Psalm 124
Genesis 39:1- 21
Life has a habit of getting up and biting you doesn’t it?! Even when things are going well as they were for Joseph bad things do happen to good people. Some us too have been dealing with life’s problems. There have been, maybe are now situations that have left / leave us feeling helpless, hopeless and alone.
How do we keep going when life is a pain in the butt?
How do you keep going when all the positives have turned into negatives?
How do you be joyful and useful to God when the load is so heavy it hurts?
Joseph is a man who has seen the highs. What all parents should never do Jacob has done – he proclaims Joseph his much loved favourite and treats him differently. Joseph receives his much famed coat to mark him out as privileged.
But then the manure hits the fan and the bottom falls out of Joseph’s world when he is betrayed by his brothers and given into slavery. Where is God when the worst happens?
The answer remarkably is there in verse 2 ‘The Lord was with Joseph’.
Then this tale of soap opera proportions takes another turn for the worse when Joseph is set up by the wife of his master who wants sex with him. How much worse can this man’s life become! God where are you when the innocent is falsely accused and imprisoned?
The answer is the same again there in verse 21 ‘the Lord was with him’.
For Joseph, you and me the truth is this - God is with us and will never leave us nor forsake us.
He will be with us on the high days and the low days.
He will be with us when we are betrayed by those we love.
He will be with us when we are attacked and accused by others.
He will be with us in the depths of the prison .
He will never leave us.
Today for all of us who have confessed Jesus as Lord we can know without any doubt the certainty of this statement - God is with us. Now I never assume that though you are hearing or reading this you have actually made that step. You may have heard the invitation a thousand times but I wonder have you never asked Jesus in? If not then make today the day you allow Jesus to live in your life and be born again. Find someone you trust in the Church to pray with you (contact me and I would love to guide you) – you will never regret. And then like Joseph you can know the Lord is with you too.
We of course know this is true – we know it as clearly as the Psalmist in Psalm 124.
Who here wouldn’t be able to join in and say ‘if it hadn’t been for God when…’
. . . my partner died, my child got sick, my husband left . . . I lost my job or house or best friend, I was left all alone . . . I was trying to stop drinking or smoking
We could go on with that list couldn’t we?
If it hadn’t been for my God and His peace I know I could not have coped with all the rubbish the devil has thrown my way for sure, I think Joseph and David and all of the saints down through the ages would agree.
I have heard non Christians say that we use our faith like a drunk uses a bottle of whisky or gin – no more than a crutch to hold us steady through the ills and pain of life.
Well of course that is garbage! My relationship with Jesus is far more than that, yet in a real sense my Saviour does hold me up and sustain me and keeps me going, and I would for sure rather be leaning on Jesus the creator and sustainer of the universe than a bottle of Bells or Jack Daniels or Gordans or the like. What about you?!
But being a disciple though is about more than just stumbling from one tragedy to another disaster – it is about being God’s positive witness in the midst of whatever storms come our way. Being a disciple is about facing the storms and not giving up – anyone can give up when those kinds of negatives hit us. But we – because the Lord who was with Joseph is also with us – can be more. We must be more than people who give up. Instead of focusing in on the negative we have to find even in the storms the ability to be not just encouraged by God but encouraging for others.
In reading through the stories of Joseph it is remarkable how much God used this man in the pits of despair to encourage others
Now I believe that this battle we wage is not against earthly human forces but against spiritual forces and I am convinced that our enemy wants to hold us Christians in a state of despair. When the tough times come the enemy wants us to be held back from tasting the peace of Christ – he wants us to wallow in self pity and be of no positive use for the kingdom.
Indeed he wants us to be so depressing we become a real negative witness and I have met a few of those haven’t you!
But God!
What a powerful amazing statemnet - BUT GOD!
You know again and again we see in scripture this principle – the enemy or even as for Joseph our family mean something bad for us . . . but God. The but God in the story of Joseph is huge – the but God in your life can be huge too.
There is a song by an American Christian group called Casting Crowns that tells this kind of story – ‘The Voice of Truth’ is the song – a truly wonderful song. In it the writer talks of how the enemy through the circumstances of life shouts at us saying we are not good enough for the task ahead. In his mind the writer sees the picture of the young David facing the giant Goliath and Peter walking on the water seeing the size of the waves.
He says –
‘the waves are calling out my name and they laugh at me,reminding me of all the times I’ve tried before and failed.The waves, they keep on telling me, time and time again,Boy you’ll never win, you’ll never win. . ‘
That has been my experience and I bet yours too when the bad stuff happens and we look up and try to climb back up for God. Then our own personal waves say – you’ve got to joking, just lie back down, what have you got to offer, you’re a failure, you’re a nothing, you’re a fool.
But praise the Lord there is a but God!
There is the voice of truth saying something different.
Casting Crowns song says-
‘But the voice of truth tells me a different story,
The voice of truth says do not be afraid,The voice of truth says ‘This is for my glory’Out of all the voices calling me,I will choose to listen and believe the Voice of Truth’
In the midst of your storms and valleys and despair will you hear the voice of truth, the but God above your pain or will it be drowned out? Will you choose to listen to God or allow the evil one to destroy that which God would bring forth as fruit in your life before it has even had chance to grow?
There is a story I came across this week on the internet as I was trying to figure out how God wanted me to end this message. The story is on an excellent site called John Mark Ministries at http://jmm.aaa.net.au/index.htm and I share it with you to close with grateful thanks to John Mark Ministries.
A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as though one problem was solved a new one arose. Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water.
In the first, she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs and the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil without saying a word. After about twenty minutes, she turned off the burners.
She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl.
Turning to her daughter, she asked, "Tell me what do you see?"
"Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied.
She brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. She then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled grey centre of the egg. Finally, she asked her to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled, as she tasted its rich aroma.
The daughter then asked. "What’s the point, mother?"
Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity-boiling water-but each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior. But, after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique; however, after they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.
"Which are you?" she asked her daughter. “When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?"
So to conclude I ask you the same thing - which one are you going to be?
Will you allow the voice of God to come to you and strengthen you so that when the adversity comes you don’t become all mushy and hopeless like the carrot? Will you let the problems hit you and turn you inside into a hardened bitter grey mass like the egg? Either of those two will bring a smile to the enemy.
Or will you like the coffee beans allow the trials to bring out the best in you, shaping the world around you by the grace and will of God.
You see I believe that Joseph was a coffee bean kind of man – the rubbish came and he rose to the occasion. He brought hope and blessing to others even in his darkest hours.
Yes Joseph was a coffee bean man.
I pray that we would be coffee bean people too, shining for God in this world and bringing hope and encouragement in the place where only despair reigns now.
In Jesus name
Amen
