The Joseph Journey (6)
The Joseph Journey • Sermon • Submitted
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Enduring Injustice
Enduring Injustice
Many think to be in the Will of God is easy and smooth sailing; but it’s quite the contrary. This morning we are taking a step out of Genesis and into the book of Psalms because we find a part of Joseph’s life that isn’t found in the book of Genesis.
When he summoned a famine on the land and broke all supply of bread,
he had sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave.
His feet were hurt with fetters; his neck was put in a collar of iron;
until what he had said came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him.
We don’t know how long Joseph was in fetters and collar before what we read in Genesis came to pass, however, we know that he was there long enough for the iron to wear skin from his legs and neck. We know the timing of this verse because the next line says the king sent and released him.
I see many Christians get discouraged on the Path of the Will of God. We get the idea stuck in our heads that the will of God is always a joyful place free from pain and sorrow. Free from hardships, but we find out when we study the life of many of the great Saints that this isn’t so.
One verse I hear Christians Misquote all the time is
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
However, this more talks about going from the Law of God written to Moses to the Grace of God through the sacrifice of Jesus. One of the biggest truths I must always remind myself of is that the path of the Christian was never said to be easy, rather it’s said that it should be fruitful.
Producing Fruit
Producing Fruit
It is only in adverse conditions does a tree produce fruit. If rain doesn’t come the tree doesn’t grow.
I remember having a conversation with Jack about his blueberry farm. One year the crop growth was significantly worse than the years previous. Jack state that the bees weren’t pollenating well that year. Not only does the tree need to withstand its own storms, but it has to bare the burdon of and weight of the bees pulling nector from it’s flowers and spreading it around being used by one so that another can produce.
Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones states
It’s tragic when a person succeeds before he is ready for it.
God’s will takes
Patience
Patience
No doubt Joseph thought all was well before this turn of events. No doubt he had ambition to become better and to begin to use his pull to climb the ladder, but sometimes we must fall in order to rise.
so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
In order to inherit the promises we first must be welling to work, but also willing to wait. Depending on who you are you will have a problem on one side of this coin. Either you despise work or you despise waiting or despise both. There were behaviors in Joseph that had t be realined before he could be repositioned.
Romans
Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;
And patience, experience; and experience, hope:
And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
notice tribulation or hard times produce patience and patience increases our faith and sets us in position to inherit promises.
The key is to remember:
The deeper we go in God the deeper God goes in us and deep things need time to extract. I went on a field trip with my son to the coal mines in Lackawanna state park. Those coal mines aren’t big and honestly aren’t as deep as I thought they would be, but it took over 100 years to extract the coal from the mine. Why would anyone spend a 100 years in a hole in the ground? Because of the wealth it produced.
Things that are worth while are worth waiting and working for.
The Second thing we have to do is learn to watch, listen, and act.
Joseph wouldn’t have heard from God if Joseph allowed himself to journey far from God. In his waiting Joseph dug deeper into his relationship with God. He honed his skill in listening and in leading. Often times the situation we are sitting in is the perfect place to get along with God. When there is nothing to look at it allows us to focus on what is visible.
When I was working on the state St. House I became closer to God than I had ever before. The reason was because I was often alone. My hands were busy, but mind began going numb. I downloaded books to listen to, praise worship to sing, and podcast to help me grow. In the pit of monotony and boredem I found more of Jesus than when life was busy and constantly stimulating.
If I don’t learn to love God in the mundane I am not going to love him in the abundance.
Trust
Trust
If there is anything this Past year has taught me it was a deeper trust in God.
While Joseph was in prision he saw the baker and the cupbearer. He interpreted those dreams and told them not to forget about him. It doesn’t state how long had passed, but it lets one believe Joseph had been in jail a while after that interaction. Sometimes we see God work and then disappear. We think we know what he is doing, but then it goes silent. Often times we get angsty and make poor dicisions during this time, but I have found out that often times God waits until the last minute because that’s when our trust runs thin. It’s easy to trust you will win at the beginning of the game. It becomes more difficult to trust when there’s 2 minutes left and you’re down by 10.
Often times we try to play checkers when God wants to play dominos. Next week we are going to talk about what it means to expect God ot work and what it looks like when everything begins to flow. But the game of dominos takes a lot of setting up for a very short burst of movement. I youtubed dominos and say many great works of art and expressions come from them, but what took two minutes to fall took months or years to set up. When placing dominos if a domino moves the wrong way it knocks over others. Sometimes it wipes out minutes other times, days are gone, and then soemtimes you may lose months of work. But the end result will be the same. You have to trust that the dominos will fall just as they have been set up.