God's Grace Is For Us! Series

God’s Grace is For Us!

Genesis 50:14-20; Romans 8:28; 1 Corinthians 12:27; Acts 2:44; Romans 12:1; Joshua 1:9b

Do you believe that God is always working for your good and for His glory? While no one is righteous (Romans 3:10-18), our hearts are above all are deceitful (Jeremiah 17:9), and like the Israelites we tend to be a stiff-necked people (Exodus 32:9); God still sees His image in us and enables us to “become mature, attaining the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13). Though we sin and fall short of His glory the Lord never stops inviting those who partake in the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), His ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20) and royal priest (2 Peter 2:9), to have Him plant furrows of righteousness in their hearts! While it would be nice if our journey towards holiness was only one on the mountain tops of blessings and by still waters, the truth is that the transformation process of having our minds renewed (Romans 12:1) and conformed to His will often happens in a fiery furnace of affliction (Isaiah 48:10). I guess we should not be surprised for we not only live in a fallen world but also tend to only seek and rely on God when our trust in our own abilities has been diminished! While we “know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him” (Romans 8:28a); when we are being refined by the fires of affliction, we rarely see God’s providential care for us! We tend to be like the Psalmist and cry out “how long Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow” (Psalms 13:1-2)? It is incredibly hard to trust in God when our vision of His will for our lives is unclear and we feel like we have been abandoned to drown in our sorrows! Whom amongst us in such dire circumstances could ever put on the full armor of God (Ephesians 6) needed to withstand the fiery darts of depression and desperation that the Devil constantly throws our way? When the “spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (6:12) seems to be always sinking new fiery darts of affliction into us fragile jars of clay how can one stand firm in the faith (1 Corinthians 16:13) and boldly declare “blessed be the Lord, I can see how You are working in and through my life?” Last week we talked about how God’s grace is with us and in this sermon, we are going to review the story of Joseph so that we might see how God’s grace is also for us in all circumstances that we face in life!

The Story of Joseph

The story of Joseph is a great example of God’s grace being extended amid tribulation for the good of those who love Him. At a tender age of 17 Joseph learned that blessings, especially favoritism, often provokes in others envy and hatred towards the recipient. Joseph was one of twelve sons of Jacob. His father made him a robe of many colors to express the truth that due to being born to him in his old age Jacob loved him more than his other sons (Genesis 37:3). Due to this favoritism and Joseph sharing a dream that his entire family would one day bow down to him (37:7), this provoked such intense jealousy that his brothers hated him, would not speak a kind world to him, and eventually even plotted to kill him (37:18). Realizing that they would not gain anything by killing him and covering up his blood, Joseph’s brothers decided to sell him to the Ishmaelites as a slave for twenty shekels of silver (37:26-28). They then slaughtered a goat and dipped Joseph’s robe in the goat’s blood so that their father would think that a ferocious animal had torn Joseph to pieces, and he was not more (37:31-34)! The Midianites then sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharoah’s officials (37:36). How difficult it must have been for Joseph to go from being the favored son to being despised as a slave but despite his bleak circumstances the Lord was with Joseph and granted him success in everything that he did (39:3). Potiphar saw his success and placed Joseph in charge of his entire household! But after Joseph refused to be seduced by Potiphar’s wife, she promptly blamed him for trying to seduce her and Joseph was thrown into prison (37:11-23). Talk about bleak circumstances, first a slave and now a prisoner! This roller coaster of blessings and tribulations was far from done! God gave Joseph the interpretation of Pharoah’s dream that there would be seven good years of bountiful harvest and then seven years of great famine. Joseph’s suggestion to Pharoah that he ought to save one-fifth of the harvest in the good years to prepare the bad ones seemed so wise that Pharoah put Joseph in charge of this plan and made him second in command over all Egypt (41:1-43)!