Sermon Tone Analysis

Soccer game yesterday

Story - God reveals Himself through story.

We reveal ourselves through the stories we tell as well.

43% Narrative, 33% Poetry, 24% Prose Discourse

Joseph’s story reveals 2 competing narratives.

Forgetting Zeke

“You meant it to me for evil but God meant it for good.”

This story revolves around the brothers.

Deeply fractured family -competition

Who will inherit the blessing?

Esau and Jacob

Genesis 3 - Hide, Cover your nakedness, Blameshifting (someone else is the problem)

These happen in all families.

Hiding things from each other, Seeking honor at the expense of one another, Blaming others for problems rather than seeing things clearly

God is going to work quietly behind the scenes to change this.

But Joseph’s story is also really the transformation of 2 men, Joseph and Judah, into men who will ultimately unite the family and lead the nation

Who will unity the family?

Joseph is claiming that God is predicting he will.

At best he’s insensitive to the brothers rivalries.

He’s also not using his position to bless his brothers but to demand their submission.

The brothers aren’t willing to listen to Joseph’s dream and story with any compassion or curiosity because it’s all a big competition.

Pride and jealousy are stealing in because of the shame of not being wanted, chosen as favorite.

They’re creating hatred and that is leading somewhere worse.

The potential to hide something from their father

They get what they want - Joseph out of their lives.

But they don’t get what they want - their father’s love.

Reuben - attempting his own path of redemption

Judah - willing not simply to murder his brother but to profit from him

This is where all slavery originates from.

The willingness to profit from another’s harm.

But notice God’s story in the midst of their story

He provides Joseph’s dreams to point to a more hope-filled united future.

He provides a man in Shechem so that Joseph shows up right before Midianite traders pass by.

He makes sure Reuben is gone so Judah’s plan prevails.

He has Joseph sold to Potiphar, an officer of Pharoah.

We are tempted to question in God’s providential plan in suffering because suffering is often when we can’t see God’s hand.

When you can’t see His hand, trust His heart.

God in His mercy is not content to leave us in our hatred, jealousy, and shame.

He is working His story of redemption.

Ultimately God’s story tells an even better story of redemption.

In contrast to Joseph, who’s more interested right now in his position, or Judah, who’s more interested in his profit, we have a brother who looked out for our need.

He left His position of power and comfort and entered into our shame, losing his clothes on the cross, being hidden from and forsaken by His Father, so that He could restore us back to being brothers with Himself and each other.

We could not see this on our own.

In fact, we viewed Him as despised and rejected just as was prophesied in Isaiah 53.

He clothes us in His righteousness and gives us armor to stand against our enemies.

He gives us permanent access to our Father so that at any time we can cry, “Abba Father.”

What a great brother He is.

If you are not yet part of His family, all you have to do is ask.

3 application points:

We want to listen to each other’s sharing of themselves with love and care.

Are we not part of the family of God? Will we listen to each other’s stories with care and concern or rivalry and jealousy?

We should be known as those who are like our big brother.

He listened to the woman at the well when she was ostracized and rejected in Samaria and encouraged her to find God’s worship in the true story of redemption.

Can we do the same?

Do you make time and to talk and share with others?

Do you listen only for the point of sharing your own story?

Shame weaves into our stories through pride and jealousy and destroys our trust in God and love for others, and we must confess this.

When we focus on our own stories and not how God is working in our story, we are like Adam and Eve, Joseph’s brothers and so many others who act out of pride and jealousy and turn to hatred.

We will not seek to bless those around us but instead will seek to tear them down.

We will see the robes others have given them and seek to rip them off rather than trusting God.

Brothers - Intersectionality is a way of using various forms of suffering in the midst of our stories to decide who should have the most status and honor.

There is no substitute for peace without the prince of Peace.

There is no substitute for brotherhood without the One who was willing to give up His honor to help those in need.

Stories - Human trafficking.

Feeling they deserve it.

Confession in this case doesn’t look like confession of guilt.

It’s confession of the other side of the story.

“You meant it to me for evil but God meant it for good.”

We should delight in God’s story and how He rescues us and adopts us into His family.

Which story do you see in your life?

You can see your mistakes or other’s cruelties or you can see God’s hand, comfort and care extended through your Brother and Savior, Jesus.

In my mom’s family, God started to redeem a bootlegger’s family.

He used an orphanage, a war, and the Peace Corps to get my mom to Africa to really hear the Gospel for the first time.

In my wife’s family, God used lightning striking the tree a son was climbing to get a father to realize his need of Christ.

God took a man who was popular and self-sufficient and changed him to care for and shepherd others.

You are at the beginning of your story just like Joseph regardless of how old you are.

Remember He’s sovereign even over twists and turns and seeking to transform you and redeem you.

This is the story we are really living in.

Do you know His word?

Do you know His prophecy?

Over 300 of them predict Jesus coming, birth, death and resurrection.

Where your story and God’s story intersect - We’re going to go looking for him in the story of Joseph

Questions for Community Groups

What’s a story that you enjoy telling about yourself?

Tell it to us.

In your family growing up was there a lot of pride or jealousy?

Why or why not from your perspective?

How does Christ rescuing us as our brother amaze you?

How does it encourage you?

How often do you run into family stories of jealousy and conflict?

How is God’s story a better story?

Do you need this week to 1) find someone and listen to their story, 2) explore with a trusted friend how God’s story impacts your story, or 3) share Christ’s brotherhood story with someone else?