Vision Series

Vision

Series: Rising Up

January 9, 2022 – Brad Bailey

Intro

Last week we were away in San Diego... following our youngest son’s basketball tournament... and joined Sunday by way of livestream.

So this morning I want to express my personal new year’s cheer.

Goes without saying.... few of us were expecting to be in another swirl of pandemic commotion as we began this year.

Apparently 2022 didn’t get the memo that we expected a NEW year.

It may feel like the set back and slump is still with us.

And rather than ignore that challenge...I want us to face that challenge today.

For some...this pandemic has brought some really hard losses.

And in varying degrees... perhaps each of us have found that the pandemic has been stealing some vitality... it’s made life feel a little smaller... made dreams a little dimmer.

There is a spiritual impact this can have.

So I’d like to start by taking a moment to pray for us.

PRAY

Father...for nearly two years... we’ve processing the drama of this particular virus... it’s had a nearly constant place in our psyches... a constant change to our patterns and plans.

We NEED YOU... ...to center us in that which is unchanging...

Fill our lives afresh with purpose.

Some of us sense that we have stepped back... and we ask you to help us step forward into this day...and this year.

Amen.

Pandemic is one of the ways that life can take strange turns... and leave us in strange places.

As I have said before...I have found that nearly every life will find that by the age of 40 or 50...if not before... life will take a strange curve we had never been prepared for...and we will find ourselves in a strange place... a place that can be disorienting.

It may come with a difficult dynamic with family... or a divorce... or the untimely death of a loved one.

It could be financial set-back... health setback.

Life is not the same.

We can think everything has changed... nothing is the same.

Our dreams can dim

Our faith can seem to go into hibernation.

And now the pandemic has brought a strange turn for everyone.

And to this, God provides a life we can learn from... which is the life of Joseph.

The accounts of the life of Joseph are found in the Book of Genesis...the first book of the Bible. The first half is about the beginnings of humanity and it’s relationship with God...and the second half...on the blessing God begins as he calls a people to himself. The second half of the book of Genesis tells the history of one family, beginning with Abraham, and following down to his great-grandchildren - the sons of Jacob.

And the life of one of those sons...Joseph....is given more space in the opening book of the Bible than any other single individual – more than Adam, Eve, Noah, Abraham, Isaac or Jacob.

His life is defined by strange turns... that leave him in strange places.

And through his life God teaches us about rising up from set backs... from the pits and prisons of life.

So over these next four weeks as we start the new year... each week we will focus on one of four key qualities that allowed this life to rise up from striking difficulties to ultimately fulfill his destiny.

We’ll let God speak to us about fur qualities that couldn’t be visited at a better time in our lives.

Now I know that some of us may recall the events of this life well. Some may recall a little... and some may have never heard anything about the life of Joseph.

So let me refamiliarize us.

Joseph is the great grandson of Abraham. (Abraham > Isaac > Jacob > Joseph)

Joseph was the son of a man named Jacob, who had his own backstory. Jacob was one of the three great patriarchs of the people of Israel.

In fact, Jacob’s other name was “Israel” – that’s where the people of Israel get their name. They are literally the people of Israel or the people of Jacob.

Jacob is one of the great Patriarchs of the Bible...which simply refers to the great fathers of faith in the history of God’s people given in the Old Testament.

Jacob had 12 sons, and they became the heads of the 12 tribes of Israel.

He was the 11th son of Jacob...and the firstborn and favored son of Jacob and Rachel. [1]

Because he was the first son Jacob had from his wife Rachel... there was a favoritism for Joseph. And his brothers knew it. And they hated him for it. And Jacob, as the father, didn’t help. [2]

When Joseph was 17 years old Jacob gave him a special ornate robe of many colors.