ILBB - God Intends - 2006

ILBB – 5

God Intends

Genesis 50:16-20

Series Slide

Well, we have finally thawed out and been able to move about… and then another cold snap hits.  But, it is winter so I guess it should be cold for a few days.

I know some of you are disappointed that we had to postpone our kick-off for the 175th Anniversary to March 8.  We won’t get to have Suzanna Wesley here to kick it off, she had another obligation on the 8th, so we will have her come in later in the year…

Obediah Rider

but we will have Rev. Obediah Rider coming in to share with us what it was like back in the days when this church was founded in the late 1800’s.  Maybe by then, all the cold weather will be past us and we will be on a real warming trend!

Series Slide

Speaking of the cold, I hope the cold won’t keep you from joining us tonight for the Charge Conference at 5:00, followed by a District-Wide Potluck meal.  I am looking forward to us being able to join together with our brothers and sisters from around the District as we worship together, share in what God is doing in and through our churches, and then break bread together as the Body of Christ.

But God Brings us Back

One final thing before we get into today’s message, next week, we will continue our “But God” series with Bishop Leah Hidde-Gregory preaching.  She will share “But God Brings us Back” from 2 Samuel 14:14.

Sermon Slide

Today, we are discussing the idea… But God Intends! 

We are in week 5 of our But God series.

If you recall, this series came about when I read a passage that had all this bad stuff in life… then the phrase “But God”… followed by all the good stuff and blessings of what happens when God steps in, then I said, “Wow, that’s a big but… kinda laughed, and started a journey looking at all these phrases in the Bible.

God has More

Ladies and Gentlemen, as we have seen over the past weeks, God definitely has more for us in the year ahead… more for our congregation, more for our community, and more for the Kingdom… more than we could ever ask or imagine.  God has good in store for us!  That theme verse reminds us that God is at work in us to do infinitely more than we could ever ask or imagine, and that is true in today’s passage.

As we heard a few moments ago, Today’s “But God” passage comes to us from the end of Genesis in chapter 50. So, as we get started, let’s pause for a prayer.

<PRAYER>

God Intended

How many of you had that brat little sibling? 

Ahhhh… so those without your hands raised were either a single child or you were the brat little sibling, right?

I don’t know of any little brother that got on the nerves of his family quite like Joseph….  We first find the story of Joseph in Genesis 35 where we see that he was the son of Jacob and Rachel.  Now the saga of Jacob and Rachel is a whole other sermon series, but Jacob had his two wives, the sisters Rachel and Leah…  then they each gave him their maid-servants and together between the 4 women, Jacob had 12 sons – that became the 12-Tribes of Israel – as a reminder, God gave Jacob the name Israel, meaning one who wrestles with God.  So, when we say the 12 Tribes of Israel, we are talking about a family!

So, these 12 brothers were like any other family, so to speak. Growing up, they did what Dad wanted them to do and had to deal with the brat of a sibling… for this story, it was Joseph.  For that part of the story we pick up in chapter 37 where we read about the dreams of Joseph… like a dream where he and his brothers are all gathering grain and tying them in bundles and his bundle stood tall and all the other bundles bowed to his bundle… or a dream where the sun, moon, and 11 stars all bowed before him.  Needless to say, these dreams did not go over well with the other brothers.

The next scene is Joseph delivering a sack lunch to his brothers in the field when they schemed of a way to kill him and threw him in a well, or a pit.  They later changed their mind and sold him into slavery to a bunch of Ishmaelites and told their father he had been killed by wild animals. 

Another little aside here, the Ishmaelites came from Ishmael, their Grandfather Isaac’s half-brother, so, they sold Joseph as a slave to his own family… that’s messed up.

The Ishmaelites then sold him as a slave in Egypt, where he served so well that he became the house slave in a powerful Egyptians home. In Potiphar’s house, he was second in command only to Potiphar, that is, until Potiphar’s wife took a liking to him and Joseph refused her advances.  She lied and accused him of rape and he was thrown in prison. 

So, from the pit to the palace to the prison… what a story. But it doesn’t end there.  While he’s in prison, the Pharaoh’s cupbearer and a baker are thrown in prison too.  Joseph shares the meaning of their dreams, that one will survive and one will not.  And sure enough, the baker was executed and the cupbearer lived.  When Pharaoh was having bad dreams that he couldn’t understand, the cupbearer remembered Joseph and told the Pharoah.  The Pharaoh called for Joseph and he interpreted the dream, warning the Pharaoh of a great famine that was to come and telling him how to prepare.  For that, the Pharaoh gave him a place of honor and eventually Joseph became the 2nd most powerful man in Egypt.

After the seven years of plenty and the saving of the excess, Egypt was in a position to supply grain to all the other kingdoms in the area… and low and behold, the Tribes of Israel – 10 of the remaining 11 sons, came to Egypt to buy grain for their families.  They didn’t recognize their own brother, of course I’m sure he looked different than they remembered him.  He was dressed as an Egyptian, and it had been decades since they last saw him.

Through a chain of events that we can read about in Genesis 42 – 45 the brothers return over and over until Joseph finally reveals his identity to them.  They are shocked and terrified at the reunion, knowing what they did to their own brother.  Eventually Jacob is reunited with his long-lost son and the family moves to Egypt to live with Joseph.

Finally, in chapter 50 we read about the death of Jacob, the one who wrestled with God and became the namesake of an entire people group called Israel.  Now that Jacob was dead though, the brothers were scared… they didn’t know what Joseph would do now that their father was gone so they came up with a scheme to lie to Joseph and make him think that Jacob had commanded him to take care of them… and that is where we pick up on the reading from a few moments ago.

I love Joseph’s reply, “what you intended for harm, God intended for good.”  God used the awful situation that Joseph was in to work a miracle of good for him and for others.

It reminds me of Romans 10:28 where Paul tells us that, “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.”  It doesn’t say that God causes all things. In other words, I don’t think it was God’s original plan for the brothers to throw Joseph in a well and lie to Jacob about him.  I don’t think it was God’s plan that Joseph was wrongly accused of rape and thrown in prison.  BUT God intended it for good.

Sermon Slide

Maybe another way of saying that is that God used it for good.

I do not believe that Cancer is God’s will.

I do not believe that life-altering injuries are God’s will.

I don’t believe that fatal car accidents are God’s will.

I believe God created a good and right world.  I believe God created us in God’s image including the reality of free will… I believe that sometimes we use that free will to do things that God never intended for us to do, but we choose them anyway. 

God doesn’t want someone to get behind the wheel after having too much to drink, but they do it anyway.

It isn’t God’s will that we spend hours a week baking in the sun to have a pretty tan when that causes damage to the skin cells that lead to skin cancer, but we do it anyway.

God doesn’t will world leaders to invade nations and kill innocent people, but we see it over and over again.

In each of these choices, we see the consequences of the actions, don’t we?  That’s not God’s will; that's a result of our free will.

But here’s the good news.  In the midst of all that, in the midst of the consequences of others' actions and our own choices, God is still for us.  God is still working in us.  Simply put, we and others make bad choices, BUT God intends it for Good.

I think I’ve shared this clip with you before, but I share it again because of its relevance here.

In the book turned into a movie titled Joshua, actor Tony Goldwin plays the part of Joshua, a parable of what it might look like if Jesus walked into a community today.  Near the end of the movie, we find this interaction between Maggie, Joshua, and Father Pat.

Joshua Clip

I want you to hear me and hear me well…

Whatever your brokenness

Whatever your sin

Whatever your past failures and mistakes

God intends good for you.

Out of your brokenness, God can make something beautiful.

Would you pray with me as we prepare to lay whatever our brokenness and pain is on the Altar as we partake of Holy Communion.