Collateral Goodness

INTRO.

Welcome back everybody Merry Christmas and happy New Year!

TENSION.

How many of you got something awesome for Christmas?

Christmas break was always so fun because I didn’t have to go to school AND I got to mess with my Christmas presents. But, the first week back from Christmas was always a struggle. You know why? Because the first week back at school was the time every year when I discovered that my Christmas presents weren’t as cool as I thought. When I was at home and all I had to compare my presents to were my younger brother’s presents, my presents were AWESOME! But when I went back to school and saw the cool presents that everyone else got, my presents got less cool.

Coming back to school reconnected me with a world of inequality. At home I could hide from it, but at school, it was hard not to notice that some people are richer than others, some people are better looking than others, some people are smarter than others, and some people have more friends than others. Let’s just take a moment and get on the same page: doesn’t it seem like some people are just more blessed than others?

That was always really hard for me growing up, because I was raised in church. The more I noticed that some people seem more blessed than others, the more I started to ask: if God loves everyone, how do I make sense of all this inequality?

And most of the time, when I was asking questions about inequality, I was asking from the perspective of someone who feels like they’re not as blessed compared to someone else. But there’s two sides to inequality. There is the perspective of those who don’t feel as blessed, but there’s also the perspective of those who are blessed. And so here’s what I’d like to do as we open our year together, I want to look at what the Bible has to say about inequality from both perspectives. If you come in tonight feeling like you’re not blessed, the Bible has some encouragement and direction for you as you try to figure out what to do with that. And if you come in tonight feeling like you are blessed, I believe the Bible has some encouragement and direction for you as you try to figure out what to do with that.

In order to do that, we’re going to look at the story of Joseph in Genesis 37, but we’re going to look at it from the perspective of what not to do in a message that I’m titling: Collateral Goodness.

TRUTH.

Has anybody heard the story of Joseph before? It’s one of the more popular stories in the Bible, but I think we tend to romanticize it. When you read Joseph’s story, it is riddled with inequality from the very beginning.

Genesis 37:2–4 (NIV)

2This is the account of Jacob’s family line. Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.

3Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him.

4When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.

Have you ever wondered if your parents have a favorite kid? Joseph’s dad definitely did, and it wasn’t hidden! The Bible straight up says that Jacob loved Joseph more than the rest. And not only that, but Joseph is in a family where he is the 11th of 12 brothers. I don’t know if you have a lot of siblings, but in a family THAT big, that means Joseph should be living in hand-me-downs from his brothers until he stops growing. But instead, Joseph’s dad has this custom made coat made just for him. The inequality here is pretty obvious.

It would be one thing if Joseph was apologetic about it. Joseph would at least be palatable if he acknowledged it and apologized for it to the other brothers. But he doesn't. In fact, one day Joseph comes in talking about this dream he had…

Genesis 37:6–8 (NIV)

6 He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had:

7 We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”

8 His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.

Now you have to understand, in Joseph's time, dreams were believed to be the way that God spoke to people and revealed what He was up to. They didn't have a Bible to open and hear from God through. It happened a LOT in the Old Testament that God would speak to people through their dreams. So the dream + the coat is a LOT to handle. Not only does dad love him more and give him awesome stuff, but now apparently God loves him more too? Some people are just more blessed. And then…it happened AGAIN! Joseph comes in talking about ANOTHER dream,

Genesis 37:9 (NIV)

9Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”

Some people are just more blessed than others…and Joseph’s brothers were fed up with it. This dude has EVERYTHING. They can't take it anymore. They're filled with envy - who doesn't want to have Joseph's life? It seems awesome! But they're also filled with anger. They feel like this is an injustice that they need to make right. So when the opportunity presents itself, they make their move. It's time to bring a little bit of hardship into this dude's #privileged life.

Genesis 37:12–13, 17-18 (NIV)

Now his brothers had gone to graze their father’s flocks near Shechem, and Israel said to Joseph, “As you know, your brothers are grazing the flocks near Shechem. Come, I am going to send you to them.”

“Very well,” he replied…

17 “They have moved on from here,” the man answered. “I heard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’ ” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan.

18 But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him.

So his brothers take his coat and throw him into a pit, and sell him into slavery for 20 pieces of silver. How ironic that the one who the sun, moon, and stars were suppose to bow to would be someone's slave, right? Then after selling Joseph, they take his custom coat, dip it in some blood, and deceive their dad, making him believe that Joseph was killed by a wild animal. All the while, Joseph is taken to Egypt where he is purchased as a slave by a man named Potiphar.

Now, if you read the rest of the story, you find that Joseph does great work for Potiphar, but is falsely accused by Potiphar's wife and gets thrown in prison for it. While he is in prison, Joseph makes friends with a couple of former employees of the Egyptian Pharaoh, interprets their dreams for them, and asks that they remember him when they get out. One of the employees gets killed, but the other one gets rehired by Pharaoh...and forgets all about Joseph. Eventually, Joseph interprets the Pharaoh's dream, and the Pharaoh is so impressed by him that he makes Joseph 2nd in command of all of Egypt - giving him leadership over leading Egypt through a 7-year food crisis that God gave him wisdom 7 years ahead of time to begin to prepare for. During that 7-year famine, Joseph's brothers have to come to Egypt to get their food, and Joseph has the authority to deny them food and let them starve...but he forgives them and is restored to his family. It's beautiful, but it's all kinds of messy.

Doesn’t exactly seem like a children’s story, right?

So let me ask, why would such a story be in the Bible? It's in there because it says something about God and it says something about us.

Joseph's story first says something about God.

- God is good

- God is just

It first says that God is good, but it challenges our notion of what that might mean. In the story, God is both directly good AND He is indirectly good. He is directly good to Joseph in that, despite his brother's best efforts, God blesses Joseph. Everything Joseph touched seem to turn to gold. First in Potiphar's house, then in prison, and then in Pharaoh's palace. God continue to bless Joseph.

But He is also indirectly good. The more God blesses Joseph, the more it indirectly blesses Joseph's brothers. Joseph’s blessing brought collateral goodness to Joseph’s brothers. Have you ever heard of collateral damage? It’s a war term that describes the people who indirectly get hurt as a result of the fighting. It’s people who are affected despite not being directly involved.

God’s blessing to Joseph brought a collateral goodness with it. God blessed Joseph with the ability to interpret Pharaoh's dream, which revealed that there was going to be a famine, which gave him time to actually help Pharaoh prepare for it by saving food each year leading up to it. That turned out to be a blessing when Joseph's brother's showed up in Egypt to get food, because their brother was the person in charge of distribution.

When God blessed Joseph, it also blessed his brothers, they just didn't know it. God’s direct goodness to Joseph brought collateral goodness to the people in Joseph’s life.

But this isn’t just a story that says that God is good. It is also a story that says God is just. The story is filled with injustices. Joseph's brothers unjustly beat him and sold him into slavery. Potiphar's wife unjustly accused Joseph and he was unjustly imprisoned. The baker whose dream Joseph interpreted in prison unjustly forgot about Joseph after he got out. And yet, while many people in the story were unjust, God was just. God dealt appropriately with Joseph in due time, even if the people in his life didn’t.

The story shows that God is good and God is just. But it also shows us something about ourselves through Joseph and his brothers. Remember, there are two sides to inequality, those who feel they are blessed and those who feel they are not. Joseph embodies those of us who feel blessed. And he shows what all of us who feel blessed are tempted to do.

Make ourselves the hero

Assume that God's favor means we're God's favorite

The brothers embody those of us who feel like we're not blessed. And they show what all of us are tempted to do when we feel that way.

We envy

We get angry

APPLICATION:

Back to where we began: if you feel blessed, what do you do? Learn what Joseph learned: your blessing isn’t about you. God has been directly kind to some of us. He's given us favor. Maybe He's given you favor financially and you just know how to make money. Maybe He's given you favor mentally and you can just understand things that others can't. Maybe He's given you favor athletically and you can dunk or throw a ball further or run faster than everyone else. That's AMAZING! Realize that that gift is a gift. It was given to you by God.

The temptation for those of us who feel blessed is to become prideful and greedy. We become prideful and forget where our blessing came from. And we become greedy, thinking we're the only one who gets to benefit from the blessing we've received. Blessings are received individually, but they are to be enjoyed collectively. The way to combat the temptations of pride and greed is to use your blessing to benefit someone other than you. To create a wave of collateral goodness around you because of what you’ve been given.

And if you don’t feel blessed, what do you do? Gain perspective in the middle of your story by seeing the end of the brothers's story. Remind yourself that God is good and God is just. Because the temptation for those of us who don't feel blessed is to become envious and angry. God has not forgotten about you. He hadn't forgotten about the brothers. In fact, if you could see it, even if you feel like God hasn't been directly kind to you, there is collateral goodness in which He is working all things for your good, even if indirectly. He sees you. He hasn't forgotten about you. And even now when you don't see the blessing, enjoy the company of the Blesser who is with you.