Untitled Sermon

INTRO.

M12, it’s been WAY TOO LONG since I’ve gotten to teach in here. We’re about to have a BLAST!

What’s new in M12? What have I been missing? Catch me up? Who’s the person that’ll for sure be talking during the message?

Who’s the person who always wins gagaball?

Who’s the person who has a different girlfriend/boyfriend every week? (Don’t answer that😉)

Who can actually tell me the name of the person we’ve been learning about this month?

Joseph, that’s what I’m talking about. Tonight is the finale of talking about Joseph’s story. And as we jump in, can I get someone to come up here and read the story for us?

Genesis 50:20-21 (NIV): You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. 21 So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.

Romans 8:28 (NIV): And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

TENSION.

Have you ever tried two foods together, that shouldn’t go together, that JUST WORK together?

Let me name you a few, if you think these foods go together, stand up on your chair. If you don’t stay sitting.

Peanut Butter and Jelly. It shouldn’t go together…but it just does.

Pickles and Fruit Roll-ups. Did you guys hop on the Tik Tok trend a couple of years ago? I didn’t, but people swear it goes together.

Here’s my personal favorite: ranch and pizza. It shouldn’t go together…but it just does🤷‍♂️

Alright, sit down and tell you neighbor, LOCK IN.

There are some things in life that just don’t seem to go together, but they just do. Those two verses we just read represent two things that for a long time, I just didn’t think went together: God working all things together for good and PAIN.

The Bible says that God is working all things together.

But my experience of life is that there is a lot of pain. How do those two things go together?

It doesn’t seem like they can both be true, but in Joseph’s story, both things are true. There’s a lot of pain, AND God ends up working it out for good.

TRUTH.

Now when I say Joseph’s story had a lot of pain, who can tell me what some of that pain was?

· Beat up by his brothers

· Sold into slavery

· Lied about

· Thrown in jail even though he was innocent

· Forgotten about

There’s a lot of things that happened in Joseph’s life that were painful.

Has anyone in here gotten hurt recently? Like you broke a bone or got hit in the face or stubbed your toe?

What was your first reaction when you got hurt?

For me, I get angry. When I stub my toe, I immediately get FURIOUS. It’s not anyone’s fault, I’m just mad that I’m hurting so bad.

So wouldn’t it make sense, after all that pain, for Joseph to be a really angry person? Wouldn’t it make sense that he would be angry at his brothers, Potiphar and his wife, and his two friends from prison that forgot about him? Wouldn’t it make sense for him to be angry at God for allowing all of that to happen?

I think it would make a TON of sense. And Joseph’s brothers thought the same thing. Remember last week, Joseph sees his brothers years later when he is the Vice President of Egypt. And even though he has an opportunity to let them starve, he doesn’t. In fact, he forgives them and takes care of them. He even has them move to Egypt to be close to him!

But some time went by, Joseph’s dad died, and his brothers started to wonder when Joseph would get angry for all that pain they caused him. Genesis 50 says,

Genesis 50:15-21 (NIV): When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?”

16 So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Your father left these instructions before he died: 17 ‘This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.’ Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father.” When their message came to him, Joseph wept.

18 His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. “We are your slaves,” they said.

19 But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God?20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. 21 So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.

Did verse 20 sound familiar to you? It sure sounded a lot like Romans 8:28,

Romans 8:28 (NIV): And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

For most of us, when we’re in pain, we get angry. Angry that we’re hurt. Angry at the person who hurt us. Angry at God for letting it happen. And if you’re angry long enough, you start to get bitter and you look for revenge. You want a chance to hurt them back.

That’s exactly what Joseph’s brothers were expecting Joseph to do. But Joseph saw something that his brothers didn’t see. He saw that, even though what he went through was painful, God had used that pain to accomplish His purpose for Joseph’s life. Romans 8:28 was just as true in Joseph’s life as his painful experiences were!

How do you think that happened? Because I know quite a few people who haven’t had that happen in their life.

I think the key that allowed Joseph’s pain to work out for good was forgiveness.

Why is that the key?

Let’s go back to Romans 8:28:

It says that God work all things for good, but there is a very specific group of people that it applies to. Who does it say that God works all things for the good for?

- Those who love Him and are called according to His purposes

Meaning, God doesn’t necessarily work all things for the good for those who don’t love Him. Now, most people would say, “of course I love God!”

But Jesus Himself said in John 14:15,

John 14:15 (NIV): If you love me, keep my commands.

For Jesus you don’t say you love God, you show you love God.

And if that sounds weird, it’s not as weird as you might think.

ILLUSTRATION.

Ladies in the room, how many of you have a boyfriend? If you have a boyfriend and he tells you that he loves you, that’s nice isn’t it? It makes you feel good!

But if you have a boyfriend who tells you that he loves you, but he’s got two other girlfriends on the side, does he actually love you? NO!

He says he does, but his actions tell you that he really loves your attention, and the attention of every other girl he can get. He doesn’t actually love you, he just wants you to do something for him.

That’s what it’s like with God. All kinds of people SAY they love God, but their actions completely contradict what they say.

Jesus, says, if you love me, keep my commands. This means if there are commands that I am actively choosing not to keep. What I am telling God is that I don’t love Him. And He works out all things for good for those who love him.

So what’s all that have to do with Joseph and forgiveness?

A whole lot. Because in Matthew 6, as Jesus is in the middle of something called the Sermon on the Mount where He commands His followers how to live if they want to follow Him, He says,

Matthew 6:14-15 (NIV): For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Meaning: forgiveness isn’t a good idea, it’s a command. For followers of Jesus, forgiveness isn’t optional. It’s expected. If we say that we love God, we don’t get to pick and choose which commands we follow.

Because forgiveness isn’t just a good idea, but is a command, I believe the key that allowed Joseph’s pain to work out for good was forgiveness. Because Joseph’s decision to forgive the people who had caused him pain proved that He loved God. And we know that God works all things together for good for those who love Him.

Students, I know that many of you have walked through unbelievably painful experiences. People have hurt you in unimaginable ways.

If that’s you, can I tell you something? I love you. God loves you. And I am so sorry that you had to walk through that or that you are walking through it right now. But I also love you enough to tell you that walking around angry, looking for revenge for the rest of your life is a fantastic recipe to make your life a living hell.

You know why? Because I’ve been there.

STORY.

Last year I had some of my very best friends decide that they didn’t want to be my friends anymore. I felt like it just happened out of nowhere. I didn’t see it coming. And in the process of them telling me how they felt, they said some incredibly mean and hurtful things to me.

It was unbelievably hard, because I didn’t feel like I had done anything wrong to deserve having them treat me that way or say those things to me. And for about 6 months, I was ANGRY. Over and over again I had conversations in my head with them where I dreamed of telling them off and giving them what they deserved.

Every day, I got a little angrier. I got a little more bitter. And my life just felt like it started to get darker and darker.

As all of that was happening, I felt like I kept getting “stuck” in other areas of my life. I felt like I was hitting a wall in my faith, I was hitting a wall at work, I was hitting a wall at home, in my mental health, etc. and I finally had to realize that I couldn’t receive the blessing of God while I actively ignored the commands of God. So I had to go to my old friends and have a conversation where I told them how they had hurt me and that I had forgiven them for what they had done.

And you know what? We’re still not friends anymore. And there are still days where I remember something they said and I get angry for a moment and I have to choose to forgive them again. But I’ve found that God has started to work that pain out for good as I’ve pursued forgiving them as best I can each day.

And I love you enough to tell you that I believe that God wants to do the same thing with your pain too. It doesn’t make it ok what happened. It doesn’t mean that the people who hurt you weren’t wrong in doing what they did. It just means that you’re not going to let them keep hurting you by allowing what they did to make you angry and vengeful.

So here’s what I want you to do before we go to groups.

I want to create some time and space right now for you to process some of the hurt that has happened to you. What if tonight you can begin to experience the freedom that comes from forgiveness?

I want to challenge you to write a letter to someone who has hurt you. Specifically, I want you to write them a letter forgiving them. Before some of you freak out and your heart starts beating fast, let me just say that you don’t have to give them this letter. But I still want you to write it. Depending on your situation it may not even be appropriate to reach out to that person and I get that. But I believe this exercise can still set you free. Be willing to forgive and do things God’s way. I know this feels uncomfortable and risky for some of you, but I’m telling you, you’ll never regret deciding to boldly follow Jesus.

And who knows, maybe if you would humble yourself and do something like this, it could be the key for God to do for you what He did for Joseph and take the pain that has happened to you and turn it for good.