Sermon Tone Analysis

INTRODUCTION

Video. 4 Mins.

SLIDE ONE (Title Slide)

What does God want you to transform?

Some of us know, some of us have a harder time finding out what God wants us to transform, but the words of this man ring true.

Find that one thing that you are passionate about and go do it for the Lord.

This morning we are speaking about How Can I Resist Evil.

The same topic covered in Alpha last night.

This morning I want to illuminate the story of Joseph.

Let’s pray before we dive in.

Joseph was not a man of superhuman strength, great ability or great leadership.

He never performed any miracles, but he had a great heart of grace.

Joseph had a story of transforming things around him.

The Joseph story is quite a lengthy story (), so allow me to summarize.

For the first 30 years of Joseph’s life, the adversity he faced was incredible; he’s a suffering servant.

Young Joseph, the favourite of his father, was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers.

He ended up in Egypt and found employment in Egypt and did a great job for an Egyptian leader named Potiphar and his household.

But Potiphar’s wife wanted to cheat on her husband with Joseph.

Joseph refused, she lied about him trying to take advantage of her, and he was thrown into prison for two years.

But even there, Joseph made the prison better and interpreted a dream or two for some other prisoners, who when they were out of prison, forgot that Joseph had helped them.

Joseph finally gets out of prison after he interprets Pharaoh’s dream about a coming famine and becomes the second in command in Egypt.

There’s a famine in the land so intense that it brings Joseph’s family down into Egypt to purchase food years after he was sold into slavery by his brothers.

After a series of events where Joseph knew who his brothers were and they did not know who he was, we arrive at a very emotional moment where adversity and grace meet – where the bitter events of adversity meet head-on with the flow of forgiveness.

As it turned out, these years of adversity mixed with periods of promise and greatness, were the formative years that would shape his next 80 years as an Egyptian ruler.

So how did Joseph do all of this?

How did he transform life around him and transform himself?

Let’s look at .

SLIDE TWO, THREE AND FOUR

Genesis 45:1-

 Joseph was no longer able to control himself before all his attendants, so he cried out, “Make everyone go out from my presence!”

No one remained with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers.

45:2 He wept loudly; the Egyptians heard it and Pharaoh’s household heard about it.

At this point, Joseph’s brothers are probably thinking…this Egyptian ruler is a little unstable.

But what is really happening here?

God is working.

Evil is being overcome.

See Joseph just like you and I; had free will.

He could have chosen to act in anger from all the years of heartache.

Instead he forgave.

45:3 Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph!

Is my father still alive?”

His brothers could not answer him because they were dumbfounded before him.

Talk about angst and panic.

I know they were checking out the nearest exits.

45:4 Joseph said to his brothers, “Come closer to me,”

This is the last thing they wanted to do, but note the intimacy of the body language.

so they came near.

Then he said, “I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt.

At this point, Joseph could twist the sword with bitterness, rancor and revenge, but notice what he does.

45:5 Now, do not be upset and do not be angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me ahead of you to preserve life.

45:6 For these past two years there has been famine in the land and for five more years there will be neither plowing nor harvesting.

45:7 God sent me ahead of you to preserve you on the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

45:8 So now, it is not you who sent me here, but God.

He has made me an adviser to Pharaoh, lord over all his household, and ruler over all the land of Egypt.

When I read those words, I can only think of one word – grace.

Grace is defined by Swindoll,

“To show grace is to extend favor or kindness to one who doesn’t deserve it and can never earn it.”

Joseph could have killed grace – he now had that kind of power; instead he dispensed grace.

He never rubbed their noses in it.

Regardless of how he was treated, in spite of unfair accusations, even though he was rejected, abandoned, abused, and forgotten, he refused to become resentful or bear a grudge.

Can you detect any hint of bitterness in our text?

Here is a guy who has been isolated from his family for years, sold into slavery, tossed from pillar to post and imprisoned for unjust cause.

This story is so true to life.

People really are misrepresented and treated unfairly and they really do get hurt by the actions of others.

Tragically, some people never get over the hurt.

They are bitter toward people or their family for the rest of their lives.

Joseph did not choose the bitter path.

Though betrayed by his own family, he decided to make the best of it and began to excel, even in a captive state.

I love how the writer summarizes with the reoccurring phrase in the Joseph narrative: “And the Lord was with Joseph…” in whatever he did.

Adversity and grace meet head-on and grace won in Joseph’s life.

All of you, like Joseph, will face adversity and will have to make a choice like this.

All of us have things in life we could be bitter about.

Joseph wasn’t treated fairly by his family, by Potiphar, by the guy who forgot him in prison ().

Nevertheless, he continually gave people what they did not deserve from him.

My great challenge to you today is to determine to be a Joseph.

Make your choice today.

You will resist temptation and you will not indulge in bitterness and revenge.

See “Joseph’s brothers deserved no grain.

They deserved no money.

They deserved punishment, perhaps even imprisonment, for what they had done to their brother.

Instead, they wound up with freedom, a full sack of grain, and all of their money returned (Joseph, 100).”

That’s grace!

What does any of this have anything to do with resisting evil?

Because that is what Joseph did.

He could have given into the temptation of Potiphar’s wife, but didn’t.

He could have had his brothers killed for what they did, but didn’t.

Would you really like to be a Joseph?

If so, there are at least five decisions that you will have to make.

I believe that Joseph made these five decisions.

SLIDE FIVE

1. Release your grudges.

Joseph was sold out by his own family!

They sent him to slavery.

But he released all of that.

Let it go.

Move toward people, not away from them.

“The miracle of forgiving is the creation of a new beginning.

It does not always take away the hurt.

It does not deny the past injury.

It merely refuses to let them stand in the way of a new start (Lewis B. Smedes).”