These are simply my personal notes from the following sermon:
Most spiritual objections are not of whether or not miracles
happen. Not spiritual but personal. Objections look more like, if God is good why
did he let this happen to me?
The story of Joseph shows us again and again how when bad things
happen God is probably doing his best work.
When Jacob/Israel dies, Joseph’s brothers send a message to him
basically saying “Dad said be nice to us,” and Joseph weeps at this. Why?
Because even though he has forgiven them and taken care of them, they
still do not trust his forgiveness. A
wrong as severe as his brothers have committed against him takes time to heal
from. They are not reconciled until
Joseph says these three things:
Genesis 50: 19-21
19 But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am
I in the place of God? 20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant
it for good, to bring it about that many people[a] should be kept alive, as
they are today. 21 So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little
ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.
“Each sentence of his threefold reply is a pinnacle of Old
Testament and New Testament faith. To leave
all the righting of one's wrongs to God; to see His providence in man's
malice; and to repay evil not only with
forgiveness but also with practical affection, are attitudes which
anticipate the adjective 'Christian' and even 'Christlike.'"
3 Marks of a changed heart, changed by
grace.
1.)
Avoids God’s chair- Am I in
the place of God?
§
Assuming that you can be
your own moral authority. Adam and Eve
had one command, don’t eat from the tree.
The serpent comes and says eat from the tree and you will be as God. Do not try to be God. If you decide what is right or wrong for you
rather than what God word and authority you’re putting yourself in the place of
God. A lot of us look at the bible and
say it is prehistoric and we cringe at some of the things that it says and we
decide that we don’t agree with bits and pieces of what it says. 80 years from now people are going to cringe
at what we say about life and what is right and wrong right now. We cannot take our own opinions that we have
today in our culture and replace God’s word with them. That means we are trying to take the place of
God and pick and choose what we believe is still relevant.
§
Also by letting people look
to you to meet their deepest needs you are putting you for their deepest needs.
2 Kings 5- king of Israel tells a man coming to him looking for healing “Am I
God? Can I kill or make alive? Only God can do these things. The deepest needs you have can only come from
God, there are a lot of things a King can do but he says he cannot do what only
God can do. Modern day, our
psychologists our self help guru’s etc should be saying look I can do what I can
to help you but there are some things that only God can do. Don’t look to us, look to God. This happens in relationships. Some people think when they get married their
entire life will be wonderful, it will fulfill everything they’ve ever
wanted. At some point everyone in a
relationship should say to their spouse, don’t look to me for the deepest needs
of your heart, look to God.
§
Inordinate worry- Matthew
6, why do you worry so excessively about what you eat, clothes and health. Only your father in heaven knows what you
need and has the power to give you what you need. If you excessively worry about these things
then you are basically saying you know what you need and you’re afraid God isn’t
going to get it right. The more you
realize that you don’t know what is right, the more you take yourself out of
God’s chair
§
Keeping a grudge- Joseph
says to his brothers, of course I have forgiven you, am I in the place of
God? Every person who holds on to their
anger for someone who wronged them is sitting in the place of God Romans 12:19
says “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” God is saying get out of
my chair. Only God has the right to sit
in judgment, only God has the knowledge needed to make judgment, you don’t know
what the person deserves. We sit and
wish ill on people who have wronged us as if we know what their punishment
should be. We don’t know them, we don’t
know the things they’ve been through, what life they’re leading. God does.
Only God has that power not us, we are to be judged in the end too. Only God has the power to judge someone
without becoming evil himself. When we
nurse our anger, if we want or seek the power to payback, if we don’t forgive,
we are becoming evil ourselves. The evil
that moved the perpetrator used to wrong us, comes into us. If we try to beat the evil doer at their own
game, even if we ‘win’ we end up losing.
By repaying evil with evil you become evil. The fastest way to become like Satan is to
try to be God. The fastest way to be
like God is to refuse to try to be God.
2.)
Take God’s view- If you get
the view from on top you’ll be fine, if you get a view from down in the valley
you’ll be lost. Do you look at your
troubles from God or from the world. You
meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.
Joseph looks at his views from the top, from God, not from the
world. In the valley, the normal human
way, there is two sides to the spectrum.
One side is an optimists view, they believe troubles are an anomaly,
they believe if you’re good to people they’ll be good to you, if you believe in
God and are good God will bless you.
People on the other side of the spectrum. Pessimists, people are out to hurt you, stab
you in the back, good times don’t last. A
lot of people believe if life is good God is good. If life is bad God is bad. Joseph looks at it different. Life is difficult, life is hard, but God is
always good. Evil is real, Evil exists,
but God is always working for good, even if it takes years, centuries to see
it. Joseph says “you meant it for evil,
but God meant it for good” he’s saying that his brothers tried to hurt him,
they did hurt him and it was hard and it was upsetting but they can’t sink him,
no one can sink him. You tried to be rid
of me you tried to push me down but nothing can do that. Not really in the end because God is always
works for our good. The view from the
top says you can’t mess up your life.
Everything that happens is God working for your good. What a great piece of information this is,
you can’t mess up your life, God is always good no matter what, if you believe
in the God of the bible then use it!
§
Story to explain. Timothy Keller studied in seminary under a Presbyterian
teacher. The reason he was able to study
under that teacher is because he knew Gerald Ford’s son who was able to help
him with his visa to come teach because his father was the president. Gerald Ford was president because of Watergate. Watergate was discovered because one man
forgot to re-latch a door after leaving the office and because a night watch
man walked past and notice. This string
of events caused Timothy Keller to become Presbyterian and start the church her
pastors now. He obviously doesn’t believe
that Watergate happened so that he could start a church, but this is a view
from the top, that God is always working in a million different ways at all
times.
3.)
He images God’s love- He is loving his
enemies. This is incredibly hard and the
reason Joseph can do this is because he has done the first two points. He does not put himself in God’s place
(humble.) He has God’s view (confidence,)
he knows that no one can sink him. If
you’re going to love your neighbors you have to have enormous confidence and
enormous humility. He knew that God
loves him when he doesn’t deserve it.
Jesus knows we can’t do what Joseph did he says we can do better Matthew
11, he says that John the Baptist is the greatest man born to that moment. Better than Joseph, Abraham, Moses. The least in the kingdom of God is capable of
being greater than John the Baptist. “11
Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater
than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is
greater than he.” Jesus is the ultimate
Joseph, Jesus is the ultimate example of the world creating evil but God
bringing good out of it.
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