1) Focus Statement: This sermon
shows how when Joseph's brothers became
vulnerable to him he didn't get even but saw it
as God's hand in the situation, working it out for all their good.
2) Function Statement: Because of
this sermon, the congregation will
determine to, by the grace of God, become positive people who are looking for God working in each situation of their lives.
Bible Story for kids:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8K5-8HIinM
Prayer of Illumination
Genesis 45:1-15
1st movement
Every once in a while, you have a chance to meet a positive
person who seems to always have a positive outlook on life: a person, who even
when things aren't going their way, seems to always be able to find the silver
lining in the cloud. When you meet one
of these people, it always has an impact on your life. I have had the opportunity of meeting one of
those people in a former pastorate. When
I went to her church, this person was already a shut-in because she couldn't
see well enough to drive to church. She
really couldn't see well at all. When I
would go visit her, I had to tell her who I was or at least speak so she could
hear my voice to recognize who I was because she couldn't see me well enough to
tell. She had one of these motion sensor
Parrots at her door so she could tell if someone came in on her. She had a big screen T.V., and when she would
watch, she would sit right directly in front of it so she could see some of
it. She had to feel around the house to
find things, and if anybody moved anything, she couldn't find it. She loved flowers, but she could no longer
really see them to enjoy their beauty!
As a pastor going to visit her, I would have expected to hear a
lot about how she had lost her vision, how she missed it, and how she found it
hard to go on without it. I would have
expected her to be looking to me for some kind of comforting words that would
make it all better, but that wasn't the case at all! She talked about family: past and
present. She didn't talk of missing them
or them not coming around enough; she talked of the good things they had done
or were doing for her. She understood
they had their lives, and she proudly talked about what they did. She talked of her deceased husband in a proud
way, talking about what kind of man he was, but never in a woe is me - he is
gone, sort of way. She talked of working
in her yard. She would still work in her
flowers; she would feel her way around and weed them! She would say, "I have strong
hands!" She wanted to know how
everybody at church was doing. Even
when she finally decided to go to a retirement home, she was positive. I figured it would get to her because she
liked to work outside so much, but she found friends, and if it bothered her,
she didn't let it be known. Even when
she was in the hospital on her death bed, when I visited her, she didn't have
concerns for herself. Her only comment
to me was, "one thing good that is coming from this is that all my family
is getting together!" She was
always looking on the positive and trying to see what purpose God had for her
and how God was acting in her life. She
was a joy to visit! She was one you look
forward to visiting! Her life was a
testimony to the difference God can make in a life.
2nd movement
Joseph had some faults, but he was a person who was looking for
God acting in the situations of his life.
I think he too was one of these positive people. I think people saw it and wanted to be around
him. When Joseph's brothers came to
Egypt and found out he was there before them, they felt very vulnerable. They couldn't even speak! They were scared speechless! Joseph could have had them killed; he had the
power! All he would have had to do was
say, "Cease them! Put them to
death!" It would have been
done! Joseph didn't do that. He told them to not be afraid; he didn't
blame them. He believed God had sent him
ahead of them for this very day so that he could save them and his father! Wow!
Do you realize what these guys had done to him? What they had wanted to do to him?
We could get caught up in whether Joseph saw God as causing
these things or not, but I think the important thing is that Joseph saw God
acting to preserve life! Joseph saw God
acting to preserve his life and the lives of those he loved; no matter what
happened to him, he saw God in the picture, acting to preserve life! He saw God acting when Potiphar bought
him. He saw God acting when he was able
to interpret dreams. He saw God acting
when he was able to interpret Pharaoh's dream.
He saw God acting when he was given the task of saving up food for the
famine. He saw God doing all of this to
preserve life! He saw God acting to make
life better and he willingly followed the Lord in all things. He could have gotten very down on life and
God when these things happened: being thrown in a pit, betrayal by his
brothers, and falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife. He didn’t!
Joseph was pre-New Testament in his understanding; he had a very New Testament
understanding of God! We can put with this the New Testament understanding that
God wants to bring us abundant life through Christ and ask ourselves, "How
does God go about doing that?" Does
it have anything to do with our outlook on life? We can also put with this the New Testament
promise that, "all things work together for good to them who love the
Lord," (Rom. 8:28) asking ourselves, "How does God do this?" We could get caught up in all that is going
wrong and miss the fact that God is acting to preserve life, or we could, like
my friend Ruth and like Joseph, see the good things that God is doing in our
lives in spite of the obvious bad things that also are there in life.
3rd movement
As we come across the Joseph's in our lives, we are brought to
ask ourselves some questions. How is God
acting in our lives? What difference
does it make to me and the people that I touch with my life how I view God
acting in my life? What does God acting
to preserve life mean to me?
(pause) Amen!
Prayer of Confession
Service
of Communion
No comments:
Post a Comment