God's Grace is For Us

Last Week, we started a new series looking at how God’s grace is strengthened in us and strengthens us when we are in those times of pressure. Like Gold in the refiners fire, struggles and hard times help cleanse us and make us stronger. We were reminded last week that God’s grace is with us, but this week, I want to take a couple of minutes to share how we know that God’s grace is for us… and it is for us to give away.

Turn with me in your Bible to Genesis 50. As you turn there, I want to remind you of the back story if you aren’t familiar with it. This is the story of Joseph, the son of Jacob who came to be known as Israel. Jacob had 12 sons, who became the 12 tribes of Israel. Like I’ve said before, Israel wasn’t a nation, it was a family, the descendants of the man known as Israel.

One of these 12 sons of Jacob seemed to be the goodie two shoes of the family. He got special favors, he had all these dreams, and the 10 older brothers despised him for it. So, one day they are out in the field when Joseph comes in his fancy clothes to bring them some lunch. When they see him, they plot and plan how to get rid of him. First, they take his fancy cloak and then throw him in a well… but when some Ishmaelites (the relatives of their great Uncle Ishmael) come by, they sell Joseph to them. They make some money, Joseph goes off to Egypt to be a slave, and everyone lives happily ever after, right… well, maybe not.

Joseph ends up in Potiphar’s house as a slave and becomes his most important servant. Then Potiphar’s wife took a fancy to Joseph and when he refused her advances, she concocted a story that he tried to rape her and had him thrown in jail.

But, God wasn’t done with him yet, so while in jail he interprets the dreams of two prisoners, one of the prisoners was released and began working for the King of Egypt, the Pharoah, and shares Joseph’s ability to interpret dreams with the Pharoah.

Joseph is called before the Pharoah, properly interprets his dreams, and through a chain of events becomes the 2ndmost powerful person in Egypt behind the Pharoah.

Because of God’s grace being for Joseph, the interpretation of dreams led Joseph to prepare the country for a 7-year famine that followed 7 years of plenty. This wasn’t just for Egypt. Egypt became a resource for all the nations during this 7-year famine. And that is where the story takes a turn. You see, Joseph’s own brothers come to Egypt to buy grain so they can survive. They don’t recognize their grown-up brother at first… But Joseph finally reveals his identity and they come to live with him.

When his father Jacob dies, they all go back to Canaan to bury him. And then once they return to Egypt, that is where our story picks up:

Genesis 50:15-20 (NRSV)

Realizing that their father was dead, Joseph’s brothers said, “What if Joseph still bears a grudge against us and pays us back in full for all the wrong that we did to him?” So they approached Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this instruction before he died, ‘Say to Joseph: I beg you, forgive the crime of your brothers and the wrong they did in harming you.’ Now therefore please forgive the crime of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him. Then his brothers also wept, fell down before him, and said, “We are here as your slaves.” But Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid! Am I in the place of God? Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today.

I love that. “What you intended for harm, God used for good.” This passage has come up in several conversations over the past week and I am reminded of a church I served years ago. When I arrived at the church, I soon heard about “The Split.” The church had a pastor that left the church and took “half” the congregation with him. The more I dug into the story in the year that followed, I began to realize that this had happened 20 years earlier, nearly everyone who left was back at the church, and both churches were growing.

I used this passage to talk about the pain that had happened, but also the good that had come from it. What had been a source of pain, should now be a source of joy. God’s kingdom had more than doubled. There was another church in town now with a completely different style of worship and way of being in relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Both churches were worshipping more than before “the split.” And that was something to rejoice, not lament.

God was for that Community, working in and through that pain to grow the Kingdom.

So, in these couple of minutes, I want us to look at three things that happen when we realize that God is for us… that God’s grace is FOR US.

1) We show forgiveness. Joseph didn’t have to forgive his brothers. He could have held a grudge, but he didn’t. he forgave. Billy Graham is credited with saying, “It’s the Father’s job to judge, the Spirits job to convict, and my job to love.”

When we realize that God’s grace is for us… that God has forgiven us… then we begin to show forgiveness as well… not just with words but with our actions. Full forgiveness needs both words and action… and it is often followed with an invitation. When we realize God’s grace is for us…

2) We invite people in. Joseph not only forgave his brothers, he invited them into relationship. He invited them into the story, into his life, into his new family. He promises to care for them.

We are better together. We are stronger the more we have serving together. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12 that we are all parts of One Body! When we come to know Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, we become part of the family of God, the body of Christ. We each have our place and our part to play and share.

I really don’t know where I would be today if I hadn’t run into Neal McClendon coming down the hall at a Stephen F. Austin’s dormitory. Neal had been my camp counselor when I was 14, and by God’s providence, he was the Campus Minister of a church in Nacogdoches. Even through I was drunk, even though I had walked away from my calling, even though I wasn’t who I needed to be, Neal invited me to church… and my life has forever been changed… all because of an invitation.

When you realize that God’s grace is for YOU, when we realize that God’s grace is for us, we are changed… and when we are changed we have to share it with others…

Here’s the thing about an invitation. I was invited in… you were invited in… but if we don’t go out, then everything dies. We can sit around talking about our invitation day after day… but without new invitations to others, we will simply begin to die away.

That is why, when we realize that God’s grace is for us,

3) We are sent. To keep the story of God’s love and grace… to hold onto what God has given you and not share it with others is shameful… It is selfish… It is sinful… God’s love and grace aren’t meant to be kept in a box and opened when we think we need it… it is meant to be shared with everyone we meet because it is always needed. God’s grace is always for us.

Roman’s 12 tells us that we are to be living sacrifices. As you look back on your life, I bet you can see time after time that God’s grace was working for you and for His glory. Over and over, we see it – and as a living sacrifice – we are to give that away!

Maybe you are sitting there today thinking, “Yeah, that’s great for Joseph and for you preacher… but you don’t understand my sin. You don’t know my pain. You don’t know what I’ve been through or what I’ve done.”

Well, you may be right. But I’ll tell you this… there has never been a time when God’s grace was not with you, when God was not for you, when God didn’t know and feel your pain.

Generations after Joseph, when the people of Israel were exiled and life was horrible, God’s raised up a prophet to remind them:

Jeremiah 29:11

For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.

God sees you. God knows you. God is with you. And God is for you.

And, as we gather around this table, we know that God’s grace is with us.