A Character in God’s Story

A Character in God’s Story

Hebrews 12:2

looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Genesis 37:5-11

5 Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more.

6 He said to them, “Hear this dream that I have dreamed:

7 Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.”

8 His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to rule over us?” So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.

9 Then he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers and said, “Behold, I have dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”

10 But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?”

11 And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind.

Joseph is not necessarily the most important of the OT characters.

That would probably go to Abraham or Moses, or David.

But I think Joseph is the OT's greatest saint in his behavior.

He doesn’t have significant lapses in his behavior like most of the OT saints.

You could also include Job in the same category, but I’m going to side with Joseph because his struggles took so long and had multiple stages, yet throughout, he stayed faithful to God.

In that sense, he is one of the greatest Bible characters and one we should look up to.

The problems that came into his life were enormous, yet he stayed faithful to God.

Joseph occupies the final chapters of Genesis.

Let’s be honest; Genesis sometimes reads like a Jerry Springer script.

There is some egregious behavior in there.

With that in mind, the Bible's first book ends on a high note with Joseph.

He is a man of character who trusts God, even amid crisis.

A second note as we begin: Joseph’s father does some terrible parenting to open our story.

Verse 3 tells us that it was obvious to the whole family that he loved Joseph more than his other children.

Now Joseph is a dreamer; his dreams tell us how God works and how we can be a part of God’s story.

HOW GOD WORKS:

1. GOD HAS A BIGGER PLAN.

It’s essential to distinguish up front for our purposes this morning that we are talking about a plan from God, not simply things we would like to see happen or visions we’ve made up.

This is a small group of things that fall under this category.

In our passage for this morning, Joseph has a pair of dreams, but these are from God.

We cannot say, “Well, any dream I have falls under the same category.” Not true.

In the Bible, there are times when someone gets a vision from God through a dream.

It happened to the other Joseph in Matthew 1:20 when an angel tells him to marry Mary.

Most of our dreams happen because of unresolved anxiety or because we shouldn’t have eaten that pizza right before bed.

God still speaks today, but we must be careful to ensure we are hearing from Him and not just wishing.

First and foremost, God will never give us a vision for our lives that contradicts the Bible.

So we can evaluate things we think God might have said against the Scripture.

Second, this is just a rare thing.

For most people, it might happen once in a lifetime.

Where we want to focus this morning, though, is where we have plans from God that we know are from Him.

Sometimes the world seems to be going nowhere or seems to be completely out of control.

Indeed, scary things are going on today, but in the larger scheme of things, God has a plan and is working to bring it about.

Here, even though it’s not evident in this passage all by itself, we know that as we fast-forward to the end of the story and Joseph in Egypt ruling there, the end of the plan will be for saving Israel from a horrible famine.

The plan is bigger than anyone anticipates, even Joseph.

2. GOD CHOOSES THE VESSELS HE WANTS TO USE.

Another thing we see in this passage: everyone wasn’t happy about how God would bring His plan.

Joseph’s brothers object to the idea that the youngest sibling would reign over them.

Even his father objects to the idea that Joseph would rule over his parents and brothers.

But, again, it’s essential to remember that this is not a vision of Joseph’s creation. Instead, it originated with God and is ordained by Him.

This leads us to this second point: God can choose whoever He wants to use to bring about His plan.

When we look at the Biblical record on this, we see a couple of patterns:

a.God often chooses those overlooked or disrespected by others.

The most obvious example of this is the famous story of David.

When the prophet was looking through the sons of Jesse to find the next king of Israel, they didn’t even bother to bring David in from the field.

But we are told that God doesn’t look at the outward things but what’s inside.

This is important today as we consider who God may want to work through.

It may not be who you think! It may be those that we’ve overlooked.

It may be those disrespected by others.

Probably the most famous example of this is Jesus being raised in Nazareth.

When people heard that, their response was not, “Of course, the distinguished city of Nazareth,” but “Can anything good come out of Nazareth.”

Similarly, it’s unsurprising to anyone here that the City we live in is located on the line between Southwest Virginia and East Tennessee.

We are considered hillbillys, and often because of that, this is disrespected area to many.

That makes it a prime place for God to move in in a powerful and specific way!

b. God often chooses those who are the farthest from Him.

With the advent of grace through Jesus, we see lives radically changed by the idea of grace.

Talk about how grace works and how it is most attractive to those farthest from Him.

The radical change that grace can bring means that those who were the farthest from Him suddenly can become the greatest witnesses for Him.

The first example that comes to mind is the apostle Paul.

He was the guy leading the stoning of Stephen early in the book of Acts.

And yet, after encountering Jesus, he became the greatest missionary in history and the author of most of the New Testament.

Adding these two points up: you never know who God will use, and it’s usually not what you would expect.

Another piece is that God chooses who goes where and does what in His larger plan.

Often, we want to be the ones choosing, but it’s His prerogative.

In the NT, we read Paul explaining that the Spirit chooses the spiritual gift that each Christian gets.

Not us, but Him. Of course, God knows us better than we know ourselves, so he wants to use it to maximize our effectiveness and joy, but that’s still often a truth we dislike.

Why? Because we are used to calling the shots.

This can be an issue for us in several directions.

Maybe we want to be upfront, and God puts us serving in the background.

Maybe we want to be in the background, and God puts us serving up front.

Maybe we are comfortable in one area, but God points us toward another.

Maybe we want to do what we’ve done before, and God points us toward something new.

But, again, God is in charge, and we are to do what He’s asked us to do.

One example of all this is me.

If you’d known me when I was in middle school (we called it junior high back then), you would never have thought, “That kid should be up in front of people talking for a living.”

I was too quiet, too shy.

But God chooses, and I guess He knows what He’s doing.

A final point here: God wants to use you for His kingdom.

The NT clarifies that He wants every believer to use their spiritual gift to serve in the Kingdom of God. If you’re a believer, that means you!

Again, it may not be that God wants to use you however you would choose, but He does want to use you.

3. IT'S EASY TO LOSE SIGHT OF THE LARGER PLAN.

We have several weeks of sermons coming up where we will detail the numerous turns and twists that the story of Joseph takes.

Most of you know the general outline of the story.

There are some dramatic moments that we will examine.

There are some discouraging moments, which we will examine.

Within all that, it would be easy to lose sight of the larger plan that God has.

We get discouraged, distracted, disgruntled, and disengaged.

Our attention gets diverted.

We settle for secondary things.

We forsake the plan God started us on.

I shared earlier about our part of the Kingdom of God.

Yet many of us get diverted by the American Dream.

Jesus hasn’t returned yet, so we can’t get caught up with everything else the world says is essential.

To put it starkly, we start living for money instead of souls.

We start off with a vision of impacting lives and transforming souls.

We know that people and the Kingdom are the only two things outlasting this world.

But then we start to think about possessions, prosperity, power, and property.

Soon we’re in the rat race just like everyone else.

Don’t lose sight of the larger plan and why you’re here on this earth!

GOD'S PLAN AND US: Do we want to be part of God’s story?

Looking at what we’ve discussed this morning, the central question is, do we want to be a character in God’s story?

It’s great if God has given you a specific vision, but we all have the vision of the Kingdom.

This, of course, is a really easy question to answer: look at your life.

Are you serving?

Are you seeking His direction for your service?

Are you eager to see the Kingdom grow?