseph in a place and a position to serve him all the more
To be used by him more and more
And to both receive and pass on the blessing that he- God had planned
God used the junk in Joseph’s life to fulfill HIS plan and his purpose
The most important fact in this whole story is this
God used the evil plans of his brothers to accomplish good
This shows us the true character of God
And just how deep his love for ALL of humanity is
God has an unrelenting determination to bring life out of death
Please turn with me to Romans 8:28
“And we know that God causes everything to work together[a] for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.”
Joseph’s life is proof that not everything in this life is good
Life on this place called earth is full of hardships
But Joseph’s life and story
Are overwhelming proof that God can use even the junk to accomplish his purposes
You see this verse in Romans does not promise that all things are good
It does not say that every thin we experience will be good
It does not tell us that the Christian life will be all
Rib eyes and new trucks
It ain’t always going to be a bed of roses
As a matter of fact
We see over and over again in scripture that just the opposite is often true
The bible tells us we will have times of trouble
That we will have times of hardships
God does not say everything is going to be good
He does not say that he causes everything
But
He says he can use everything for his good
Joseph’s life makes it clear that God’s ultimate purpose is to bless his creation
His purpose is to bring life out of death
Goodness out of destruction
Berries from the thorns
And
Joseph’s story shows us that
God’s purposes cannot be stopped or even obstructed by humans
The evils of the world
The wickedness of men
The pits
The prisons
The deceit
The thorns
Cannot stop God’ love
They cannot stop God’s mercy
They cannot stop God’s grace
Sometimes when we are in the thorns of this life
All wrapped up
Stuck
It is hard to see God
Sometimes in the brush of this life
We feel
Alone
Abandoned
Neglected
Abused
But
“And we know that God causes everything to work together[a] for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.”
God shows us through the life of Joseph
And through the lives of so many in the bible
He shows us if we are perceptive in the lives of those around us
And if we really pay attention even in our own lives
That
He can make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear
What does this mean?
I’ve heard that term most of my life
And while I understood tit
I never applied it to my life
What it means is making something good or of something
He can take all of the junk in your life and use it for good
He can take the thorns
The bumps
The detours
The junk and the mess
Of this life and make a silk purse
He can take the times where
We feel we have been Ripped off
And
Work in that
And
Every experience, situation and circumstance
To further his purpose and his plan
And his kingdom
And his glory
He has a plan
And his plan
His master plan will shine through
God made a promise to the world through Abraham
And God fulfilled his promise to Abraham through Joseph
He saved the nation of Israel
And continued his promise to bless the whole world though the Jews
Which has been fulfilled in Jesus Christ
Guys
He did what he said he would do
God’s plan was fulfilled
We know he didn’t
But
Joseph could have changed his own part in that plan at any time
Joseph could have given up
He could have cursed God
He just as we do had free will
But through obedience
He experienced the good God has for all people
All of his children
His plan is to spend eternity with each of us
And
All the bad stuff in our lives he can use for good
When we are obedient
The verse says to paraphrase
All things come together for good for
Those called according to his purpose
Joseph’s brothers planned to do him harm
But God used it for good
People in this world often have plans to do you harm
But God can use it for good
We unfortunately often try to do ourselves harm
But God can use it for good
Satan has a plan to do you harm
But God says
He can use it for good
Satan planned to do Jesus harm
But in doing so he fulfilled God’s plan of love
His plan of mercy
His plan of grace
God said to Satan
You planned it for bad- you planned this to hurt me and my people
Planned it to do harm
But I will use it for good
And everyone who calls out to my Son
Will be saved
Romans says for those called according to his purpose
What is his purpose?
What is his promise?
A hope
A future
Joy
Peace
Salvation
Deliverance
He is calling
Are you answering?
Have you accepted the sacrifice Jesus made for us to deliver us?
And if so
Can you see and trust him through the thorns
Close from the heart
Pray
