Genesis 45:3-8, 15 (Monday) Recognize and Respect God's plan for your Life.
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 not be 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.[a] 8 “So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. 15 And he kissed all his brothers and wept over them. Afterward his brothers talked with him.
Have you ever heard the expression "God is my co-pilot"? People mean well when they say it - it's on bumper stickers. There are books with that title. God is my co-pilot. In other words, he's at my side, helping me through life. Is that true? Well, kind of yes, and kind of no. He is next to you, and he does help you. Of course, lots of anti-God people like to make fun of that expression. There's the picture of the crumpled up car with "God is my co-pilot" on the license plate and people say, "I'm glad God's not my co-pilot." Instead of God is my co-pilot, a popular bumper sticker is "Dog is my co-pilot." In other words, my dog is at my side, helping me through my life. Some people really love their dogs, maybe a little too much.
I don't want to upset anyone who likes the expression "God is my co-pilot." But God's not interested in being just your co-pilot. God doesn't want you in the front seat. He doesn't want you to even touch that steering wheel. God is not your co-pilot. He is your one and only pilot. He is the one who steers your life - not you. That's what Joseph believed - look again at what he said to his brothers…
"because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you…. 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."
God was not Joseph's co-pilot, and Joseph recognized that. Do you remember the story when Joseph's brothers sold Joseph into slavery because they just couldn't stand him? God allowed that evil to take place, and used it for something good. God knew that eventually there would be a terrible famine that would kill millions of people. God knew that Jacob's family - the very family from which the Savior would come - would be wiped out by that famine. And so God had a plan that he would save all those millions of people and the special Savior-family through one man - Joseph. That was God's plan. God was the pilot of Joseph's life. He allowed evil to happen to Joseph, to be sold into slavery, and eventually God piloted Joseph's life into something good, something no one ever could have anticipated. Joseph recognized this and Joseph respected it.
How do we know Joseph respected God's plan? Because of the way he treated his brothers. Joseph could have sinned, right here in this story, but he didn't. He could have held a grudge against his brothers - that's a sin. He could have gotten revenge on them - that's a sin - put them in jail and caused them to die a slow and painful death for selling him into slavery. He could have hated them - that's a sin. But he didn't do that. Instead, Joseph respected God's plan and said to them, "Do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here." He forgave them. "And he kissed all his brothers and wept over them. Afterward his brothers talked with him." Why did Joseph forgive his brothers? Because he respected God's plan for his life. Yes, what his brothers did was bad. But God used it for good. Joseph respected God's plan by doing what God would want him to do - he forgave.
Do you recognize and respect God's plan for your life? Do you realize that God is not your co-pilot? He steers your life. Sometimes, just like with Joseph, he allows bad things to happen to you - maybe people will hate you and reject you, just like what happened to Joseph. But God promises you, "I know that plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (Jeremiah 29:11) Do you, like Joseph, recognize God's plan for your life? "In all things God works for the good of those who love him." (Romans 8:28).
God wants us to not just recognize this, but to respect this. Joseph respected this by not sinning. Instead, Joseph forgave. God wants you to respect his plan for your life also, by not sinning. God wants you to "do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" (Eph. 2:10). This is how we respect God's plan for our lives, by not sinning, and by doing good works.
There are some of us who are sitting in this gym this morning who don't recognize or respect God's plan. There are some of us who think, "I’m in charge of my life, and I will do whatever I want. And if I want to sin, I will sin. And I don't care. Are you one of those people sitting here this morning? I will act nice and religious at school, and in front of my parents, but when it's just me and my friends, I will sin. I will get involved in underage drink and get drunk. I will lie. I will cheat. I will steal. I will break the law and disrespect my parents and my school and my church, but I will act like a Christian. I will sin, because I can."
Is that you? God does have a plan for your life. God wants you to recognize it, and respect it. But some of you are rebelling against God's plan for your life. There are so many ex-Christians who decided that they didn’t want God to be their pilot - so they took the wheel drove their lives far away from God and straight into hell. Are you doing that? If that's you, or if that's ever been you, then it's time to repent of this sin. It's time to give this sin to God.
We have a God who has a plan for our sin, very similar to the plan God had for Joseph. Remember God's sin plan? Joseph was sold as a slave. Jesus was sold for 30 pieces of silver, the price of a slave. Joseph was rejected by his brothers. Jesus was rejected by his own people. Joseph was falsely accused and forsaken in prison. Jesus was falsely accused and forsaken on the cross. All the evil that happened to Joseph was used by God to save lives. All the evil that happened to Jesus was used to save YOU. This was God's plan to save you. Because of Jesus, God forgives you for all your sins of rebellion. He forgives you for every one of them.
Do you realize just how much God loves you, that he would do all this for you? God's ultimate plan is that you would have faith in him, and trust in him as your Savior, and recognize and respect his plan for your life. God's ultimate plan is that someday you would be with him forever in heaven. That was God's plan for Joseph, and this is God's ultimate plan for you.
Make it your goal, for the rest of this school year, and really for the rest of your life, to recognize and respect God's plan for your life. God in his mercy forgives you today, and promises to bless your future. Let's respond to God's love by resisting sin, and doing the good works that God has prepared in advance for us to do. Amen.
We pray, dear Lord God, forgive us for all the times we have rebelled against you. At times, we think we are in charge of our own lives. We think we can sin and get away with it. We think that no one can see us and no one cares. But you see our sin, O Lord, and you care. You have a plan for our lives and we try to mess it up with our sin. This morning, we confess our sin to you. We thank you for sending a Savior into the world to take away our sins. Just as you sent Joseph to save his sinful brothers, you sent Jesus to save sinners like us. Thank you. Help us to honor you and respect you by changing our lives. Help us to stop sinning. Help us to do the good works that you have prepared for us in advance to do. Help us to trust in you and to obey you, just like Joseph. Amen.
Now may the grace of our Lord…
