For Example Part II

You’re Dead to Me

By show of hands, how many of you have ever been angry, hurt, or upset?

By round of applause, how many of you have ever experienced happiness, joy, and love?

Congratulations, that means you are alive. It’s good to be alive when things are going well, but I know people who have endured so much pain, physically and or mentally that they wished they were dead. I don’t know if you’ve ever been there, but if you have, I’m glad you’re still with us because I’ve learned a few things about pain that I’d like to share with you tonight. And if you’re ready, I’m ready to jump right in by telling you that

PAIN IS A SIGN THAT YOU’RE STILL ALIVE

Now, that could be a good thing or a bad thing. It’s good that you survived an event. You may have the memories, but you survived. You might still have scars and even a limp. But you survived. It hurt when it happened. It shook you to your core. It caught you off guard and it seemed like it lasted forever. But you’re here. You made it out alive. You survived.

But for some, the hardest part of actually surviving an event is the scar it left behind. Scars remind us that something tragic happened. They remind us that someone hurt us or betrayed us. They remind us that we are vulnerable and at times, more tender than we’d like to admit. Scars outlast the pain and sometimes outlive the people or things that caused them.

My military career ended more than a decade ago but I still have the scars from the injuries I sustained while on active duty.

Your divorce was over a year ago but sometimes you still find yourself crying at night. Your loved one has passed on but you still miss the smell of their perfume.

Pain takes many paths to our hearts

and the source can come from seemingly anywhere.

Fired from your job — pain. Rejection from a crush — pain. Car broke down — pain. House fire — pain. Friend betrayed you — pain. Pain can come from so many sources but none of the sources of pain are as hurtful or surprising as the pain brought on by the one’s who, almost by nature are supposed to protect you, love you, encourage you, and support you.

We can choose new friends and get over the pain from the previous one’s who did us dirty. We can buy new cars and stop the slow bleed from the repair costs of the old one. We can replace our house if we paid for good insurance and we can get over a crush by finding a new love but we don’t get to choose our parents. We have no control over siblings. And our children are still our children even if they don’t like us.

What do you do when your pain comes from a source that you didn’t choose?

How do you handle rejection from the one’s who are supposed to love you? When I can’t reverse the pain, when I can’t stop the bleeding, when they treat me like my life doesn’t matter, what am I supposed to do?

The story is told by Moses of a young man named Joseph who had a bunch of older brothers that didn’t like him. He had dreams they weren’t interested in supporting and a vision they weren’t even trying to see. He was the youngest brother and in a patriarch society that meant he was so far down the totem poll that even if they did like him, he was so unimportant that his inheritance would be next to nothing. And as we all know, to many people, poor people don’t matter much.

But to his father, Joseph was everything.

Gen 37:1-5

Genesis 37:1–5 NIV

1 Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan. 2 This 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. 3 Now 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. 4 When 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. 5 Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more.

Jacob looked at Joseph the way God looks at us.

God sees you right where you are and says, “I know you’re not the president, but you’re important to me. I know they overlook you but I can’t take my eyes off of you. I know they ignore you but I love when you talk to me. God says, “Tell me your dream, we’ll build it together. Talk to me about your vision and I’ll show you how to make it a reality. I’ll put a cloak on you to show I favor you even while others disrespect you. Even while they look down on you I’ll lift you up with my right hand. I am God and I’ll favor you in the pit. I’ll favor you in the prison. In the darkest moments of your life, remember what I said. I am with you. I will never leave you nor will I forsake you. But if you’re gonna live for me, you’re gonna have to die to them!

Gen 37:14-20

Genesis 37:14–20 NIV

14 So he said to him, “Go and see if all is well with your brothers and with the flocks, and bring word back to me.” Then he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron. When Joseph arrived at Shechem, 15 a man found him wandering around in the fields and asked him, “What are you looking for?” 16 He replied, “I’m looking for my brothers. Can you tell me where they are grazing their flocks?” 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. 19 “Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other. 20 “Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.”

For those of you who don’t know the story, Joseph’s eldest brother, Reuben had enough since to not kill his baby brother and instead had him thrown in a cistern, which was a deep pit. This pit could be understood as the world of the dead. The perfect place to hide a dead body. They hurt him, but he survived, only to be sold into slavery by his brothers.

And some would argue that it’s better to be dead than a slave while others would argue,

At least I’m alive!

As for me, at least I’m alive means that although it’s bad right now, there is a chance things can get better. And for Joseph, it does. As you read his story, you’ll find that an Egyptian bought Joseph. But he wasn’t just any old Egyptian. He was a high official to the pharaoh which meant he had some type of class, for a slave owner that is.

Things had gotten better for Joseph, but they weren’t ideal. He was still a slave and it was his own families fault. Meanwhile, back at home, Joseph’s brothers considered him dead. They even lied to their father and told him a wild animal killed the boy. His father, presented with false evidence was convinced he was dead and in mourning him, wrote Joseph off as dead too.

But things get worse. While in Egypt, Joseph is accused of a rape he did not commit and is thrown in prison without a real trial.

Gen 39:11-19

Genesis 39:11–19 NIV

11 One day he went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants was inside. 12 She caught him by his cloak and said, “Come to bed with me!” But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house. 13 When she saw that he had left his cloak in her hand and had run out of the house, 14 she called her household servants. “Look,” she said to them, “this Hebrew has been brought to us to make sport of us! He came in here to sleep with me, but I screamed. 15 When he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.” 16 She kept his cloak beside her until his master came home. 17 Then she told him this story: “That Hebrew slave you brought us came to me to make sport of me. 18 But as soon as I screamed for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.” 19 When his master heard the story his wife told him, saying, “This is how your slave treated me,” he burned with anger.

He’s a slave and he doesn’t have rights to an attorney or a trial. He’s thrown into prison and suddenly, the narrator interjects that

God was with Joseph

This phrase is repeated throughout the story as a reminder to us that God meant it when he said he would never leave nor forsake his own. If you belong to God, you need to know that He will never leave you. Life gets hard, but God is still there. Hell may break loose in your life but God is not afraid of the fire. Just ask Shadraq, Mishaq, and Abendigo. There ain’t a fire in hell that’s too hot for God. There ain’t a valley too low where God can’t reach you. There’s not an ocean too deep where God can’t pull you out from. He is God and he is with you.

While in prison, Joseph is dead to the one who loves him and he is dead to the one’s who hated him most. But God sees him even when no one else does. And in his lowest moment, God activates his gift. Joseph, like a seed planted in the grown, begins to develop and grow from a simple dreamer to one who interprets dreams. Over time he interprets two dreams accurately and when word gets out about his gift, he’s brought before Pharaoh who had been tormented by a series of dreams. Pharoah has him pulled from prison to interpret his dream and Joseph, after acknowledging that it was God who reveals mysteries and God who interprets the dreams, he tells the pharaoh what his dream meant and Pharaoh elevates him to the top.

I want to talk to those of you who are frustrated by people who have deliberately hurt you. Can I testify like David did and remind you that God can prepare a table before you in the presence of your enemies? Can I tell you that God’s blessing on your life cannot be confined to your brother’s pit nor your bosses prison? Can I tell you that the same system that has been holding you back can be used by God to launch your future? Look at somebody and ask them, “Is there anything too hard for God?”

We gotta get out of here so let’s make this long story short. Over time a famine hits the region and Joseph’s brothers come to town begging for food. Thinking Joseph was dead, you can imagine the surprise when they find out Joseph is the man. When you get home, read the story for the dramatic elements that incurred before Joseph revealed his identity to his brothers. You’ll understand then why the second most powerful man in the world cried like a baby.

Gen 45:1-8

Genesis 45:1–8 NIV

1 Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, “Have everyone leave my presence!” So there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers. 2 And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and Pharaoh’s household heard about it. 3 Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still living?” But his brothers were not able to answer him, because they were terrified at his presence. 4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! 5 And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. 6 For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. 7 But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. 8 “So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt.

Joseph then sent his brothers home to get his father and bring him back to live with him. They reunite, poppa’s proud and a few years later, Jacob, Joseph’s father dies. You can imagine how many years have been lost, better yet, stolen because of his brother’s actions. A father’s heart broken, a son separated from the only one who loved him, and now Joseph stands in the midst of the scars. His brothers are all reminders of his past. They are reminders of his pain. They are the source of his hurt and Joseph has to decide in a moment if he will live in the past, or die to it. Was he a knew man, or was he a dead man walking.

Gen 50:15-21

Genesis 50:15–21 NIV

15 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.

So what do you do when the people who are supposed to love you the most, write you off as dead?

Following Joseph’s example —

You die, so you can live a new life. The one that God intended for you to live.

For us, the starting point of the new life begins when we die to our old selves and resurrect new in Jesus Christ. And that can only happen after we receive the risen Jesus and his finished works on the cross into our hearts and lives.

For if we confess with our mouths...