Rebuilding a Life in Chaos

Have you ever seen a potter making a bowl or a vase out of clay? If you have, you have seen the potter manipulate the clay with his hands in such a way that the walls of the vase begin to rise. He begins to shape it and to sculpt it. And then the potter sees something that maybe the rest of us can’t see. Maybe it is a slight wobble indicating a balance issue. Maybe one portion of the wall feels a bit too thin. Perhaps he just isn’t satisfied with the shape the clay is taking on. What does the potter do? He smashes the clay, destroying what was being made and he begins again. Most of us have seen this happen.

Many of you know that in scripture, God is referred to as the potter and we are referred to as his clay. That can be a great comfort as we think about God actively shaping our lives, but we often don’t appreciate the times where we are being crushed in His hands. Have you been there?

I am Pastor of First Baptist Church Cameron. I have been there 2 years now. They have been the toughest 2 years of my entire life. The first year was fairly typical. New guy in a new town, transitioning to a new role (I had done youth ministry for 18 years prior). I was feeling out the church, they were feeling me out. I was trying to lead in a new direction which meant change. No one loves change so there has been some resistance. It was tough but in an expected way.

This last year however has been the most difficult year of my life. It hasn’t been difficult because of the church, though there is and will always be difficulties there. No, this past year has been one of being crushed. I can not go into all of the details, because literally every person that I love is affected by it, and I don’t have permission to speak on their behalf. Maybe in the future with the benefit of hindsight, I will be able to be more forthcoming. I will just say that my family has been and is being attacked and our lives will never be the same. We know that this attack will continue for at least the next 2 years, but we will always carry the scar from the wound that is still being inflicted.

I do want to clarify that the church is not the attacker. Our church has been very supportive. The reason I mention the church, is because I felt and still feel, that at the time of this attack we were in the center of God’s will. We were being submissive to the potters hands as he shaped and built our lives and then suddenly.... Crushed!

Maybe you are there with me. Perhaps you have been there before. Perhaps you are headed toward this experience and you don’t even know it. My prayer is that this message will encourage you, enlighten you and prepare you for what God is doing or going to do in your life.

God has a plan for your life. (joseph dream)

17yrs old, dads favorite, coat of many colors, 2 dreams(sheaves of grain, sun moon stars) older brothers and parents bow down, maybe a bit of pride

Dream given by god

IF we knew Gods plan for our life we would choose the path of least resistance to get there.

Joseph would not have planned whats next… pit/slavery

It gets worse… read Chapter 39.

39 Now Joseph had been taken to Egypt. An Egyptian named Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and the captain of the guards, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him there. 2 The LORD was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, serving in the household of his Egyptian master. 3 When his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD made everything he did successful, 4 Joseph found favor with his master and became his personal attendant. Potiphar also put him in charge of his household and placed all that he owned under his authority. 5 From the time that he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the LORD blessed the Egyptian’s house because of Joseph. The LORD’s blessing was on all that he owned, in his house and in his fields. 6 He left all that he owned under Joseph’s authority; he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.

Now Joseph was well-built and handsome. 7 After some time his master’s wife looked longingly at Joseph and said, “Sleep with me.”

8 But he refused. “Look,” he said to his master’s wife, “with me here my master does not concern himself with anything in his house, and he has put all that he owns under my authority. 9 No one in this house is greater than I am. He has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. So how could I do this immense evil, and how could I sin against God?”

10 Although she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her. 11 Now one day he went into the house to do his work, and none of the household servants were there. 12 She grabbed him by his garment and said, “Sleep with me!” But leaving his garment in her hand, he escaped and ran outside. 13 When she saw that he had left his garment with her and had run outside, 14 she called her household servants. “Look,” she said to them, “my husband brought a Hebrew man to make fools of us. He came to me so he could sleep with me, and I screamed as loud as I could. 15 When he heard me screaming for help, he left his garment beside me and ran outside.”

16 She put Joseph’s garment beside her until his master came home. 17 Then she told him the same story: “The Hebrew slave you brought to us came to make a fool of me, 18 but when I screamed for help, he left his garment beside me and ran outside.”

19 When his master heard the story his wife told him—“These are the things your slave did to me”—he was furious 20 and had him thrown into prison, where the king’s prisoners were confined. So Joseph was there in prison.

JOSEPH IN PRISON

21 But the LORD was with Joseph and extended kindness to him. He granted him favor with the prison warden. 22 The warden put all the prisoners who were in the prison under Joseph’s authority, and he was responsible for everything that was done there. 23 The warden did not bother with anything under Joseph’s authority, because the LORD was with him, and the LORD made everything that he did successful.

Not really what we are talking about today, but source of pride for Joseph (coat) becomes a symbol of his death, and then evidence against him (not same coat)

Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.

God is active in the crushing. (god is with him)

God is active in the crushing. (god is with him)

Now ordinarily, most folks who’d go through problems like Joseph’s would doubt God was there… or that He even cared. And so – in case YOU had any doubts about that in Joseph’s life, God wanted to reassure you, So He put in the story one phrase that shows up again and again and again.

You know what that phrase was?

“The LORD was with Joseph”

You see it in vss. 2, 3, 5, 21, and 23.

God was with Joseph

Now granted – Joseph was STILL a slave. And later he was JUST a prisoner.

But even in those low and despised positions, Joseph became someone that others depended upon. God being with him made Joseph’s life have value and purpose.

Joseph’s life is a case study in the faithfulness of God’s promises, because God has made us the same promise: “I will never leave you or forsake you.” ().

Often times when we are crushed we think that God has forgotten about us. That God has abandoned us. What I am telling you may feel a bit more troubling.

God hasn’t forgotten you, he isn’t abandoning you. He is the one crushing you.

Job (have you considered my servant)

Jonah (god caused a storm, God caused a great fish, God caused the worm to kill the tree)

God does the (re)building on His terms.

But why allow Joseph to REMAIN a slave/prisoner?

Why not simply remove him from those terrible situations and place him in a country home where he could sip lemonade and cast his line in the river all day?

(pause)

One person I read said this: “There’s something suspect about a faith that has never been tested.

God had given Joseph 2 dreams that promised him his life would mean something.

But when the dreams were given – Joseph was only 17 years old.

He wasn’t old enough to have the character or the experience necessary to accomplish the things God wanted him to do.

The tools God used to shape Joseph’s character may seem harsh to us but God knows the objective He wishes to obtain, and He knows the best tool to get that done in our lives.

ILLUS: A.W. Tozer once talked about God’s tools

“The HAMMER is a useful tool. But the nail, if it had feeling and intelligence, could present another side of the story. For the nail knows the hammer only as an opponent a brutal, merciless enemy who lives to pound it into submission, to beat it down out of sight and clinch it into place.

That is the nail’s view of the hammer, and it is accurate except for one thing:

The nail forgets that both it and the hammer are servants of the same workman. Let the nail but remember that the hammer is held by the workman and all resentment toward it will disappear.

The carpenter decides whose head shall be beaten next and what hammer shall be used in the beating.

That is his sovereign right. When the nail has surrendered to the will of the workman and has gotten a little glimpse of his benign plans for its future, it will yield to the hammer without complaint.

The FILE is more painful still, for its business is to bite into the soft metal scraping and eating away the edges till it has shaped the metal to its will.

Yet the file has, in truth, no real will in the matter, but serves another master as the metal also does.

It is the master and not the file that decides how much shall be eaten away. What shape the metal shall take and how long the painful filing shall continue.

Let the metal accept the will of the master and it will not try to dictate when or how it shall be filed.

As for the FURNACE, it is the worst of all. Ruthless and savage, it leaps at every combustible thing that enters it and never relaxes its fury till it has reduced it all to shapeless ashes. All that refuses to burn is melted to a mass of helpless matter, without will or purpose of its own. When everything is melted that will melt and all is burned that will burn then and not till then the furnace calms down and rests from its destructive fury.” (A.W. Tozer “The Root of the Righteous”)

God wasn’t finished crushing Joseph… Chapter 40 Joseph interprets dreams for Pharaohs servants who promised to get him out of jail… they forget about him leaving him to rot.

God still has a plan.

One of my favorite passages in the Old Testament says this: “…the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him...” .

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Are you “fully committed” to God? Then God’s looking for someone like you! He wants to strengthen you and make you successful in this world.

“The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry”

declares: “…we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

It doesn’t matter what happens in your life. Things that are good, or things that aren’t. If you’re a Christian and you love God, God will make all things work together for good for you. The Lord will be with YOU. Just like with Joseph – whether he was a slave or a prisoner… God was looking out for him.

God has a plan for Joseph’s good and God’s glory.

Chapter 40-45 Joseph interprets Pharaoh’s dream, position of authority, huge success, drought in Israel, brothers come, Joseph test them, reconciliation, Nation of Israel to Egypt.

Every crushing moment that Joseph endured was a preparation for God’s purpose for Joseph’s life.

Joseph thought his dream was that God would make him great so that his family would serve him.

In fact God’s plan was to make Joseph great so that he could serve his family and God’s chosen people.

Joseph had to be crushed and rebuilt over and over in order mold the man God needed to save His people.

We want Joseph’s power without Joseph’s prison

we want josephs power without josephs prison

We want Job’s win without Job’s loss

We want the resurrection without the cross.

Action steps:

Seek out and destroy any strongholds of sin: We can be crushed even when we are inside God’s will, but our first action step must be to remove any sin that might be present. (pride, unforgiveness, cynicism)

Take (restore) joy in salvation: Salvation isn't about your goodness and worth it's about God/Jesus goodness and worth. What a great reminder for when you feel worthless

Take (restore) joy in salvation: Salvation isn't about your goodness and worth it's about God/Jesus goodness and worth. What a great reminder for when you feel worthless

Walk confidently with a limp

Walk confidently with a limp: Joseph’s father Jacob literally walked with a limp after wrestling with God. I imagine that Joseph walked with a figurative limp after being crushed and rebuilt by God.

The limp comes from the scars of the crushing but also the humility in knowing that you don’t direct your own steps.

The confidence comes in knowing that the God of the universe is with you, and regardless what he takes you through he has a plan for your good and his glory.

Q&A:

Any Q for me?

What ways have you experienced “crushing”?

What have you learned?

What have you accomplished for the Lord as a result of the preparation of the crushing?