Hope Church LV Sermons
Joseph :: Faithfulness in Rejection
One of our values here at Hope is something we call God dependence. We believe as a church that we are absolutely and totally dependent on God, and the way we unpack that phrase is we say it this way, that apart from Him we can do nothing. But that through Him we can do all things. One of the ways that we see this value practically expressed within our church is through the preaching and the teaching of the Word of God. We put a high standard on the Scriptures. We believe that these words are His words, and that they represent who He is and what He is about in the most accurate way possible. And that's why every weekend as myself or Pastor Vance stand before you, we're not up here just expressing our best thinking. We're not up here expressing our opinion. Our hope is to communicate the Word of God. And here's what we pray, that as we do that, that in these services the Holy Spirit of God would take this text and bring about transformation in our heart. That's what we hope for. But we make a priority every weekend to study the Scriptures. Now there are numerous ways that you and I can study the Bible. The one that we are most commonly familiar with here at Hope is called a book study, in which we study verse by verse by verse through a book of the Bible. But there are other ways to study the Scriptures, such as a Word study, in which you identify one Word in the Scripture, and you look at all the place in the Scripture where that Word is used. Another method of study is called a topical study, in which you identify a topic in the Scripture, let's say it's marriage, and you look at all the places in Scripture where marriage is addressed to see what God has to say about that topic. But another type of study, and actually one we're going to begin doing this weekend is called a character study. You see we had the benefit in 2011 of having all of the Scriptures accessible on a daily basis. We can look back throughout the Scriptures and see the lives of men and women who walked with God, and we can look from beginning to end to see what they struggled with, the good things, the bad things, the rough things that they encountered. Rick Warren says this about character studies, he says with a character study, you select a biblical person and research the Scriptures to study his or her life and character. You try to become thoroughly acquainted with that person's inner life and find out what made it a spiritual success or failure. This weekend we're kicking off a three-part character study, and we're going to study as a church the life of Joseph. Joseph is a man we read about in the Old Testament specifically in the book of Genesis. Did you know that there is more written about Joseph in the book of Genesis than any other individual in the whole book? One fourth of the book of Genesis is dedicated to telling Joseph's story. And if there was one word to classify Joseph from the time we find him in 817 until the time that he dies, it is this word, faithful. Joseph was a guy who was faithful to God. He was faithful to what God had called him to. And so for the next three weeks we're going to look at his faithfulness from several different angles. We're going to look at his faithfulness in a time of rejection and struggle. We're going to look at his faithfulness during a time of temptation, and then we're going to look at his faithfulness during a time of prominence. So if you have your Bible this morning I want to invite you to turn to the first book in the Bible, the book of Genesis, and this morning we're going to be in the 37th chapter. And in my time this morning what I'm going to attempt to do is cover the entire chapter of Genesis 37 now before you have a panic attack. I want to remind you this is not a verse by verse book study, this is a character study. And this chapter is written as a narrative, it's written as a story. And so what I want to do is overview the story for us. Some I'm going to articulate to you, some we're going to read out of the scriptures, and they want to come back at the end and we're going to pull out some real life lessons as we talk about Joseph's faithfulness during a time of rejection. We find Joseph in chapter 37 as a teenager, he's 17 years old and the first thing we read about Joseph doing is going to his father, his father's name was Jacob. If you're familiar at all with the book of Genesis you may know the story of Jacob and Esau. Jacob stole his brother's birthright, this is that same Jacob. Well Joseph was his beloved son, he loved Joseph more than any of his other children. And Joseph goes to his dad and he says listen dad, my brothers, he had 11 brothers and they did not walk with God, they were not favored by God. He said listen my brothers are getting into some trouble and I just want you to be aware of it. And then the next thing we see in the scriptures is Jacob actually gives Joseph a gift. And if you're familiar at all with the scriptures you probably know about this gift, he gave him a coat. It was a multicolor tunic that he gave to Joseph as a gift, yes to show him that he loved him. But there was also a major statement that Jacob was making by giving Joseph this specific coat. You see scholars tell us that this coat was long enough to go all the way down to his ankles and long enough to go all the way down to his wrists. Now here's why that's significant because in this culture what was normally worn by someone who worked in the field or who worked in the village was a garment that went down to their knee and was cut off at their shoulder. That's what a person wore who worked. So by Jacob giving Joseph this long tunic that went down to his ankles and down to his wrists, he was basically saying hey Joseph, you're the heir to my throne. You're going to begin to steer this thing all of my heritage, all of my funding, all of my resources, all of my family once I'm done. And you see Joseph already had a horrible relationship with his brothers because they were so jealous of him and mad at him because he was Jacob's favorite. So that coat and that statement just threw fuel on the fire. But nonetheless Jacob gives Joseph this coat. And the next thing we read about in the scriptures is Joseph begins to have some dreams. God begins to give Joseph some dreams and I want to read starting in verse 5 of Genesis 37 and see what these dreams were about. So follow me if you don't have your Bible it's going to be on the screen. Here's what the Bible says. It says then Joseph had a dream and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more. He said to them please listen to this dream which I've had. For behold we were binding sheaves in the field and lo my chief rose up and also stood erect and behold your sheaves gathered around and bowed down to my chief. Then his brother said to him are you actually going to reign over us or are you really going to rule over us so they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words. Verse 9. Now he had still another dream and related it to his brothers and said lo I have had still another dream and behold the sun and the moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me. He related to his father and to his brothers and his father rebuked him and said to him what is this dream that you've had shall I and your mother and your brothers actually come to bow ourselves down before you to the ground. His brothers were jealous of him and his father kept the sayings in mind. Went from bad to worse with Joseph. His brothers are already frustrated about the gift that he'd gotten and the statement that Jacob had made and then he comes along and says guys I've had a couple dreams and here's what the dreams tell me one day you are going to bow down to me. I don't know what life is like in your family where there's tension but this is about as bad as it could have gotten for Joseph. And the next thing we read in the scriptures is his brothers leave and they travel about a three-day journey to a flock to a field to shepherd some sheep and for whatever reason Joseph's dad is concerned for the brothers and he says Joseph I want you to travel to where they are and I want you to check on them and I want you to come back and give me a report. So Joseph takes off and he goes to a certain city that was about a two-day journey and he gets there and he can't find his brothers. So he asks the guy he says have you seen my brother he says yes they went on to another city. So Joseph continues to travel about another day's journey and finally he sees his brothers in the field with the flock. I'm going to pick up in verse 18 of Genesis 37 and look at the response he gets from his brothers. When they saw him from a distance and before he came close to them they plotted against him to put him to death. They said to one another here comes this dreamer now then come and let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits and we will say a wild beast devoured him. Then let us see what will become of his dreams. But when Reuben the eldest brother when he heard this and rescued him out of their hands and said let us not take his life. Reuben further said to him shed no blood throw him into this pit that is in the wilderness but do not lay hands on him that he might rescue him out of their hands to restore him to his father. Verse 23 so it came about when Joseph reached his brothers that they stripped Joseph of his tunic the very colored tunic that was on him and they took him and threw him into the pit. Now the pit was empty without any water in it. What a blessing. The scripture continues and here is what it says it says the brothers threw him into a pit and then as Joseph is in the pit they begin to eat lunch they are just beside the whole and they look off and here is what they see. They see some other people coming on their animals and they are traveling and they said hey I got an idea. What if we do not just leave Joseph here? What if we make some money off of him? And so somehow some way they get the attention of these travelers and the travelers come over and they say hey we have a slave here. And we would love to sell to you if you will pay us for him. And the scripture teaches that these brothers sold their brother Joseph into slavery to some men who were traveling to go to Egypt. And then they are left with the struggle of okay what do we tell our dad. And so they go out in the wilderness and they kill an animal and they take the tunic that they ripped off Joseph and they spill blood all over the tunic and they take it back to their dad Jacob and say father. We have something horrible to tell you as we were out in the field a wild beast attacked our brother Joseph and it killed him and all that is left of Joseph is this tunic. And obviously you can imagine if your most loved child was killed Jacob was heartbroken. That is what the scripture tells us in Genesis chapter 37. Talk about some drama. And that is just one chapter in one book of the whole Bible. Some of you need to start reading your Bible. But in this text I think there are some life lessons. Some things that we can pull out that we learn from the life of Joseph when it comes to a time in his life when he was rejected. Now I have to be honest with you. The first life lesson is not very encouraging. Just going to be straight up. But if you hang with me when we get to the second life lesson I'm going to redeem myself. And I'm going to encourage you this morning we're going to end on a high note. So let's look at two life lessons from this chapter and from the life of Joseph. Here's the first one. Every child of God will face difficult circumstances. Every child of God, every follower of Jesus will face difficult circumstances. It doesn't matter if you're young or old, rich or poor, married or single, spiritually mature or spiritually immature. The Bible teaches us that as you navigate on this earth you will see some difficult circumstances. Some struggles, some pain come to pass and nobody likes to hear that. Nobody likes to hear that we're going to have to face rejection, that we're going to have to face difficult circumstances. As humans we despise that altogether much less being rejected for our faith. In 2008 was the first time I really ever had a meaningful conversation with a young lady named Shar Patenciano who would later become Shar Ogle, my wife. And we met in 2008 and we just kind of began to talk and she enjoyed it and I enjoyed it and it kind of got to a time where we really needed to define the relationship because it was getting a little awkward. And she was wanting to spend time with me and I was wanting to spend time with her but I didn't know what that needed to look like. And I wanted to ask her to go do something and so I wrestled with is it a movie? Is it dinner? Is it hanging out with my friends? But I was scared to death that if I went and asked her on a date she was going to say no. I was nervous. And so here's what I came up with. I decided I was going to ask her to go to dinner to the one place I knew she loved. The one place I knew she would never say no to. So I went to Shara and said hey what would you think about me and you going to dinner at a sushi place? Now here's the problem. I hate sushi. Now whatever definition of hate you have in your mind, multiply that by 100 and that's how I feel about sushi. But I was so afraid that she was going to say no I felt like that was my only option. So I went and asked her and of course she said yes. And so we go to the sushi place and we sit down to order and I'm just, I mean I'm dizzy just by the smell of the thing and she starts ordering these types of rolls and this covering and this sauce and I'm like can I get some grilled chicken or salad? So we're sitting there in this tension of oh my gosh is she enjoying herself? Is she not enjoying herself? Am I a nerd? And then she says hey what would you think about maybe trying a piece? And you know that feeling in your throat that you get just before it all goes? I had that. But I'm like you know what? I really, really want this girl to like me. So I did it and obviously it was way worse than I remember. I'm talking way worse. I thought the stuff just came out of the garbage. It was horrible. But nonetheless I ate it. We had a great date and she couldn't resist my charm and we got engaged and went on to get married. But here's why I tell you that because as humans it's just a part of us. We despise rejection and it doesn't matter what it looks like. If it's from someone of the opposite sex or a friend or our family or our peers, we despise rejection. But here's the reality that we got to get our heart around as children of God. It's going to happen. That's the scripture that every child of God will at some point face difficult circumstances. And it's so vital that we get these truths in our heart today because otherwise, either through false teachers or our emotions, we're going to be led to think something different. There are some people that say, "You know what, if you'll just give more, if you'll just do this, if you'll just invest in this, all of the difficult circumstances in your life will go away." Listen, that's a lie from the enemy because there's a phrase that's used throughout Joseph's story in Genesis, and here's the phrase, "And the Lord was with Joseph." In the pit, in slavery, in prison, as a ruler, as someone who had a lot of authority in all those moments, the Lord was with Joseph. But God's presence with Joseph did not mean he was not going to walk through some difficult circumstances because the scripture teaches every child of God will face those days of difficult circumstances. There are some people who would say, "If you're facing something hard right now, that means God has left you." It's not true. There are some people who say, "If you're facing difficult circumstances, you just don't have enough faith." And that's not true. Throughout the story of Joseph, we read that God was with him through every step, yet Joseph faced difficult circumstances. And the reality is that although you and I have hope and purpose and life in our relationship with God, we are still going to face days that are hard. Look at this verse from 2 Timothy, chapter 3, "Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." That's tough to swallow. I'll be honest with you, it's tough. But it's true. And in this text, I think there are three examples that really show us the difficult circumstances that Joseph had to walk through, and I want to give those to you very quickly. Here's the first one. The first difficult circumstance we read about with Joseph is relational conflict. You don't have to navigate through life in general to have a conflict in your relationships. But specifically when it comes to being a believer, when it comes to walking with God and being a child of God, we will face relational conflict. Look at verse 4, "Speaking of his brothers, it said they hated him and could not speak to him on friendly terms." You see, for Joseph it was bad. It wasn't his enemies hating him. It wasn't his peers. It wasn't his friends. It was his family that was rejecting him. And there was a conflict, there was a disconnect in their relationships. And believe it or not, as you and I navigate on this earth, there will be people who choose not to care for us, to exclude us, to come against us with a regression simply because we've chosen to follow Jesus. We got to be aware of that. There's another example from Joseph's life, confusing situations. Confusing situations. Look at verse 23, "The Bible says they took him and threw him into a pit." And you've got to see though, the way this plays out, Joseph has just been given this great gifts. He realized, "I'm going to be the heir to my father's empire. Everything my dad has, he's going to give to me. His dad sends him to go check on his brothers and he blinks and he's been stripped of his clothes and he's laying in a pit with no food and no water and here's his brothers laughing at him." Now, if there's ever been a moment to just reevaluate the whole thing, it was then. He's laying in a pit thinking, "How in the world did I get here? What did I do to get here? I don't deserve this." He was in a confusing situation and I bet if we went around the room today, all of us could share a confusing situation that we're walking through. I know for me, me and my wife are walking through one right now and honestly, I've thought about it from every angle. I've chopped it up, I've diced it up, I've examined it and I do not understand why it's happening. But it is and we need to understand that as we navigate, it's going to happen to all of us. Here's the third example that we see from the life of Joseph. Not only relational conflict, not only confusing situations, but pain. Both physically and emotionally. Look at verse 28, "They meaning the brothers, they pulled him and lifted Joseph out of the pit and they sold him." You want to talk about a situation going from bad to worse. I'd imagine Joseph laying in that pit and he's thinking, "Well, it can't get any worse than this." I have hit rock bottom and then he hears his brother start to talk about something. Then he hears some other voices that he doesn't recognize and the next thing he knows, somebody reaching the pit and grabs him and they say, "Hey, see this guy? Will you give me this much money for him and I'll sell him to you as your slave." They said, "No, he's not worth that much. Okay, what about this much?" "No, he's not really worth that much either." All the while, Joseph's just sitting there. Then finally, one of his brothers says, "Well, what about 20 pieces of silver?" They said, "Okay, I'll give you 20 pieces of silver." They push Joseph over to these other people. I'm sure they bound his hands and he would throw him in a carriage or throw him on some top of the animal and just pushed him and made him walk. He is screaming, he's wrestling, he's frustrated because he realizes he just became a part became a slave. You want to talk about some pain, both physically and emotionally? That was a difficult circumstance that Joseph navigated through and for you and I, it's going to happen to us as well. And as those things happen, typically as humans, there are several responses that we have. For some of us, as soon as those types of things happen, as soon as we hit a difficult circumstance, we start to question God. We start to doubt him. We start to think that his promises aren't true. We start to think that somehow he's lied to other people, begin to look to their emotions. And we've all done it. We begin to rely on our emotions and just do whatever we need to do to make ourselves feel better because that's what our heart is telling us. For other people, we just sin. We start doing whatever we need to do to forget that this difficult circumstance is going on all the while. We're wanting the answer to one big question, God, why is this happening to me? Why is this difficult circumstance going on? Lord, why me? Why now? Why do I have to feel this way? Why do I have to be discouraged? Why do I have to be in this situation? Lord, I don't understand and I want you to hear me this morning in those moments. There are going to be a lot of things that you don't know and you don't understand, but listen, you can't focus on those things. In a moment of crisis, you can't focus on the stuff that you don't know, but you should focus on the stuff you know to be true. I wrote this in my notes. In the midst of suffering, we cannot focus on what we do not know, but we can put our hope and confidence in what we do know to be absolutely true. That's vital. Every child of God is going to face difficult circumstances. Here's the second life lesson that I hope encourages you this morning and that we learn from the life of Joseph. God is at work in my circumstances to accomplish His will for my life. We're all going to walk through them. We're all going to have days of frustration in those difficult circumstances, but here's what you can know, without a shadow of a doubt to be true, that in the middle of that difficulty, the struggle, the pain, the relational conflict, the confusion, the frustration, God is at work. There are two very significant verses in Genesis chapter 37, and when you're just reading it, if you don't know the whole story, you just blow right by them, but I want to read you two verses. They're going to be on the screen. The first one is verse 28, which is what it says, "Then some Midianite traitors passed by, so they pulled him up and lifted Joseph out of the pit and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver, thus they brought Joseph into Egypt." Verse 36, "Meanwhile, the Midianites sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, Pharaoh's officer the captain of the bodyguard." Now if you're not familiar with the story, that might not be very significant to you. But what you have to understand is that the first of this chapter, God gave Joseph a dream, that He was going to have some authority, He was going to have some influence, and I'll be honest with you. Looking at the scenario from a human perspective, you think, "Well, that dream's over." There's no way that what God put in His heart is ever going to come to pass, now that His brothers have beaten him up and left him, and he's been sold in his slavery. But here's what you've got to understand, God was going to accomplish His purpose through Joseph, not with His family, but in the country of Egypt. Very significant to the story. And just when we think, you know what, it's over. Just when we think that He's hit a circumstance that there's no getting out of. We have verse 28 and verse 36 to say, "You know what? Even in the midst of this circumstance, God was still at work." And here's the deal, I know that there are some difficult circumstances in the room. I mean, I hear just a little glimpse of them as I sit with different people and talk every week. I know there are some circumstances right now, and it's just tough for you. Maybe it's financial, maybe it's relational, maybe it's just a loss, maybe it's a failure. I have no idea, I don't know your circumstance you do, but here's what I do know about your circumstance in the midst of it all. God's activity has not stopped. The enemy would love for us to believe that when circumstances suppress our situation and come over us, that God's activity is interrupted. That is a lie from the devil. In any circumstance, any situation, any rejection, any suffering, or any pain, God continues to work in those circumstances to accomplish His will for your life. And that's a promise that we need to wrap around our hearts this morning. I wrote this in my notes, we're going to put it on the screen, it's by Warren Wiersby. Our God is so great that He can work out His purposes, even when people are doing their worst. And I don't understand all that. I really, I can't get my head around it because I'll be honest, just like you, there's some moments when it comes to my situation and I'm just overwhelmed by the pain and the darkness in the struggle. And you may tell you something, when you have those moments, the best thing you can do is take a moment and simply focus on the character of God. That's the best thing you can do because here's the deal, even though your circumstances are overwhelming you, they're not overwhelming Him. And even though your circumstances are broken, His plan for your life is not. And even though you may think everything is over, God is still at work. And I think living in a city like we live in, walking through the economy that we're walking through, these principles should bring us great encouragement, listen, when your circumstances seem to be working against you, God is still working in you. I'm going to say that again. When your circumstances seem to be working against you and nothing's going right, nothing's going according to plan. This is dropping and this is dropping and this hurts and this is a struggle. When your circumstances appear to be working totally against you, God is still working in you and for you to accomplish His good purposes in your life. Can somebody in the joint say amen? That's a big deal. He's working to accomplish His plan. I want to read you this reality that I had to swallow this week and I'm not excited about it, but it's true. There are areas of my life that would never be conformed to the image of Jesus apart from difficult circumstances. That's true. There are parts about me and parts about you that would never begin to reflect and look like Jesus apart from you and I going through rejection and suffering and pain. So we can have faith even then that God's at work. Look at what the Bible says in Philippians 1, 6. It says, "For I am confident of this very thing that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." It changes everything. It changes the way you and I process through a circumstance. That means when something happens my immediate response does not need to be revenge or really even finding a solution. My first response in a circumstance is to say, "God, what are you doing? God, where are you at working this thing?" You set your perspective with understanding that even though it looks bleak to us, it looks negative to us. God is still at work and He's still striving to accomplish His purpose. Otherwise you miss this phenomenal reality that God is more concerned about changing you in your circumstance than He is changing your circumstance. His long-term goal for you is not just happiness. His long-term goal for you is conformity to the image of Jesus and through His sovereignty and through His grace. He is working all things toward that end. He promises He will finish what He starts. So to kind of wrap this thing up, I want to give you three evaluation questions to ask in the middle of whatever you're walking through. These are simple, but I hope they'll just give you some substance to really process through. Here's the first one. The first question to ask in your circumstance, "God, what are you trying to teach? To teach me, the financial, relational, something at work, a loss, ask this question, "God, I don't understand. God, would you show me what you're trying to teach me in this difficult circumstance?" All of us would agree that we experience a deeper level of intimacy with Jesus. When we are walking through a difficult circumstance, then we do when everything's okay. And what happens so many times is we're so focused on trying to get back to where everything's right and healthy again, and there's nothing wrong with that, but that's just always our immediate response that we miss what God's wanting to say to us right there in the middle of the circumstance. Miles J. Stanford said this, "I read this this week and it was just convicting." It seems that most believers have difficulty in realizing the fact that God does not hurry in his development of our Christian life. He is working from and for eternity. And many days we are so preoccupied with what's happening around us that we miss what God is trying to teach us. That's one question. I believe would be healthy for us to begin to ask as we navigate through circumstances. God, what are you trying to teach me? Here's a second question. God, who are you trying to show me? You know and I know that as we navigate through circumstances, there are some relationships that begin because of those situations. And I believe it's a healthy thing to help us identify God's activity to look around and say, "God, not only what are you trying to teach me, but Lord, who is the person in this situation that you're trying to show me that you want to leverage my life to impact their life in this circumstance?" One more question. Number three, "God, where are you trying to lead me?" Lord, am I walking through this circumstance so that you may show me a new direction? Are you going to leverage this difficult time to really reveal something to me about myself and where you want to lead me and use me in the future? Those are healthy questions to ask in the middle of a circumstance that keep our perspective on the fact that God is constantly at work. I'm going to give you a takeaway and I'm going to read two quotes and we're going to have the time to respond this morning. Here's a takeaway from all these principles that I hope maybe just kind of sum it up. God desires to use everything in my life to conform me to the image of Jesus. And He's big enough and great enough and sovereign enough that He can do that. I don't know how He wraps it all together somehow. I don't know He took a situation like Joseph's with a broken family and betrayal and rejection and Joseph being sold into slavery and he worked it out to conform Joseph more into his image. But as you read through the rest of the book you find out, he did. And if it was true for Joseph, then it's true for us today. I want to read some verses that you're familiar with, but it's just healthy to read in this context. It's from Romans chapter 8. We're going to put it on the screen. Here's what the Bible says. It says, "We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." What's His purpose? Verse 29. "For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son." That's His plan. God is at work in your messed up relationships to conform you to the image of Jesus. God's at work in your confusing situations to conform you to the image of Jesus. God is at work in your pain to conform you more to the image of Jesus. Roy Hessian said this, "Every humiliation, everyone who tries and vexes us is God's way of breaking us so that there is yet a deeper channel in us for the life of Christ." It's not all going to make sense right now. The Bible says there will be a day when it's going to make sense, but that day's not today. So we have an opportunity, even in our emotional pain and our struggle to say, "God, even though I don't understand it, I know that you're at work in this circumstance, and Lord, I trust you. I know there's a day coming when it's going to make sense, even though that's not today, but Lord, ultimately, I know you're at work. Would you teach me? Would you lead me? Would you show me your activity in this circumstance? And God, through it all, would you conform me to the image of your Son?" Last quote, and then we're going to have a time to respond. It's by Dick Woodward. The word we use the most in this life is "why," and the word we're going to use most in the next life is "oh." It's true. I know some of us, we're just about to collapse this weekend. I know it's tough. We sit with people every week, and it's just tough. We have to do in something, and as our perspective aligns with his activity, as our heart is in tune with his spirit, we have the privilege of not only suffering for him, but we have the privilege of, through that circumstance, being conformed into the image of his Son. God doesn't waste anything. He desires to use everything to conform you and I to the image of Jesus, if we will just remain faithful. That's Joseph's story in chapter 37. He was faithful in rejection because he realized God was still at work, and for the next few weeks we're going to be processing through more of this narrative of Joseph's life and studying about faithfulness in the life of this precious Old Testament character. [end] [BLANK_AUDIO]