Who are your people?
Notes
Transcript
Have you ever had a group of friends or family members that have pushed you to either make poor descions or goon ones?
When I was in high school I had a group of friends that I would make some good choices when I was around them.
But then I also had a group of friends that I would make “less educated” choices when I was around them.
And alot of you know this but I wasn’t super crazy in highschool, but I remember there was one time that I was at a party in high school at night, and a group of us ended up leaving the party and walking around town.
Which side note if you ever see a decent size group of highschoolers walking around town at night they are up to no good (no offense to our high schoolers, but I was one of you)
But anyway while we were out I think we were behind an ace hardware or something like that
And they had a couple of semi trucks parked back there, with wooden pallettes and things like that
But anyway someone realized that we could climb ontop of these semis and do parkour.
And it turned out it was a pretty good parkour course, and we didn’t get caught or anything
But looking back with the wisdom I have acquired after all these years that was a pretty uneducated decision, because not only could we have been caught, but we could have gotten seriously hurt.
And now I realize I have two boys and am thinking “wow, now I am in trouble”
But you know there are people in our lives who push is to make smart desions and then those who push us to make poor ones.
And really similarly to that, there are people in our lives that push us to be made more like Christ,
These are people that help us grow in our walk with God
People that help us take huge steps of faith
People that help shape us into the people God has called us to be
But then there are some people who we find pushing us further away from who God is calling us to be.
And really today we are going to be looking at mainly the beginning part of that story we just watched, because what we see is a group of brothers that push themselves to make a very poor decision.
And so the whole story we are in takes place between Genesis 37-50 but we will be in the first part of this story starting in Genesis 37:17-20
But before we get to into this let me just set up the background because there is one brother named Joseph and Joseph was the youngest and considered his fathers favorite
And not only that but he had a dream that one day all of his brothers would bow down at his feet and he told his brothers (which isn’t the best choice)
Because no big brother wants to hear that.
If you do not believe me call your brother after service and tell him you had a dream that they would bow at your feet.
But because of these two things his brothers did not like him.
And one day Josephs father had him check on his brothers who were out with the sheep and look what happens: starting in the second half of verse 17
Genesis 37:17–20 (NIV)
17… 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.”
So lets look at whats happening here, because they see Joseph coming from a distance, and we see that as they see Joseph they start saying to each other “Look, here comes the dreamer”
And you can picture them begin to mock him more and more until a plot begins to form where they decide to murder their brother.
And I am not telling you to to say if you mock someone, you will eventually end up murdering them.
But I am telling you this because, I think this passage shows us that when we are with a group of people it has the ability to amplify our sin.
You know my parkour story I just told you I can guarantee that wouldn’t of happened if I was alone.
Because I probably would not have been climbing semitrucks by myself in the middle of the night (thats weird)
But because I was with a group, we ended up doing it because we ended uo egging eachother on
But so often when we are in a group, whether it is with our friends or family, if left unchecked sin has the ability to be amplified.
Because think about it
Someone is gossiping in a group and others join in
Someone starts bragging about there car, and you realize you can’t beat there car, but your house is nicer; so you brag about your house
Someone says a hurtful comment; so you say something hurtful back that will hurt them more.
I mean its almost like if you have ever been at a football game,
Because whether it is high school, college or NFL the energy that you feel in a stadium is never due to just one person, but it is thousands of people feeding off of each other; amplifying each others excitement
But thats how groups work, because they amplify things.
But here is the cool thing because groups are not bad.
In fact God has created other people to push us not further away, but closer to Him.
To actually amplify our relationship with Him and amplify the kingdom of God on this planet.
But here is the thing: to often in our friend groups, work groups, and family groups, we let sin be amplified rather then God.
And I want to look at these next few verses, because there is one brother who kind of stands up. Look at verses 21-24. it says:
21 When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. “Let’s not take his life,” he said. 22 “Don’t shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him.” Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father. 23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the ornate robe he was wearing—24 and they took him and threw him into the cistern. The cistern was empty; there was no water in it.
So everyone is talking about murdering Joseph, but then one brother named Rueban pops up and says wait!
maybe this is not the best idea, because we will probably feel guilty about it later
But what if instead we threw him in this well and leave him there.
And Rueban has a plan to get him out later, but I want you to notice Ruban kind of stands up for Joseph
And its important to point out that Ruben is a really poor example of this, but we need people who stand up
We need better versions of Rubean, where when we are in a group of friends and everyone is gossiping, we need to be the one person who stands up and says “Hey why don’ you ask that person what happened instead of talking about them behind their back?
When everyone else is saying hurtful things, saying hey thats not right.
Because it is amazing how just one voice pointing a group in the right direction can stop somthing from being amplified.
Think about a car, because a car has four wheels and can move pretty fast right.
But you know what stops a car from moving pretty fast, when only one of the four tires pop.
And really it only takes one person in a group to stop a group from making poor choices.
But lets get back to the passage of scripture we are in because there is one more brother that makes his vioice known. Look at 37:25-28. It says this:
25 Then they sat down to eat. And looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing gum, balm, and myrrh, on their way to carry it down to Egypt. 26 Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? 27 Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And his brothers listened to him. 28 Then Midianite traders passed by. And they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. They took Joseph to Egypt.
So they sit down to eat when these Ishmalites who were merchants came by and one of the brothers named Judah
Sees them and realizes instead of killing Joseph they could make money off of him by selling him as a slave
And I love how Judah justifies it because he goes “guys, Rueben is right! How could we kill Joseph.
“After all he is our own flesh and blood”
How could we kill our brother?
Lets sell him instead
And his brothers go great idea Judah!
But really Judah and the brothers end up justifying their sin of selling off their brother, by saying at least we aren’t killing him.
But you know we are pretty good at justifying our sins aren’t we?
Because if we can find a way to justify or say that a sin is okay we love to do it.
We are guys, we trash talk each other, its what we do!
I work hard and am constantly stressed at work, its normal for me to get home and lash out at my family
My wife spends time with everyone else but me, it wont matter if I spend some time with another woman.
At least I did not do what that person did
But I love what 1st Peter 1:16 says because Jesus actually says “I am holy so justify sin and live an okay life” right?
NO!!
But it says “… Be Holy for I am Holy”
Because to be honest that is where Christ is calling us.
He is not calling us to live a life where we tolerate sin in our friend groups and lives, but where we live a life free from sin.
And I want to bring all of this together and just ask you a question: Who are your people?
What are the people you spend time with?
And are they pushing you closer to Christ? And are you pushing them closer to Christ?
Would the answer be yes?
Because God has designed relationships to push us closer to Him, but to often we use them to amplify and justify our sin.
You know my prayer is whenever you walk into this church and have an encounter with someone is that they push you and you push them closer to Christ
And instead of amplifying sin that relationship amplifies Christ and his kingdom.
And maybe today you realize you or possibly even your friend group are far from God.
In fact you are looking at choices made and realize you have hurt people
You have gossiped
maybe you have caused damage in other lives
But here is the thing that is so powerful about this story, because like you say in the story, Joseph got sold and ends up in Egypt
And there is so much that happens
But through it all God blesses Joseph and places him in a prosperous position.
And you get to the end of the story and the brothers are with reunited with Joseph and look what Joseph tells his brothers in Genesis 50:19-20 because he says:
20 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.
You know we tend to make a lot of mistakes, don’t we?
I look back at my life occasionally and go “wow, I messed up”
but the beautiful thing is we have a God who in the middle of the mess ups and hurts He is picking up the broken pieces
And putting them back together in a way only He is able to do.
And when we let him use those broken pieces, He can make somthing beautiful out of the shards of glass in our life.
God is using what we intend for evil for His good.
Let’s pray.