Intro: Story (Paul Harvey’s ‘The Rest of the Story’ p.115 of Col. Herland Sanders) wouldn’t you like to know the REST OF THE STORY? But, in those times when we’re down, it’s not easy to see any future to believe in the rest of the story; to believe there is a story at all.
- Those times when LIFE SEEMS TO RIP YOU OFF, DEAL YOU A BAD HAND, STRIKE YOU WITH UNFAIRNESS
- How much we’d like to hear the rest of the story
- We have discovered more of the story… times of turnaround… but certainly there are times of still living in the silence of life’s rip-off
- Maybe you’ve felt I had another future I was supposed to live
o Included a more stable career
o Included the fulfillment of marriage
o Didn’t include the challenges you now face in marriage or the spouse who left you
How are we to live when:
- loan money to a friend
- helped a friend in business
- lost a job having done no wrong
- have lost a child to drugs having done your best
- lost the very life of a child to a drunk driver who crossed the road
- as a couple you’ve wanted to conceive a child but are unable, in the midst of society so casual about that gift
- stung by prejudice
- found to be with disease or disability
HOW ARE WE TO LIVE WHEN LIFE SEEMS TO RIP US OFF?
This morning I believe God would like to teach us something from the life of Joseph
Joseph captures that challenge… could have been in Paul Harvey’s book, because life ripped him off, and often he could not know the rest of the story.
Note: As with some of these central lives of faith, I want to traverse their life, then consider the lessons.
- I read some portions and paraphrase others
- The outline will help you to follow the big picture, but I encourage you to bring a Bible so you can trace these remarkable lives first hand.
Begin in Genesis, 37
Read 37:1-5 (joke about names: ‘Maybe some of you couples considering names…’)
- Jacob, one of Isaac’s sons, while certainly a part of God’s work, was not always a man of shining character… manipulated his brother Esau to get his birthright… manipulated his father Isaac to get his blessing… had taken 4 wives when his primary love was for one… Rachel… and so a pattern of jealousy was set forth in this family… would be passed on to Joseph
o Son of his old age
o First of 2 to finally come to his favorite wife Rachel
o ‘richly ornamented robe’
still the most famous coat in history
in truth we don’t know it
• we do know it was a SYMBOL OF FAVORITISM
o Father would send him to report on other sons… not a good idea… This guy was the curvebreaker of the class
o Dreams (v 6-10)
o Sent again by father… (11-17)
o Read 17 (So Joseph went…)-30 Plot, sold, Note oldest brother Rueban
o Read 31-36 Lie to Father/His mourning >Nice family secret! v. 36 Suddenly at 17 yrs old, A SLAVE NOT ONLY A SLAVE, BUT IN A FOREIGN LAND… CULTURE… LANGUAGE… 17 years old.
How would you feel… scared? Lonely? Abandoned by your family? And God?
I would say the story is over, I got the wrong part; certainly not a part I care to play.
But… ch 39 v. 1-6 picks up:
- Rises up in this setting
- Potipher-chief of royal guard=head of National security and CIA combined
o Right on the inside, where masses would want to be… but the inside isn’t always safe
Read v. 6-9
- Noting along the way: subtly (joke)
- Picture and Potential attitude: he’s 20-22 years old, she’s beautiful
- Does right thing, but just when we want to wipe our brows on his behalf
v. 10- Day after day
v. 11-20- wouldn’t you expect God to step in… maybe a video… at least a witness
- It would seem clear enough, God wasn’t with him yet our natural feelings deceive us again in seeing spiritual reality
v. 20-23 Rises again, now under prison warden
… still not over, we enter ch. 40
- Discover 2 particular inmates whom he now oversees, baker & cupbearer… ( have to wonder what kind of meal or party they messed up.)
- Each have dreams and bring to Joseph
o He must have thought back to last time he shared his gift of interpreting dreams… ‘NEXT CELL PLEASE!’
v. 8 gives credit to God
Interprets
- bad news for Baker
- good news for cupbearer, asks only in return that he shares about this with Pharaoh.
- Comes true… baker hung, cupbearer exalted
v. 23 Joseph is forgotten
…chapter 41
v.1 two more years passed…
Finally, events unknown to Joseph, unexpected even in his dreams
v. 2-8 Pharaoh has a pair of dreams which disturb him.
v. 9-15 (paraphrase) Sends for Joseph
- Could have grabbed the moment in blame (yea, if the cupbearer had remembered…) or GLORY (yea, it’s about time you recognized me… spotlight please)
v. 16 Gives God credit
- Reflects who he had trusted in prison.
v. 17-36 Pharaoh shares dreams; Joseph interprets
- Pharaoh recognizes a good man… behind him, the FAVOR OF GOD
v. 37-44
- Gives ‘signet ring’- Gold card of the day
- The ultimate restoration… from the PIT OF PRISON TO THE PINACLE OF THE PALACE
But before our hearts want to cheer, we do well to note the final verse (v. 46)… Joseph was 30 years old… sold into slavery at 17… 13 YEARS
… Could title his story ‘You Can’t Keep a Good Man Down’ but the lessons lie in the experience of those 13 years
- Abandoned by a Jealous Family
- Framed by an Unfaithful Woman
- Forgotten by and Ungrateful Prisoner under his care
How did he live with this;… and stay in the story?
>3 simple but significant truths reflected in this life, lesson
1. WE CAN EXPERIENCE GOD’S FAVOR IN THE MOST FALLEN PLACES AND TIMES
- When life seems to rip us off, God hasn’t
- In both humble and honoring circumstances, God is able to accomplish great purposes.
- Living in an unfair world is hard… it’s strewn with sin… often callous and even cruel to our best efforts to do the right thing
- We want some sort of rhyme or reason and often are left without any
- We equate our life situation and circumstances with the hand of God and feel abandoned
- … maybe this is precisely where we missed the big picture
o God has said ‘I know how unfair and unjust the earthly existence has become, I know the evil involved… I WAS GOING TO END IT, BUT INSTEAD I ENTERED IT
The first response would have been just, but the latter choice goes beyond justice… mercy
Simple justice would have been simple, short… no messes to work with, but in mercy, I must enter into unfairness, and particularly into the lives of the unfairly treated who will let me. It’s a subtle process few join easily, but it bears my love more than any.
So, perhaps to our surprise, we are reminded of God’s favor in fallen places and times.
- How do we find God in life’s unfairness?
2. WE DIRECT OUR HEARTS FROM THE HARDNESS OF ASKING ‘WHY,’ TO THE HUMILITY OF ASKING ‘WHAT NOW’
- Natural to ask ‘why’ in hard times
o Our emotions are wired to react that way
o Even Jesus on the cross ‘Father, why…’
- But the heart must loosen itself from that question, or it will become hard, unable to discover God’s ongoing presence
o I can become so stuck on ‘why’… or let’s change it, or on figuring out how I got there, that I refuse to be part of the rest of the story
Personal experience- when transitions beyond me left me in the position of leading this fellowship…
• May appear exalted… but in the midst of the privilege to come was a lot of pain
Expectations… and disappointment
New marriage and
Accusations
• Meeting with John Wimber
In all my “why’s”, I was missing God’s “Now”
Sometimes we think humility means we step out of the picture, but humility is what keeps us in.
- I Peter 5:6-10
3. OUR PERSPECTIVE WILL HAVE A GREAT DEAL TO DO WITH THE REST OF OUR STORY
- Those who humble themselves will in God’s time and God’s way be exalted
- Like the finest of sculptors, God will reveal something more beautiful if we allow him.
