Good morning everyone. Welcome to what was supposed to be our second Edge outside church gathering of the summer. I want to give special thanks to the Price Family for planning to allow us to use their beautiful space to worship again. If this pandemic has taught us anything, it has definitely been that we need to hold our plans loosely and be ready to pivot at a moment's notice.
This has been one of those moments as we found out in the last week that two of us in leadership have been exposed to COVID. So out of an abundance of caution and love for all of you, we decided to go virtual. The two of us in leadership that were exposed to COVID will be avoiding contact with people for the next two weeks. And just to be very clear, we have not been around anyone since we found out that we were exposed.
Today we're going to deviate just a bit from our series. Before we do that, can we just acknowledge that this has been a really strange year? I definitely didn't see ‘pandemic’ on anyone's bingo card in March. Wherever you find yourself today — now we're five months into this global pandemic — whether you're presently grateful or you just said something hurtful to your family last night because you're sick of arguing over wearing a mask, let's acknowledge something. We are not the first people to go through really hard times. That isn't to minimize our pain, but to put it into historical perspective.
Jesus told us that we'd go through times like this. No, he didn't mention Coronavirus but he did tell his followers something that is a truth as old as time.
In 1 Peter 4:12, the apostle Peter wrote:
12 Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.
In John 16:33, Jesus said:
33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
I want to be clear that in saying this, I don't think for a second that God is minimizing the pain of the human experience, but he's giving us the ability to reframe our pain within an eternal perspective so that we can persevere in light of a long view on life and on struggle. Jesus leveled up so we could, too.
So let's talk a little bit about Joseph, a fellow struggler in the Old Testament, because it's always helpful to know, for me, that I'm not the only one going through something. I love that the Bible never whitewashes the truth of the character of people and it never acts like life is going to be easy. That helps me to realize and really accept that it will probably often be hard for me as well.
I would encourage you to read through the entire story of Joseph. It starts in Genesis 37 and goes all the way to Genesis 50. But for today, I just want to give you a quick overview of some of his high points and his low points starting in Chapter 37.
Genesis 37: 3-8
3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him. 4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.
5 Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. 6 He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: 7 We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”
8 His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.
There are two huge negatives for Joseph, right from the start. Number one, we're told that his dad loved him the very most and showed it. Favoritism can destroy families in the quickest and in the most jealous of fashions. And then daddy's boy shared the dream that God had given him because it was pretty great for him. But he really made a poor choice for his audience. It tells us that we need to be extremely careful who we share our dreams with, especially when we share them with people that are already jealous.
It didn't take long for his brothers to decide to do away with him. They just couldn't handle the fact that their dad showed favoritism to him and then he had this crazy dream and he shared it. And we jumped ahead, a few verses to Jacob, the dad sending Joseph out to check to see how his brothers were doing in the field where they were working and he didn't have to.
Genesis 37: 19-20
19 “Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other. 20 “Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.”
Ultimately, they decided not to kill him. They threw him into a well, and they sold him into slavery to a group that ultimately sold him again to a member of the King of Egypt's administration. What a wild story! He ended up doing really well there until one day the wife of his boss tried to get Joseph to sleep with her, but we're told that he had integrity. He honored his boss and he honored the Lord. She made false accusations against him because she was ashamed, and he was thrown into prison based on her accusations. This sounds awful and wrong, but we're told right after that God was still with him.
Genesis 39: 21
21 the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden.
So what we see next is that Joseph, even in prison, had the favor of God in his life. He was put in charge of the prison while being a prisoner. That's crazy!
Then in Chapter 40, Joseph interpreted the dreams of two other prisoners. One got out just like Joseph said he would. Joseph asked him before he was released to put in a good word with Pharaoh to get him out sooner. He knew that he was innocent and this other man did, too. But the man forgot about Joseph as soon as he got his freedom.
The rest of Joseph's story looks a lot like what I just shared: ups and downs and more ups and downs. Yet throughout it all, he kept his integrity and God was with him. So how's quarantine going for you again?
Sometimes it takes hearing about someone else's struggles to put ours into perspective. One trial in our lives is hard, right? But even people with really bad character can act their way through one challenge. We've all done that. We don't have to have good character to act like we're going to make it through something challenging. But over time when we have lots of challenges in life, eventually what's in us will show. If you have a poor character or if you don't have integrity, eventually that's going to show as you go through difficulties. So how can we look different in our trials? How can we be more like Joseph? Because over and over through incredible lows and some highs, his character proved to be good.
Here's the first thing that I think God wants us to get from this — refuse to complain even when everyone around you is binge complaining like it's Netflix. Refuse to complain even when everyone around you is just complaining up a storm. I don't have to explain to you how countercultural it is to be a non-complainer. Quite frankly it's rare even in churches, but it still needs to be said.
In Philippians 2: 14-16 the apostle Paul challenged the church:
14 Do everything without grumbling or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky 16 as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain.
Listen, not only will a non-complainer stand out like a star in a country sky, but not complaining is also synonymous with what it looks like to have faith. Having faith is not some vague idea with no direction or purpose or object. Biblical faith looks like saying, “God, I trust you so I don't have to complain about what's happening because you see me and ultimately you will vindicate me and you will cause your plans to be accomplished through my trial and in my life.”
Complaining about everything is unattractive, but it's incredibly easy to do, right? But I'm pretty sure that when we choose to go the complaining route, that we shouldn't expect much from God in terms of a breakthrough and our trials.
Here's the other thing I'm confident God wants us to take from Joseph's life. In your hard times, seek to encourage others. In your hard times seek to encourage others. Life is about more than just what you don't do, but what will you do during these hard times? Are you more worried about yourself during this pandemic or are you seeking to care for others?
The amazing thing about seeking to bless others when we're struggling is that we never look more like Jesus in those moments. How do we know that? Because in the very last week of Jesus’ earthly life, when he could very understandably have been completely withdrawn from his followers, he did the exact opposite. He drew unnaturally close to them and he didn't seek comfort from them. I'm sure he did from their presence, but he was very purposeful in seeking to comfort them. In that last week when he was anointed for his own burial he washed his disciples' feet and he spent a ton of time giving them comfort about his impending death. In light of that, the start of John 14 is particularly touching to me.
John 14: 1-4
14 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”
That's powerful. It's a powerful lesson for how we're called to live. Even in our hard times, God wants us to be a blessing to others and to encourage them.
For some of us, we can look at this and we think that it's just a character study and then try to do everything that Joseph did and try to get ourselves to act in all the right ways. But if we do that, we haven't really realized what the full message is of the life of Joseph. Because the full message of Joseph's life is not about how good his character was. The full message of Joseph's life is that he was surrendered to the God of all things and he entrusted his life to this God, and God blessed him through the hard times that God allowed him to go through.
In other words, you can try your whole life to be good enough for God, but you will fail. The very best person in the world still will fail when they're compared to the goodness and the character of God.
As my friend, Pastor Fran said to me one time, “You must start with root and then you get the right fruit.” For us that means that you can try all day to act like God — you can try all day to be loving and joyful and peaceful and patient and kind and good and faithful and gentle and you can try to be self-controlled — but you'll never endure in that without recognizing that you can't be good enough in and of yourself to show those qualities that come only from the spirit of God.
So how do you display those qualities?
If you haven't received the forgiveness of God, you can do that today. But you can only do that by following God's plan. As much as you might want to live life on your own terms — and you have the right to do that, God allows that — if you want to follow his ways, you have to get on his path.
This is his path. Acts 2:38-39
38 “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off — for all whom the Lord our God will call.”
Maybe you've done that. Maybe you've made that decision to follow Jesus, but you still know that throughout these last five months and maybe more, you really haven't tried to be a blessing to others during this pandemic. You've been far more worried about yourself and you've done a whole lot of complaining about a whole lot of things. I want to encourage you don't waste time feeling shame about it. Come clean about it and ask God for a fresh start. He's the God of second chances. He loves to give his kids a fresh start.
1 John 1:9
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
We want to be clear again. We are not minimizing anyone's struggles. We know this is hard. For me personally, I've complained plenty through this. I've caught myself complaining at times that it makes me feel embarrassed. So this message is for me as much as it's for anyone else. Anybody that's watching online, this is a challenge, but we want to be a blessing. We are people that are blessed and we're called to be a blessing to others.
The way that we want to practically apply that today is that we know that there are a whole lot of parents, and there are a whole lot of teachers right here in our community and there are a whole lot of students that are feeling the challenge of starting this new year in such an uncertain way. We thought that things would probably be back to normal by August going into September, but it's really not and there's so many challenges. There's so many uncertainties. There's so many things that we're trying to figure out. We feel that stress with you.
So we're going to pray specifically for those three groups today — for parents, for teachers and for students. We know that when God is invited into our situation, into our struggles, we know that he is the one who has the ability to change things. And we're just going to entrust you to him today to do what only he can do.
After we have that time of prayer we're going to come back to some discussion questions. I really want to encourage you to have these conversations with people this week.
Here's the first question: What is your biggest takeaway from this message? We have very specific questions for you but we also always want to leave room for what God might be doing that we would never have expected. So what is your biggest takeaway from this message?
The second question: Complaining is contagious but so is trust. What would it look like for you to trust in the Lord instead of complaining? How would that change your life and your influence?
And finally, it's natural to worry about ourselves, but that's not where true life is found. Who will you encourage and how will you do it this week?
We thank you for spending time with us today. May God bless you. I'm going to pray and then we're going to move on to worship.
Father, we give thanks for your love for us. We thank you that you give us examples of people like Joseph not for us to feel less than, not for us to try to measure up morally, God, but to point us to the reality that we can only live this life successfully if we attach our lives to you. So we thank you that you willingly gave your life to us. I pray, Lord that you would help us in all of our ways, reflect your goodness and your glory in our lives. Help us not complain and help us to encourage others this week. And it’s in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen.