WHAT ON EARTH AM I DOING HERE? Examining the Choices and Direction of My Life Confused: When I don t Feel God in My Life (Genesis 39 & 40) Reboot: Recalculate: Re-center Wk1: How to Hear God s Voice; God s Will for your life Wk 4: How to deal with real distractions in your life Wk 5: Learning How to be truly content in your life Wk 6: Seeing the World through a new lens (How to see the world differently) Wk 7: Living a Missional Life A life of purpose wherever you go! Batteries blessing and curse: We all run out of power sometimes. We all run dry sometimes. We all go through seasons of the valley, seasons of silence sometimes...so what do you do? - I have Heard God speak - I have been obedient to His Word and calling in my life - Now I am bewildered. God has been silent in my life. What does this mean? Main POINT: In seasons of silence, God has given us the gifts of Trust and Endurance in place of His voice -Will we enjoy these gifts or faithlessly run to find immediate satisfaction? How do you know if you have endurance unless it is tested? There is NO other way to know or to prove to yourself that you can endure unless you actually ENDURE something difficult/unpleasant Trust is the central issue that needs your focus. Will you trust God to straighten out this mess in your life? Will you trust God to see you through the desert? Will you trust God, even when He says no or wait or not now? Paul felt this way in tiresome seasons of difficulty and silence: "Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves, but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us" (2 Cor. 1:9-10) *When we feel God s Silence, we must be faithful to Press into His Word, in Trust Worship with Our life, and respond daily to the last clear thing you heard God speak to your life =(Obedience/Endurance) - NO Rain: (Israel in the desert. Seasons of rain and seasons of drought. How do you prepare? Cisterns. What s in the WELL? - What s the effect of drought on trees? Forces them to push their roots even deeper in ground to find any source of water = stronger - Many prophets of Old had long bouts of God s silence: Isaiah, Daniel, Jeremiah - Elijah (greatest Prophet in O.T.) = 3.5 years (no rain) - Jacob labored for 20 long years to get Laban s approval to marry Rachel & go back homelanf=d - Abraham and Sarai (Abraham was a friend of God Ja. 2:23) = 25 total years of silence - Moses (greatest spokesman of God s Law) = 40 years twice... - Israel: Intertestamental Period (400yrs) Malachi to john the Baptist The 400 years of silence refers to the time between the Old Testament and New Testament, during which God did not speak to the Jewish people. The 400 years of silence began with the warning that closed the Old Testament: Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD. He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse" (Malachi 4:5-6) and ended with the coming of John the Baptist, the Messiah s forerunner.
- Joseph? Now, consider the life of Joseph: (favorite son. God gave him visions/favor. He had integrity. Great leader. Kind) Where did that get him? He suffered for 13yrs having been wrongly enslaved & imprisoned But worse... no voice of God. *Interestingly, Joseph is the first of the patriarchs that God did NOT speak directly to: God spoke directly to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, BUT... NOT Joseph. WHY?? Distinct Periods of Intentional silence. "You have made me to walk in darkness. Even when I call out for help, he shuts out my prayers. You have covered yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can get through" (Lam. 3:8). The Dark night of the soul: Mother Teresa describes the pain of God s silence: "I am told God loves me and yet the reality of darkness and coldness and emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul. What tortures of loneliness. I wonder how long will my heart suffer like this?" Let s consider the silence that Joseph had to endure when he was sent to Egypt as a slave, tasting the cruel reality of Human Trafficking and slavery: Imagine what the 17yr old Joseph experienced from being the favorite son of a prominent family to becoming a slave: How would you react when... -You are stripped of your coat. -You are betrayed by people who should have loved you. -You are separated from your loving parents, your father who adored you. -You are sold as a slave and carried off into a strange land. -Imagine the humility of being examined, mocked, prodded, and sold in a slave auction. -In many ways, you are just a simple country boy from an unsophisticated family, and you find yourself transported to the capital city of the most advanced civilization & nation on the earth. -THEN, you are wrongfully accused for doing the RIGHT thing, by obeying GOD you are unjustly punished - You are thrown into Jail to rot for years. And all without a word from God... SILENCE! - Imagine the lies Satan must have told him. What would you have done? How would you feel? - How strong would your faith be? READ GENESIS 39: 1 Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh s officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there. 2 The LORD was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. 3 When his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD gave him success in everything he did, 4 Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. - Just when things began to look up for Joseph the bottom fell out: Potiphar s wife lies and wrongly accuses Joseph of trying to violate her. VS. 20: Joseph s master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king s prisoners were confined. But while Joseph was there in the prison, 21 the LORD was with him; God showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. 22 So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. 23 The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph s care, because the LORD was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.
- This is confusing!! Perplexing. God was silent to Joseph. Yet, in everything joseph did, God blessed it and he prospered. BUT... he was kidnapped. Sold. Enslaved. And now Imprisoned. Seems confusing... Prison for Joseph was no picnic = (Ge. 41:14): So Pharaoh sent for Joseph, and he was quickly brought from the dungeon. When he had shaved and changed his clothes, he came before Pharaoh. Psalm 105:17 19...Joseph, who was sold as a slave. They hurt his feet with shackles; his neck was put in an iron collar. Until the time his prediction came true, the word of the Lord tested him (refined him). Main POINT: In seasons of silence, God has given us the gifts of Trust and Endurance in place of His voice *In prison while Joseph had to wait on God, he served as faithful as he could. God gave him the spiritual gift of wisdom to interpret dreams He interpreted the dreams of two of Pharoah s household staff (Baker and Cupbearer). When those dreams came true, the cupbearer NOW freed from prison forgot Joseph. READ Genesis 40:1 Then it came about after these things, the cupbearer and the baker for the king of Egypt offended their lord, the king of Egypt. 2 Pharaoh was furious with his two officials, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker. 3 So he put them in confinement in the house of the captain of the bodyguard, in the jail, the sameplace where Joseph was imprisoned. 4 The captain of the bodyguard put Joseph in charge of them, and he [a] took care of them; and they were in confinement for [b] some time. 5 Then the cupbearer and the baker for the king of Egypt, who were confined in jail, both had a dream the same night, each man with his own dream and each dream with its own interpretation. 6 [c] When Joseph came to them in the morning and observed them, [d] behold, they were dejected. 7 He asked Pharaoh s officials who were with him in confinement in his master s house, [e] Why are your faces so sad today? 8 Then they said to him, We have [f] had a dream and there is no one to interpret it. Then Joseph said to them, Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell it to me, please. 9 So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, In my dream, [g] behold, there was a vine in front of me; 10 and on the vine were three branches. And as it was budding, its blossoms came out, and its clusters produced ripe grapes. 11 Now Pharaoh s cup was in my hand; so I took the grapes and squeezed them into Pharaoh s cup, and I put the cup into Pharaoh s [h] hand. 12 Then Joseph said to him, This is the interpretation of it: the three branches are three days; 13 within three more days Pharaoh will [i] lift up your head and restore you to your [j] office; and you will put Pharaoh s cup into his hand according to your former custom when you were his cupbearer. 14 Only [k] keep me in mind when it goes well with you, and please do me a kindness [l] by mentioning me to Pharaoh and get me out of this house. 15 For I was in fact kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews, and even here I have done nothing that they should have put me into the [m] dungeon. Vs. 20: Thus it came about on the third day, which was Pharaoh s birthday, that he made a feast for all his servants; and he lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants. 21 He restored the chief cupbearer to his [o] office, and he put the cup into Pharaoh s [p] hand; 22 but he hanged the chief baker, just as Joseph had interpreted to them. 23 Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him. = left to continue to rot in jail. No hope. No voice!!
God s Silence seems strange here. Joseph s faithfulness is seemingly rewarded with Pain, loss, suffering???? - What is really happening here? What do we have the privilege to see 3000 yrs later? = **The meta-narrative was that God did not want Joseph to remain in the land of Canaan, where his family would have most likely died from famine. - God did not want Joseph to remain as a slave in Potipher s house, either. - **God wanted Joseph to be Pharaoh s prisoner. Why? Because God wanted to favor him in the eyes of Pharaoh the most powerful man on the planet at that time. - God s silence was a test. - Joseph s transformation to becoming the second-most powerful man in Egypt happened through God s silence. APPLICATION: For God s Children... 1) In seasons of silence, silence is an invitation into God s presence. Silence should cause us to want him more, to need him more, to have to trust HIS presence & His promise above all else - As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God. Ps. 42:1 = When is the last time you can remember CRAVING more of God in your life than anything else/ water/food? Climbing Old Baldy in Glorieta New Mexico no water. Completely dehydrated. Craved water - When disciples were famished: Jesus said: My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish His work. John 4:34 - Silence from God should push us into His arms. We were built for relationship. For Communication. Do you even miss him? Losing a college student in Hong Kong.. Worse part..we never knew he was even missing L = silence is an invitation into God s presence 2) For God s children, Silence is not a sign of God s absence. The Lord was with Joseph (3X we read this), even though GOD never once spoke to Joseph. - Be strong and courageous; do not be afraid or terrified of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you; He will never leave you or forsake you. Deut. 31:6 - I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken. Ps. 37:15 - For the Lord has comforted His people And will have compassion on His afflicted. But Zion said, The Lord has forsaken me, And the Lord has forgotten me. - Can a woman forget her nursing child, And have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you. 16 Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Isaiah 49:13-16 3)- For God s children, God s silence can lead to our transformation.(drought. Plants/deeper roots)stronger ***Not only is God s silence real, personal, but it s biblical it s transformative for the believer who will allow the season of silence to push us into His arms, to TRUST His promises, to love His Word and Presence, and to help us endure the valley of the shadow of death Joseph had no way of knowing that all along the way, God was setting the stage for a key move in His plan to bring salvation to the whole world through him, through Joseph s leadership, compassion, & wisdom. *It would be in the nation Egypt that God would first prove to the whole world His power and might by delivering the Israelites from starvation (famine) then 400yrs later from slavery. = God s silence can be transformative: God's involvement in our lives should be measured by two things: A. The development of His character in our lives. B. The fulfillment of His plan through us
Though we don t wish to stay in darkness and silence, we should be encouraged to know God has not left us and desires to transforms us in this season: SO what do we do when we feel the silence of God? = Don t Panic!!! GOD has not left us. J.R.R. Tolkien warns, "Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens." 1) Don t ignore the silence Some of the biggest moves God has made in my life have come after a period of spiritual dryness 2) Confront known sin in your life Sin may not be the reason you don t sense closeness to God right now, but if you have known sin in your life it will affect your intimacy with God. 1 Samuel 28:6 - "And when Saul inquired of the LORD, the LORD did not answer him, either by dreams or by Urim or by the prophets." This is an account where God deliberately refused to answer King Saul. God chose to remain silent. = Confess quickly. Repent faithfully. Press on to love Him first and most! 3) Go back to what you know Get back to the basics of the faith that saved you. You ll do it 100s of times in your life, but you must remind yourselves of the basis of faith which is the very character and promises of God. God is in control. He really is even when it doesn t seem that He is anywhere to be found. 4) Listen and Watch Closely Some day God is going to make His plans known to you. Don t miss them. He may come to your personally, through His Word, circumstances, or another person. You ll need to be in a position to know that God is moving. 5) Trust More Not less Times of silence may be filled with fear, but ironically, these times require more faith. Times come in our spiritual life when our enthusiasm isn t as real as when we began our walk with God. That s not an indication to quit it may be that God is using that time for something bigger than you could have imagined but whatever is next will most likely require a deeper level of trust. & Get ready to receive God will break the silence some day and when He does it WILL be good. If you mope around in your sorrows, you ll be less prepared to receive the good things to come. Not because of your circumstances, but because of your faith, clothe yourself in joy as you wait for God to bless you after the period of silence. Dear friends, don t be surprised when the fiery ordeal comes among you to test you as if something unusual were happening to you. Instead, rejoice as you share in the sufferings of the Messiah, so that you may also rejoice with great joy at the revelation of His glory 1 Peter 4:12-13 Psalm 105:17-24 (The rest of the story...) He sent a man before them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. 18 They afflicted his feet with fetters, He himself was laid in irons; 19 Until the time that his word came to pass, The word of the Lord [h] tested him. 20 The king sent and released him, The ruler of peoples, and set him free. 21 He made him lord of his house And ruler over all his possessions, 22 To [i] imprison his princes [j] at will, That he might teach his elders wisdom. 23 Israel also came into Egypt; Thus Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham (Egypt). 24 And He caused His people to be very fruitful, And made them stronger than their adversaries. Antony Flew son of pastor. Atheist. Cs Lewis. 40 works on Atheism. Parents never saw their prayers answered. BUT. In 2007 by God s grace Flew became a believer did more for Christianity than if had been pastor.