Who Moved My Perfect Life? Sermon Series:

Who Moved My Perfect Life? Sermon Series: Who Moved My? The Life and Times of Joseph Sunday, April 26, 2009 Dr. Victor D. Pentz Senior Pastor Scripture Lesson: Genesis 37:23-28, 36 Chuck Roberts did a great job of launching us into the story of Joseph, the boy who, because of a lot of complicated family dynamics, began life as a spoiled little brat. This prissy little narcissist pranced around in his fancy coat, a little Lord Fauntleroy in his sequined outfit. Any parallels with Nick Bowden are purely coincidental! (I want you to know I got permission to say this about my friend Nick, for the price of a gift certificate to Neiman Marcus.) The Bible is merciless in its portrayal of this boy with zero social radar. One morning over breakfast with his brothers Joseph came out with this little gem: Last night I had a dream. We were all out in a field tying up sheaves of grain when suddenly my sheaf rose up and all of your sheaves of grain bowed down to mine. (That s not the smartest dream to share with your big brothers!) Genesis 37 says they hated him "for his dreams and for his words." Joseph was like that dreaded person you meet at a party who, after twenty minutes, says, Well enough of talking about myself. So tell me, what do you think of me? It s all me, me, me, me. Billy Graham once said, The smallest package in the world is a human all wrapped up in himself. That was young Joseph. But therein lies the power of this story. We naturally envision this yuppie puppy growing up if you can call it growing up into your typical playboy surrounded by expensive toys and a wardrobe of many colored polo shirts. But here s the miracle. Bookending the Joseph narrative are contrasting snapshots. This pint-sized clotheshorse grows up to become a wise, mature, compassionate statesman who takes charge of a nation in crisis, who devotes his life to saving the lives of starving people in Africa, who is so tender of heart that when he sees his brothers later he bursts into tears. Oh, sure, in one sense these are the same person, but in a far more profound sense they could not be more different. I track my growth as a person on the continuum of my progress from Little Joseph to Big Joseph, from a self-centered existence where sometimes even my faith is a form of spiritual navelgazing that s all about me, to an outward-focused, world-loving, self- giving person who channels 1

God s love to others. Can you get here from there? The story of Joseph says yes. The Journey from There to Here Joseph s journey from there to here begins with a little errand his father sent him on one day. Daddy Jacob says, Little Joe, go out and check on your brothers in the field. See how they re doing with the flocks. Well, Joseph is so clueless about the out-of-doors he gets lost on his father s land. We read: 15 A man found him wandering around in the fields and asked him, What are you looking for? 16 Joseph replied, I m looking for my brothers. Can you tell me where they are grazing their flocks? This kid does not get out much. But that s all about to change. What s next you might call, A funny thing happened on the way to check on my brothers. Joseph s perfect life slips on the divine banana peel and a little errand becomes a global mission. Turn with me if you would to Genesis 37 on page 61 of the Bibles in front of you. We re beginning with verse 23 through 28 and then moving to verse 36: 23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe the richly ornamented robe he was wearing 24 and they took him and threw him into the cistern. Now the cistern was empty; there was no water in it. 25 As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt. 26 Judah said to his brothers, What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? 27 Come, let s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood. His brothers agreed. 28 So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt. Now skip over to verse 36: Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh s officials, the captain of the guard. God is a Sending God How does God move us from there to here, from Little Joseph to Big Joseph? He sends us on a journey. And there is no other way. Let me give you a five word summary of the Bible: God is a sending God. At the opening of the Bible God sends Abraham to Canaan. Then God sends Moses to Pharaoh. He sends the children of Israel to the Promised Land. Later he sends the prophets to the people. In the fullness of time he sends Jesus, who says to us this morning as the Father has sent me I am sending you. As we fill out our global ministry gifts this morning we are being sent by God to the world. In sending us, sometimes God can be like the Godfather, who says, This can be hard or this can be easy. Some of us, like Joseph, are carried kicking and screaming on our journey down a path we don t want, the kind of path Mark Crumpler identified in his devotional last week: That divorce you didn t want, the illness you didn t expect, the tears you ve shed over a difficult child, the misunderstanding that cost you a friend, the job you wanted but didn t get, the job you had but couldn t keep. All this happens on that journey of transformation from Little Joseph into Big Joseph. On that journey we see three milestones in Joseph s life. The First Milestone: Trust The first is trust. Joseph comes to trust that his wrong road is leading him to the right place. Chuck Roberts said something very profound last week (which actually is quite rare). Seriously, Chuck said churches often peddle a message that says, Make God a part of your life and all will go well for you. But that s not the Gospel. The Gospel is not about God becoming part of your story. It is about you becoming part of God s story what C.S. Lewis calls the grand story which no one on earth has ever read and where every chapter is better than the one before. However that means you re no longer in control. So often life feels like you ve just walked into a movie twenty minutes late. Nothing happening around you makes any sense at all. Now 2

suddenly your way through the world is no longer marked by a path only by a relationship. Where he leads I will follow. Often in life you re going to have no clue where you are or why you are there, so that as I ve said before, as a Christian you need a hobo s heart. Every day you live out under the open sky of God s infinite possibilities, with your motto Proverbs 3:5-6: Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight. What s more even your wrong road will lead you to the right place. Just watch. The brothers see him coming and say, "Here comes Daddy's fair-haired pretty boy; let's get him." They toss him in a pit. They discuss killing him. In the end they think, Why not get a little pocket money out of this? and sell him as a slave to a passing caravan on their way into Egypt. Imagine, sold like a slab of meat by your own brothers as a slave into a foreign country. But God s purpose from the beginning had been for Joseph to grow to become that mighty ruler of Egypt. Even as the brothers are trying to destroy Joseph, unbeknownst to them, they are simply furthering God s plan for his life. Here s the answer to a great riddle of theology: how can God be God and rule the world with his sovereign will and allow humans free will at the same time? Here s how: God takes our choices, no matter how bad they are, and weaves human choice into the outcome of his holy purposes. Friends, that s such great news, because if God can t use our bad or sinful choices we re goners. After all, most of our choices are tinged by sin and selfishness. Poor Satan! It must be awful being Satan, living in hellacious weather in that funny red suit. Imagine opposing a God who always accomplishes his purposes. Satan inflames those brothers with white-hot hatred so they hurl their little brother into the pit and sell him as a slave into Egypt. God says, Nice work, Satan! I could have gotten Joseph over to Egypt by having his father send him as a freshman to Cairo University, but this way will work just fine. Friend, this morning, God alone controls your life. He aims to turn you into a showcase of his glory and grace. This morning if you re in the pit, trust that he s preparing you for the palace. The Second Milestone: Integrity A second milestone on Joseph s journey is integrity. Here we enter a steamy episode of Desperate Egyptian Housewives with the notorious Mrs. Potiphar, the uninhibited wife of the captain of Pharaoh s security force. (Thanks to Liz Curtis Higgs in Today s Christian Woman). Potiphar seems to have been so overwhelmed by his job that he didn t have time to take care of running his household so he bought the slave Joseph manage his household affairs. Did I say affairs? Joseph is described in Genesis 39:6, as well built and handsome. Bored and frustrated with a lot of time on her hands, Mrs. Potiphar was made crazy watching this young Hebrew hunk walk around her house all day. The wife of a powerful man, Mrs. Potiphar was used to getting what she wanted. Her first recorded words were Come to bed with me. I remember as a boy I heard my preacher read this passage from the King James Bible: She said, Come lie with me. And I thought this invitation was to come speak falsehoods together. I knew that was wrong. Shame on you, Mrs. Potiphar, saying, Let s lie together. Never tell lies. Always tell the truth. Well, Joseph got the picture and he was appalled. Listen to what he says: "How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?" (Genesis 39:8) But the dame was shameless. One day when the other slaves were conveniently elsewhere, she grabbed his shirt and tried to wrestle him to the ground. He twisted his way out and unfortunately left behind his shirt oops as physical evidence. A woman scorned, she spun a tale of how Joseph tried to rape her. After all, she had his shirt to prove it. I love this. When her husband came home she blamed him for bringing such a man into her house. She said, This is how your slave treated me. Your slave. Your fault. 3

Now, it s worth noting that Joseph wasn t killed, which was the instant punishment for a slave sexually assaulting a wealthy woman. He got prison. Potiphar might have known his wife only too well. What integrity! A young man with raging hormones a long way from home, a long way from the prying eyes and wagging tongues which (let's be honest) help keep a lot of us on the straight and narrow. (Victor Shepherd) So easily Joseph could have caved and gone along, and no one would have been the wiser. But Joseph would not walk like an Egyptian. What a price Joseph paid for his integrity! Add to that the price he paid for obeying God: getting charged with attempted rape, going to prison. Dallas Willard has said you know you ve arrived at maturity in the Christian life when your first reaction when tempted to sin is, That is so stupid. Think about that. The place where God wants us is where, when we re tempted to sin, we say, Are you kidding me? Duh. That is so dumb. Like that, Joseph said, "How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?" He didn t say, Oh, I might get AIDS! or "Oh, you might get pregnant!" or "What if your husband finds out and kills me? or even "You know, Sweetheart, you re just not my cup of tea. That s Little Joseph selfinterested thinking. By this point in his journey Joseph was a granite rock of integrity. "How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?" Do you think I m stupid? The Third Milestone: Blessing Joseph grew in trust, integrity, and then he grew in blessing. Throughout the story, whenever anyone s life intersects with Joseph they were blessed and helped and came away better off for knowing this remarkable man. Have you ever noticed there are certain people who bless the socks off everyone they meet? I think of Ruth Ann Skinner here at Peachtree, who went to be with the Lord last year. I used to tell people meeting Ruth Ann was like meeting the good queen in a fairy tale. It was like she had a magic wand to make you smile and feel important. Over the nine years I ve been here, when a new pastor would come on staff, during the first couple of weeks they d say, Today I m meeting what s her name? Ruth Ann Skinner. I d just chuckle and say, Be prepared to be blown away and just know it is real. All that charm and loveliness comes right from her heart. Even in the last days of her life when she was in hospice, a nurse, after meeting Ruth Ann for the first time, walked out of her room and said, Can I take some of that with me? Joseph was one of those people who blessed the people around him. Somehow knowing his life was in God s hand freed him to love and serve others. When Joseph prospered everyone around him prospered as well. He was a blessing to Potiphar and, yes, even to Potiphar s ditzy wife. In prison he was a blessing to the baker. He was a blessing to Pharaoh s cupbearer. When he rose to power he was a blessing to Pharaoh, and a blessing to the nation. He was a blessing to starving people in Egypt and beyond as he gave them grain and food and even blessed his brothers, as we ll see in a couple of weeks, with the gracious words, God sent me here ahead of you to save many lives. We re here this morning to save many lives in our global giving. When I see the way God pulled together all the crazy loose ends of Joseph s life, I think of the wacky week I ve just come through. It began just over a week ago when my daughter, a second-year resident at the University of Chicago hospital, called, struggling with what all young doctors go through: that dreadful experience of having patients you treat and get to know and then helplessly watch as they die. It was so hard on her. My little girl needs her daddy is how I chose to interpret the call. I would fly to Chicago for just twenty-four hours, take her and her husband out to dinner and to a Cubs game, and cheer them up. Before I went I spoke with a doctor I greatly respect, one of our elders, cardiologist Joe Wilson. And Joe Joseph spoke with the wisdom of Joseph in the Bible. He said, Vic, we all went through what you re daughter s going through, and here is what I have to say. Believing in a sovereign God is so helpful for doctors. Tell 4

your daughter to put the lives of her patients in God s hands and know that the ultimate outcome for each of her patients is in the hands of God. Now if you do that it means there will be moments when everyone s praising you, calling you a hero, saying you saved a life. You ll have to humbly acknowledge at least in your heart it wasn t you; it was God working in and through you. If you will do that, then in those times when the outcome is sad and a patient dies, God will be there to help shoulder the burden with you, and you won t become jaded and calloused like some doctors without God who believe the whole outcome lies with them. Sometimes the pressure they feel is so unbearable they withdraw emotionally from their patients and stop feeling. Tell her, Vic, that she ll be a better doctor with God in her life. I had that conversation with Jessica and it was one I ll never forget. Then I took her and Bill out to a Cubs game front row, third base side, Wrigley field, night game. In the fourth inning a big white and brown cat ran onto the field. The stands went crazy. The cat head-faked its way past several groundskeepers and made a bee-line right at me. There was a screaming fight between cat and groundskeeper right in front of me, after which the groundskeeper picked up the cat by the tail. I was right there, as you will see on the You Tube video that s had millions of hits around the world. It looks like he s handing me the cat. I tried to get away, out of the public eye, for just 24 hours a little anonymity in a far city. Look what happened. By the way, I m not a cat person but if I were that cat I d hire a lawyer. They did not handle that well. Now how this episode is going to fit with God s sovereign plan for my life I am not sure. My first thought was Well, now at last I have something exciting to put on my Facebook page. Facebook has a way of showing us how boring most people s lives are. Maria is eating Girl Scout cookies. Tom is glad it s the weekend. Linda is longing for some sleep, pillow come to momma. Anne is taking Tyler to daycare. Vic is trying to think up an end to his sermon, which is what I m trying to do right now. I ve thought of spicing up my life on Facebook: Vic is on a three-way call with President Obama and the Navy Seals on a strategy for how to handle the next pirate hostage stand off. Vic is rehearsing with Bono for their up-coming duet album and their already sold-out concert tour. Surrender your life to God s story. On that crazy journey you might wind up in pits and prisons; you may even lose your shirt a couple times; but along the way you ll grow from there to here in trust, integrity, and blessing. In the end, Joseph said to his brothers, It was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. It s to save lives we re here this morning. In certain rare moments God allows us the opportunity to change the world and in so doing to change ourselves. One of those transformational moments is now. In filling out this pledge card and giving to Global Ministries, you are saving lives. In giving this morning you re writing on your cosmic Facebook page: Susan is digging wells to bring pure water to villages in Africa. Roger is raiding brothels in Thailand, freeing young girls from slavery. Alexandra is helping bring peace to the most dangerous country in the world, Pakistan, by supporting Forman Christian College, where Muslims and Christian live and learn in harmony. Put your name in there and look through the booklet and, if you desire, target your giving where your heart is. Join Becky and me this morning. As you come down the aisle this morning, know that this is a transformational journey from Little Joseph into Big Joseph, into a mighty statesman with a heart of compassion who saved many lives. Lord, we give this morning not because you need our gifts but because we need to give to reflect the character of our heavenly father. Lord, we thank you that as we seek to transform the world this morning you are transforming us into people who trust you, into people of integrity who walk our talk, and into people of blessing who serve the world in your name. Amen. 5

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