THRIVING AMIDST THE HARD-KNOCK LIFE
Sunday AM Service, January 6, 2008
Rev. Todd G. Leupold Perth Bible Church
INTRODUCTION
Life can be so very hard can’t it? It can be wonderful and it can be outright unfair. Around my 10th or 11th B-day, I received one of my most memorable Birthday presents - we went to see a wonderful musical about a little red-headed girl named Annie.
There was one scene that remains prominent. . .
[Show sing-along clip from DVD - “Hard-Knock Life” , 3:42]
Have you ever felt like it’s a hard-knock life? No matter how hard you work or how good you try to be, the world just keeps knocking you down? Every time you climb out of one hole, you soon get knocked down into another? False friends, injustice, divorce, abuse, broken or unfulfilled dreams, trouble with work, injury, illness, and the list goes on. . .
Significant circumstances that are beyond our own control!
Most of you know that, not long ago, I lost first my mom and then my grandmother to ovarian cancer within a year. Having a courtside seat for such an experience of one so close and loved and then to almost immediately repeat it again was no picnic.
Then, there was Jean, a young woman, husband of a godly minister. The doctor informed them that their developing baby girl would be born with encephala - a condition in which the skull would not develop fully, leaving the brain exposed. Their baby was unlikely to live to term, and even if she did she would die within minutes of birth. To make matters worse, the hospital intensely pressured them to abort their daughter Rachael . . .
Ramjit was a young Indian boy, born into poverty and economic slavery. When his father and uncle were small boys they were kidnapped from India and illegally taken on a ship to a Caribbean Island. They never recovered. Frequently, young Ramjit watched his father balled up like a baby banging his head and crying for his long-separated mother. Ramjit grew up in a small barracks on a sugar cane plantation where, even as a boy, he worked from sunrise to sunset. His reward? No education, tattered clothes, and just enough food to subsist. . .
Is it possible to not only survive, but even thrive, in the hard-knock life? Absolutely, if you put your faith and life in God’s hands. The key is to remember that God is in control in all things and at all times, ! When you remember this and put your trust in God, you will know that there is a bigger picture, you will be filled with hope and confidence, and you will be free to forgive!
Regardless of our “feelings” or “perceptions,” God is never far. He is in control, He loves you and He DOES have a plan for your life!
Let me encourage you, if there was a “Hard-Knock Hall of Fame,” it would be full of God’s people - people like many of you! Genesis concludes with one such “Hard-Knock Hall of Famer” – Joseph.
Joseph was the eleventh of twelve sons, born to four different women. He was the first son born by Jacob’s favorite wife, Rachel. Jacob unabashedly loved and favored Joseph far more than any of his other sons. And, while all of his other brothers were sent to work in the fields, Joseph got to stay home and would occasionally be sent out to spy on his brothers. Then, Joseph had a dream predicting that all of his brothers would bow down to him – and he told them about it. Duh! A good boy, just not too bright!
Well, one day, Joseph was again sent to spy on his brothers. Only this time, they decided to throw him in a pit and leave him to die. It’s a hard-knock life! But, the brothers had second thoughts and decided not to kill him. God is in control! Instead, they sold him and he ended up in Egypt, a slave of Potiphar, captain of the Pharaoh’s guard. It’s a hard-knock life!
Now, the Lord blessed Joseph so that he had great success and was made the overseer of Potiphar’s house. God is in control! But then, Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce him. When Joseph resisted the temptress, she falsely accused him and he was thrown into prison. It’s a hard-knock life!
The Lord again blessed Joseph. He was put in charge of all the prisoners and given favor. Then he interpreted the dreams of Pharaoh’s baker and cupbearer. The cupbearer was pardoned and swore to speak good of Joseph. God is in control! But the cupbearer forgot Joseph. It’s a hard-knock life!
Two years later, Pharaoh had a dream, which nobody could interpret. The cupbearer finally remembered Joseph, and he interpreted Pharaoh’s dream about the harvest and forthcoming famine. Pharaoh was so pleased that he made Joseph second-in-command over all of Egypt. God is in control!
Let us stop here a minute and consider God’s loving and Sovereign Hand in Joseph’s life. Just how “unfair” was it? Would you say he deserved such a life? No, Joseph was as righteous a man as has been born. But God had a plan. As God would say to Jeremiah centuries later:
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace
and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. . .” (Jer. 29:11)
His plan wasn’t finished yet. During the famine, all of Joseph’s brothers, except Benjamin, came to Egypt to buy grain. They did not recognize Joseph, and so Joseph used his position to test them. After a few round trips, all twelve brothers were reunited with the eleven bowing before Joseph - just like the dream Joseph had when he was 17. It was then that Joseph tearfully revealed himself.
Tell me, HONESTLY, if you were Joseph, what would you have said and done? . . .
Please turn with me to Ge. 45:7-8a: “And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now, it was not you who sent me here, but God.” For all that Joseph unjustly suffered and endured, he harbored no bitterness toward his brothers or God. Joseph was able to recognize that it was God who was in control all along, and God who molded these circumstances such that His promises would be fulfilled and the nation of Israel would not only be saved, but grow and strengthen.
But why did Joseph really have to go through such suffering and torment in his life first? We must remember that we live in a world that is far different than God’s original or ultimate design. It is not God who has distorted this world. It is SIN. My sin, your sin, our sin. But God is still in control and, through His mercy, He molds our lives and uses these circumstances to redeem us, grow us, bless us and ultimately plan for our deliverance!
Imagine, what if God answered his first (or 2nd, 3rd, 4th) plea and immediately and directly moved him completely out of those circumstances? What if Joseph had remained with his family, even if in total peace? They would all be starving to death along with much of the rest of the known world. No Israel. No Messiah!
Now think, when all was said and done, if Joseph had the power to change his past, do you really think he would? Of course not! Was his life incredibly difficult? Absolutely! Did God forsake him as it so often must have seemed? Absolutely not! Was it worth it? Without a doubt!
APPLICATION
Hear me, friends. Joseph saw the bigger picture and so could live empowered by hope, free to forgive. So can you! Have you ever thought about the possibility that God would use even your worst moments and most bitter injustices as a steppingstone to bless you and deliver others? If you knew that this would be the result, how might your attitude change?
We too need to . . .
1.) Acknowledge the Bigger Picture (whether you can see it or not).
Let us look again at his reply. Ge. 50:19-21: _______________________
______________________________________________________. Joseph saw the bigger picture that, even through sinful men and horrible circumstances, God works out His saving purposes. Whether or not the brothers or Joseph ever saw or understood this, does not change its truth or power.
Earlier I told you about three hard-knock lives. Now let me tell you the endings! Through her trials my mom opened up to us with an intimacy we hadn’t known before. The Lord blessed us with the opportunity to lead her to His salvation and I got to baptize her. We watched as in a very short time she grew amazingly and became a tremendous witness to many others such that its effects are still ongoing. Shortly before my grandmother died, she confessed to me that though she never missed a day of church or experienced any doubt her whole life, she learned and grew more in the Lord her last two years than the first 86 combined! Not until her terminal illness did she experience intimacy with Jesus.
Jean, Karl and their baby Rachael made it to term and a cesarean birth. God gave them 11 precious minutes together. It was a very painful and traumatic experience that they did not recover from quickly. But, in time, God has used Jean and her experience to minister to many women here in the states and abroad who have similarly lost a baby - and all were blessed! As Jean and Karl are fond of saying, Rachael only lived for 11 minutes, but her life has had a greater impact for Christ and in the lives of others than most people ever achieve in their 60-, 70, or 80-years of life.
And Ramjit? Years later, the Lord convicted and saved him at an evangelistic crusade. Ramjit has since planted a church, impacted hundreds of lives and raised a brood of godly children and grandchildren who are serving the Lord and expanding God’s Kingdom – among them my wife and children! But what if his father had remained in India and Ramjit grew up never knowing anything but to worship thousands of false gods?
2. Be filled with hope.
Even in the worst of times and circumstances we may be filled with hope! Not even the most wicked actions of humanity can or ever will ultimately thwart God’s will and plans. Even when we do not see or understood what, if anything, God is doing in a situation, we can have hope. In the end, God will prove faithful to His promises and bless those who love Him.
3. Be free to forgive.
Joseph is able not only to hold no grudges against his brothers, and to forgive them, but also to assure them that he will continue to provide for them and their families. When we remember that God is in control of everything and see the big picture, we are not only filled with hope but we are freed to forgive!
Genesis closes with the promise of the land still unfulfilled, but with the expectation of its fulfillment and a visitation from God. Let us read v. 24 ________________________________________________________. These words given twice by Joseph, incredibly summarize the hope that is expressed throughout the Old and New Testaments: God will surely come to your aid!
CONCLUSION
My friends, God does sometimes allow or even lead His children into suffering. But it is always done in order that He might bring through the suffering, some greater good. If we remember that God is in control and loves us, we will seek to acknowledge the bigger picture, be filled with hope, and freed to forgive! We might not have a historic task as great as Joseph did, and our circumstances may be vastly different, but we are just as precious in the Lord’s sight! Thus, Paul could write in Romans 8:28: “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”
Hudson Taylor once said, “All God’s giants have been weak men, who reckoned that God was with them.”
As you withstand the hard-knocks of life, remember Joseph. And remember that little orphan Annie and what she said about a hope and a future.
[“Tomorrow” sing-along, 1 min.]
Our sun is The Son, Jesus Christ! In Him we have eternal hope. In Him we can rest!
