Season 4: More to Grace, Episode 3 - Joseph
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Big idea:
Big idea:
God’s grace has a better plan.
Intro:
Intro:
Good morning church,
Today, we’re still in the book of Romans, talking about a time period the apostle Paul calls “from Adam to Moses.” It’s a time he references to support his argument that all people are sinners.
But Paul isn’t focused on this because he’s a wet blanket. He’s using it to get to strategically emphasize the gospel - the good news of God’s grace in Jesus Christ towards us despite our sin.
And surprisingly, what we find from Adam to Moses is… even though it’s thousands of years before the Cross… the gospel is there. God’s grace is overwhelmingly present. We’ve seen it with Noah’s story, Sarah’s story… and today, we’ll see it in Joseph.
So, let’s quickly move from Sarah (who we talked about last week) to Joseph…
God promises Abraham and Sarah a child. And thru this child, a nation. And ultimately, a Savior - a blessing to the entire world.
Sarah, at 90 years old, has the promised child, Isaac.
Isaac eventually has two sons: Jacob and Esau.
Jacob has 12 children. One of the twelve is Joseph (he’s the 2nd youngest).
His story starts like this…
This is the account of Jacob and his family. When Joseph was seventeen years old, he often tended his father’s flocks. He worked for his half brothers, the sons of his father’s wives Bilhah and Zilpah. But Joseph reported to his father some of the bad things his brothers were doing.
Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other children because Joseph had been born to him in his old age. So one day Jacob had a special gift made for Joseph—a beautiful robe. But his brothers hated Joseph because their father loved him more than the rest of them. They couldn’t say a kind word to him.
Let me point out a few things…
Joseph lived in a family where his father had multiple wives. While this wasn’t abnormal for the culture, it wasn’t God’s way either.
Joseph was a snitch. And you know what they say about snitches…
Joseph received an unhealthy amount of favoritism from his father.
His brothers hated him for it.
One night Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers about it, they hated him more than ever. “Listen to this dream,” he said. “We were out in the field, tying up bundles of grain. Suddenly my bundle stood up, and your bundles all gathered around and bowed low before mine!”
His brothers responded [whose mans is this?], “So you think you will be our king, do you? Do you actually think you will reign over us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dreams and the way he talked about them.
Soon Joseph had another dream, and again he told his brothers about it. “Listen, I have had another dream,” he said. “The sun, moon, and eleven stars bowed low before me!”
This time he told the dream to his father as well as to his brothers, but his father scolded him. “What kind of dream is that?” he asked. “Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow to the ground before you?”
Couple more thoughts…
God gifted and spoke to Joseph in special, supernatural, and spiritual ways. Later in the story, we’ll see that all of these dreams are legit.
But the passage seems to reveal that Joseph shared his gifts in the wrong way, whether intentionally or ignorantly.
Which makes me think of a question…
Can you be both right and wrong at the same time?
This life is messy. More on that in a bit. But I’ve found that - even in God’s Kingdom - there’s a lot more grey/overlap/mess than black and white (clean). And when it comes to answering this question, what if you’re right (like there’s truth presented from your perspective), but you’re wrong because the posture of your heart doesn’t share God’s?
I once read a book called “The Calvary Road” by Roy Hession. In chapter 7, he comments on something Jesus says…
“And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.
The best commentary I’ve ever heard on this passage was in the Calvary Road…
Now we all know what Jesus meant by the [speck] in the other person's eye. It is some fault which we fancy we can discern in him; it may be an act he has done against us, or some attitude he adopts towards us. But what did the Lord Jesus mean by the [log] in our eye? I suggest that the [log] in our eye is simply our unloving reaction to the other man's [speck]. Without doubt there is a wrong in the other person. But our reaction to that wrong is wrong too! The [speck] in him has provoked in us resentment, or coldness, or criticism, or bitterness, or evil speaking, or ill will - all of them variants of the basic ill, unlove. And that, says the Lord Jesus, is far, far worse than the tiny wrong (sometimes quite unconscious) that provoked it. A [speck] means in the Greek a little splinter, whereas a [log] means a rafter. And the Lord Jesus means by this comparison to tell us that our unloving reaction to the other's wrong is what a great rafter is to a little splinter! Every time we point one of our fingers at another and say, "It's your fault," three of our fingers are pointing back at us. God have mercy on us for the many times when it has been so with us and when in our hypocrisy we have tried to deal with the person's fault, when God saw there was this thing far worse in our own hearts.
I wish I could read the rest of the chapter. It’s so good. Just in case you’re interested, if you scan this QR code, it’ll take you to a pdf copy of the book so you can read the rest yourself!
All this to say, we can definitely be right and wrong at the same time. Joseph’s dreams are right, but the posture of his heart is wrong. Which reveals something that Paul has been saying about this era from Adam to Moses… Joseph (the snitch) is a sinner, just like the rest of us. And so are his brothers.
…but, before we move on, there is one person who can teach us something positive. Look at verse 11…
But while his brothers were jealous of Joseph, his father wondered what the dreams meant.
Remember, Jacob was already taken back (maybe even offended by Joseph’s words), but God’s been working on Jacob for a long time. He’s been transforming his identity…
Remember last week I mentioned that names in the Bible had significance…
Jacob means deceiver.
But God changed his name to Israel, which can be translated “prince of God.”
And while the family crashed out, Jacob gave grace, which is consistent with God’s heart. And this is instructive because if we are to be people of God (like Jacob), then we should live according to God’s heart, and God’s answer to sin is grace.
Yes, we should be about God’s truth.
But we should also be about God’s heart.
And grace is a key ingredient marrying the two.
…We’re gonna need to start fast-forwarding the story because Joseph story spans from Genesis 37-50. You know I’m not afraid to read large passages of Scriptures, but 14 chapters is a little much…
So, after Joseph’s dreams, his brothers find an opportunity to kill him. But instead, they think a better solution is to sell him into slavery. Then, cover it up by dipping Joseph’s special robe in blood, so that Jacob thinks a wild animal killed him. So, that’s what they do.
And Joseph ends up a slave in Egypt.
And Jacob basically gives up on life.
It’s a mess. This whole story is a mess!
Remember, this is the family God chose to be His special people… Yet, as we’ve been discussing, God didn’t choose Abraham’s family because they were especially clean, He chose them by grace (by His undeserving favor).
And there’s an application to our church family in our current season that also highlights one of our Core Values at TRC…
We have 5 Core Values:
Relational discipleship.
Biblical generosity.
Commitment to God’s truth.
Messy Harvests.
Rest.
And the core value I want to highlight is Core Value 4. Because first of all, what does that even mean. And what is a core value?
Well, if our vision/mission statement as a church is what we believe God is calling our church to, the “values” determine what we will do or won’t do to get there, because values describe who we are, according to both Scripture and God’s specific call on our local church.
I describe it this way… If a vision is a looking through a window at where we’re going, the values are the frame to the window. God has us moving in a direction, but the values are the boundaries of the journey. And Core Value 4, Messy Harvests, says this..
We embrace our vulnerability in light of God’s perfect strength.
So, in it’s simple form, it means we understand we are dust and God is perfect. That’s just facts. And it should impact how we process life. But I also like to use Proverbs 14:4 to help understand this value…
Without oxen a stable stays clean,
but you need a strong ox for a large harvest.
I believe there is a large harvest of souls in New England - many people ready to follow Jesus. And God’s word says we need strong oxen to reach and care for these people. Here’s the problem, oxen poop, a lot. Usually in the stable. And if we’re not prepared for that mess, we might wrongly prioritize keeping the stable clean over the harvest. That’s not God’s heart.
Therefore, as a church, we believe participating in God’s harvest is messy. And it’s not that we prioritize or celebrate poop. That’s gross. We just expect it, because it’s part of God’s harvest process. Anytime you invite sinful people into God’s holy presence, it gets messy. People spiritually poop in places, and at times, they aren’t supposed to. And, in those moments, as a church, we respond with grace (undeserved favor), because we value God’s messy harvests.
Well… after Joseph is sold into slavery by his messy family, he ends up in Potiphar’s house, Egypt’s captain of the guard. And his wife has eyes for Joseph. And when she gets a chance, she tries to sleep with Joseph. Look at what happens…
One day, however, no one else was around when [Joseph] went in to do his work. She came and grabbed him by his cloak, demanding, “Come on, sleep with me!” Joseph tore himself away, but he left his cloak in her hand as he ran from the house.
When she saw that she was holding his cloak and he had fled, she called out to her servants. Soon all the men came running. “Look!” she said. “My husband has brought this Hebrew slave here to make fools of us! He came into my room to rape me, but I screamed. When he heard me scream, he ran outside and got away, but he left his cloak behind with me.”
She kept the cloak with her until her husband came home. Then she told him her story. “That Hebrew slave you’ve brought into our house tried to come in and fool around with me,” she said. “But when I screamed, he ran outside, leaving his cloak with me!”
Potiphar was furious when he heard his wife’s story about how Joseph had treated her. So he took Joseph and threw him into the prison where the king’s prisoners were held, and there he remained.
Two things…
Joseph teaches us how to respond to temptation or sin: Run. Don’t entertain it. Don’t test your willpower. Run.
Once again, Joseph suffers for choosing God’s way. Previously, he’s sold into slavery because he believed God’s future. Now, he’s thrown into prison because he believed God’s holy standard.
And it doesn’t end there… again… fast-forward. Genesis 40: While in prison, Joseph meets two of the king’s workers: a cupbearer and baker. They have dreams. Joseph interprets those dreams. His interpretations come to pass. But it doesn’t matter. Joseph’s forgotten and stays in the dungeon.
And this is a good opportunity to ask a question that many of us struggle with: Why do bad things happen to good people?
That’s a good question. It just has a difficult answer. Ready for it? It starts with something Paul’s been teaching in Romans…
For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.
Why do bad things happen to good people? Because, truthfully, there are no good people…
We’re all sinners deserving of bad things: death and God’s judgment.
Additionally, we live in a fallen, broken world where God’s permissive will allows free-will beings to make sinful and destructive choices, that impact not only themselves, but others.
So, from Adam to Moses to today, bad things happen because the world is filled with broken people.
But here’s another thing to consider, what if “bad things” or “suffering” has purpose? What if accusations against God like, “If God were truly good, why does He allow suffering?” are logical statement, but limited by our finite and sin-corrupted understanding. Meaning, what if we can’t or don’t see the bigger, better picture?
Because Scriptures often presents suffering as a tool bringing about God’s eternal purposes.
Those who sow in tears [suffering]
shall reap with shouts of joy!
Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross [suffered], disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.
That last one is important. How can we not consider that suffering has greater purposes if the Son of God, Jesus, the 2nd Person of the Trinity, God in the flesh, suffered to bring about eternal joy?
Suffering is God’s strange grace that shapes our souls in special ways, bringing about God’s better plans.
Additionally, suffering also strips away distractions and draws us closer to the Lord…
The Lord is near to the brokenhearted
and saves the crushed in spirit.
When you read Joseph’s story, in all his sufferings, you also read things like…
But the Lord was with Joseph in the prison and showed him his faithful love…
Some Bible scholars believe Joseph struggled with pride, likely cultivated by his father’s favoritism. And though called by God, he was distracted by self-absorption. Suffering stripped that sin away and all that was left was the Savior.
And consider this… what if Joseph skipped the suffering? What if that season ended prematurely…
What if the cupbearer remembers Joseph when he’s restored into the presence of the king? And the king is impressed, hears how Joseph’s been wronged, and frees the young gifted Hebrew. What then? Where does Joseph go? I doubt he stays in Egypt!
And, if he leaves, what happens two years later when…
Two full years later, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing on the bank of the Nile River. In his dream he saw seven fat, healthy cows come up out of the river and begin grazing in the marsh grass. Then he saw seven more cows come up behind them from the Nile, but these were scrawny and thin. These cows stood beside the fat cows on the riverbank. Then the scrawny, thin cows ate the seven healthy, fat cows! At this point in the dream, Pharaoh woke up.
But he fell asleep again and had a second dream. This time he saw seven heads of grain, plump and beautiful, growing on a single stalk. Then seven more heads of grain appeared, but these were shriveled and withered by the east wind. And these thin heads swallowed up the seven plump, well-formed heads! Then Pharaoh woke up again and realized it was a dream.
The next morning Pharaoh was very disturbed by the dreams. So he called for all the magicians and wise men of Egypt. When Pharaoh told them his dreams, not one of them could tell him what they meant.
Now, it’s at this point the cupbearer remembers Joseph. But… what if Joseph is already gone… who helps Pharoah?
It’s only because Joseph interprets the dream (as 7 years of prosperity followed by 7 devastating years of famine), and comes up with a wise plan, that Egypt (and the whole world) are saved! But that doesn’t happen if Joseph skips the season of prolonged suffering…
You see, the years of suffering were sovereignly preparing Joseph for God’s purposes. Stripping away the sin, drawing Him close to the Lord, and filling his life with faith and wisdom. So that at just the right time, Joseph’s character was ready for his calling!
And that’s not just my opinion, because God’s word says…
Then [God] sent someone to Egypt ahead of them—
Joseph, who was sold as a slave.
They bruised his feet with fetters
and placed his neck in an iron collar. [He suffered!]
Until the time came to fulfill his dreams,
the Lord tested Joseph’s character.
Here’s the encouragement for us today:
If you are a child of God, remember that in His Kingdom, suffering has purpose.
God often uses suffering to shape our character, so we can walk in our calling (our life purpose).
Therefore, don’t miss your calling because you prioritized your comfort.
…There’s a lot left to Joseph’s story. We can’t go through it all. I wish we could. But that can be your homework:
This week, read Genesis 37-50. Or, listen to it on the YouVersion Bible app. You could easily finish it all on your drive to and from work.
Or, you could watch Dreamworks Joseph King of Dreams. You could do this after church today with the entire family!
Let’s finish the story…
Pharoah makes Joseph the 2nd most powerful person in the world.
Joseph’s interpretations begin to happen…
He begins to execute his plan to store the abundance of food during the 7 years of prosperity.
Then, ration that food during the 7-year famine, so that the rest of the world wouldn’t starve, including those living in Canaan (where Jacob and his brothers are).
One day, his brothers come to Egypt to buy food and bow before Joseph, who recognizes them but they don’t recognize him. It happens just like Joseph’s childhood dream!
Then, some drama happens between the brothers. Joseph kinda gets his “get back” by messing with them. But eventually reveals his identity, there’s some crying, and finally, he brings his entire family to Egypt to care for them.
Years later, when Jacob passes away, the brothers fear Joseph now will kill them in revenge…
…but it’s at this point we see one of the most powerful statements in Scripture.
But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.
I believe Joseph teaches two major lessons about grace…
Those who live in God’s grace entrust everything into God’s hands. The evil is real. The sin has consequences. The pain really hurts. But, as we’ll read in a couple of weeks, “…where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.” (5:20). And eventually, we’ll read…
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Joseph learned to complete trust God. Because God’s grace has a better plan.
Those who live in grace are always willing to reconcile. Humanely speaking, Joseph had the power and right to ruin his brothers’ lives. But God’s people share God’s heart. And think about how God’s grace works in our lives…
God is truly wronged by our sin.
In perfect holiness, He has every right to judge us.
But how does He respond? In His great love and grace, He sends His Son (Jesus) to die so that we could be reconciled.
And now, as children of God’s grace, how can we not respond the same way?
Response:
Response:
As we close (and the worship team comes up), I want to leave you with 3 ways to respond this morning…
Remember that God’s grace has a better plan, even when it includes suffering. Wait on God. You can trust Him with your life.
Get God’s word into your heart. The psalmist says, “I’ve hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You.” We need God’s word to live in God’s grace. And to help you get God’s Word into your heart, we’ve made some bookmarks for you to take. Put them where you’ll see them. Memorize the Scripture on them. And let God’s word shape you into a man of grace like Joseph.
Grace is always willing to reconcile. Some of us have been hurt. And that matters. It matters to God. At the same time, God’s grace has a better plan. And that plan isn’t for you to sit in bitterness and unforgiveness, even when you’ve been truly wronged. If Jesus died on a cross for our sins (our wrongs against Him) so that we could be brought back into His family, who are we not to give grace to others and reconcile? God calls us to reconcile. It’s His heart.
What relationship do you need to make right today? Show you share your Father’s heart by taking a first step towards reconciliation.
And for some, maybe that relationship is with God? God’s ready. He loves you. He’s ready to give you grace so you can walk in His better plan. Turn from your sin and put your faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior.
Let’s pray…
Baptism?
