Sermon Tone Analysis

Good morning, we are in our sermon series entitled Our Mess His Masterpiece.

And today we are going to be talking about Finding God in Our Story…

Our lives are like a Motif… they have different shapes, different patterns.. structures… but collectively these shapes and lines are a collage/ picture of our life...

Everyone of us in this room has a Story… Each of our lives is an unfolding drama that is linked to our Experiences and our relationships..

When I was in seminary … in a classes on organizational systems… we had … Dr Kelly Breen Boyce.. from the counseling Department … come and teach the class...

During the the class she interviewed several students… and had them tell us their life story… it was powerful time as we were moved to hear of challenges, struggles but also how they overcame ....There were real tears in the room… I’ll never forget what Dr. Boyce said..

She said that most people never get the opportunity to share their story and have someone actively listen to them..

When we listen to people we are giving them a great gift....

The reason we should listen to our own stories is that our story has shaped who we are...

That is why its important spend time reflecting on our past and examining the trajectory of our lives.

- because our life experiences are MARKERS that indicate how God has been shaping us and molding us for the future.

When we study a story like the life of Jospeh we can find patterns and designs that relate to our Story in God’s Story.

First of all there is the Big Picture.

Josephs story has been called the Masterpiece of Genesis… There is good reason for that because there are several themes or textures that are layered and imbedded in his Story…

The story of Joseph fits into the larger story of Jacob and Israel becoming a nation.

God promised Israel in Gen 12 the Abrahamic covenant that through his seed that he would make his family into a great nation...

The Bigger story or plot line is the story of Redemption — Not only the rescue of Joseph, the rescue of Israel and the rescue of all people... It’s the story of the Sending of Jesus into our world to Rescue and Restore His people.

Not only is the Joesph’s story rich in theology but....

But it is also Rich in Application...

The Story of Joseph is written in a literary style called Novella.. meaning it was intended to teach moral lessons and principles....to those who read the story....

The story of Joseph is about following a plot line… it’s about following God's Sovereign plan unfolding in human lives and interactions....

Within the story are Markers where we can understand Our story within the Greater plot of God's story...

T/s What happens when you follow the Plot line of God’s Story?

You discover that…

1. God’s Motif is found in the Story of Calling.

Joseph was one of Jacob’s Favorite Children out of his 12 sons… The main reason was because he was born to him in his old age and the son of his favorite wife Rachael… This intensified after Rachael died in giving birth to the youngest Benjamin… as a result...Jacob spoilt Joseph and gave him more attention than any of his other sons..

Joseph was honored above his brothers by the gift of Coat of many colors..

It was coat with long sleeves that signified prestige honor and inheritance…often title deeds and money was kept in the sleeves..

This gift added insult to injury… that caused jealousy that was already present in the brothers to turn into deep hatred..The bible tells us that they could hardly speak to Joseph because they were so angry...

At the root of the story is a generational sin of favoritism and deception can be traced further up the family tree.... to Isaac and Rebecca — who both had favorites.

The bible warns us about roots that grow in our lives.

What we see is this root of bitterness grow into a full shoot...

In-spite of all the dysfunction God is going to uses Joseph to save the nation.

The lesson is that God uses our mess as the raw material for his masterpiece…

Finding God in our story is first finding our calling… knowing that life is not random events but there is purpose...

.…

calling has to do with the way God has wired or shaped you.... and the needs around you..

We are going to pick up on our Story where Joseph follows his calling…

We in find in the Story of Joseph the plot line of His calling… Within his calling are these markers or indicators of God of how God is leading Joseph.....As we examine these markers we need to remember that these are also indicative of how God calls and leads us… We see in Josephs story this…

A. Marker of Meeting a Need

One of the indicators of calling is a need that needs to met… Scholars tell us there is a difference between real need and felt need… And as we have been talking about community engagement this year… I have been thinking about these two terms… What is felt and what is real....

We need to remember that it depends on you perspective… JEFF IORG said

To the person with the need, the felt need is the real need.

Discovering needs is not that difficult.

Making the sacrifice to meet them is the difficult part.. JEFF IORG

The first thing we learn is that these brothers have gone to Shechem to pasture Jacobs flocks.. it was good watering hole for the flock ... but it was relatively far from Hebron about it was a about 50 miles and 4 day journey...

Jacob becomes concerned about their safety and well being and he sends Joseph on a mission to see how they are doing.. .

All of sudden there is a need for some to check on their safety…This is going to require someone going to check on them…

Often our calling comes through a real need… but we need to be careful because it is way too simplistic to that needs dictate or constitute calls..

Just because there is a need for missionaries in China…doesn’t mean we all need to go there as missionaries..

… It the Need plus the way God has gifted and shaped us to meet a need...

Frederick Buechner, —Americal preacher

“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet.”

Frederick Buechner...

We learn from Joseph that our calling in life is not always straight forward… it’s never from point A - B…

B. The Marker of commission

There is strong parallel to Jacob sending of Joseph and the Great commission Jesus gave His Church..

You have Jacob having Concern for His Children… Then Jacob says to Joseph, “I will send you.”

And then after Joseph says “Here I am” Jacobs says GO NOW.

This is great commission language ---

One of the words that is discussed a lot in the great commission verse is the word GO..

It means to move away from one place into another direction… It means movement… some interpret this AS YOU GO..

It doesn’t mean we all going across the world on missions trips.. but it does imply that as you move in life make disciples…

A disciple, is one who has believed on Jesus Christ and expressed this faith by being baptized.

He remains in the fellowship of the believers that he might be taught the truths of the faith — making Disciples simply teaching/ modeling to others how to love Jesus… the best way you can do that by loving Jesus well… and sharing your story...

C. Marker of Response to God

Joseph is going to be sent on a mission to his brothers..

He could have said no..

He could have send someone else… He could have said to Joseph you worry about them too much… they will be okay… If we are going to Find God in our Story… we have to be willing to be available… we have to be willing to say yes…

Notice the willingness of Joseph to go on this mission.. "Here I am"...

This is as statement of willingness.....

The phrase “I am here” comes up 25 and most the times it’s in response to Calling…or saying yes to God...

We see it in the calling of Samuel.. We see it in the calling of Moses from the burning Bush... we see it in the calling of Isaiah..

There is this stance or willingness to be used of the Lord... Lord send me... speaks of our willingness to heed his calling...

D. Look For Men of Peace.

When goes to Hebron nobody is there but by chance (providence) Divine encounter there is a man who he finds wandering in the fields.. Who happens to have overheard and had remembered the conversation that the brothers were heading to Dothan…

This is nothing short of a divine meeting… It is amazing how sometimes things work out… To be honest there have been many occasions where a chance meeting has been a divine encounter… I remember having a layover flight when I was a student and meeting an African pastor who needed a commentary set… I just so happened to have one I could give him..

It felt great.. to be a blessing...

God uses these encounters often times to lead us… Jesus himself gave an example how this works in the great commission..

When Jesus commission the 70 Disciples in Luke 10:6.. Jesus said take nothing no money, no bags…but rather go with peace…and when you go into a house … first say.. “Peace be to this house...” and then he says.. this...

God sets these amazing encounters of divine appointments to point us in the right direction....It was this man of peace on the hill side of Shecham that pointed Joseph towards Dothan… One of the things we can do to find God in our story is find the men of peace..

I remember when coming to Richvale finding in Gary and Buzz men of peace… this was part of the confirmation of calling..

T/s What happens when Follow the Motif Plot line of God’s Story?

You discover that…

1. God’s Motif is found in the Story of Calling.

2. God Motif is found in the Story of Suffering.

The plot thickens as Joseph approaches his brothers at Dothan… What we have is a reversal of Fortune…Until this point Joseph is pretty much in control… He has his fathers Blessing… He 17 years old and he is full of ambition and optimism.

He has this dream that has been confirmed about him being a leader…but we are going to see a reversal in his fortunes… Now, this does not mean that God has abandoned him… quite the opposite… it just is not going to happen like he had imagined...

One of the brothers observed a figure approaching across the expanse and called it to his brothers’ attention.

The gait was familiar, and then at once they all knew as they saw the shimmering of Joseph’s magnificent coat....

This gave them time to hatch this plan of revenge and murder...

We see in Joseph this marker of Rejection...

We see this progression of jealous to anger and now to a plot to murder.... Murder is the ultimate or total rejection of someone...

We don’t like to talk about rejection much…but I think it is a real part of our life experience… We have all experienced it at some level…and we know that feeling of being left out..

I was reading about a study done about the feelings of rejection…What they discovered is that we often talk of reaction in terms of physical pain… we say things like "She broke my heart," or "He hurt my feelings," or it was like getting "punched in the gut."

Well in this study ....they took MRI Scans of people that were being rejected in while playing this online game…

- What they discovered from their experiments is t, "When human beings experience threats or damage to their social bonds, the brain responds in much the same way it responds to physical pain."

There is a lot of Rejection going on in the story of Joseph.

We have the brothers who are rejected by their father……Now in the reversal of fortunes the brothers have the power to reject Joseph..…and they have the power to take him out...

… As a leader one of my Jobs is to build consensus around the unity of a Vision… It’s a powerful thing when there is unity around a mission… When a group of people do something for God… There is this beautiful picture of Unity in Psalms 133...

Here in our text we have the opposite of Unity we have Evil Consensus… around an Evil… It reminds me of psalms 1 where it begins with the words.