Draft transcript prepared from the recording and edited for readability. Audio proofreading is still pending; please refer to the recording for the spoken wording.
You're listening to Sunday Sermons at Asbury Chapel. As you're turning to the book of Genesis, the 50th chapter, the last chapter, notice that this is how the book of Genesis ends. It's very significant. Genesis chapter 50, I'll start with verse 15 and go on through the 21st. Before I read, though, I can't let the moment escape. Sometimes what it all boils down to is simply saying and meaning in your heart and surrendering your mind and your emotions and all of your joy and all of your sorrow.
Just abandon them all to that phrase, to God be the glory. It melts things away. It will take whatever's heavy and whatever's hard. It will take whatever has seemingly become important and maybe bright and shining in your life and it just fades away because the only thing that matters is the glory of God. And the question, here's the sermon at the end, will you choose His glory or will you choose yours?
Who's going to be glorified when you're done speaking? Who's going to be glorified when you're done feeling? Where will the glory go? Will it go up?
It better go up.
Let's read what happened to Joseph at the passing of his father and then he and his brothers having to reconcile. Verse 15, Genesis 50. Hear the word of the Lord. When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said,
What if Joseph bears a grudge and wants to repay us in full for all the harm we did to him? So they sent word to Joseph saying, Your father gave these instructions before he died. Tell Joseph this. Please forgive the sin of your brothers and the wrong they did when they treated you so badly. Now please forgive the sin of the servants of the God of your father. When this message was reported to him, Joseph wept.
Then his brothers also came and threw themselves down before him. They said, Here we are. We are your slaves. But Joseph answered them, Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant to harm me. But God intended it for a good purpose. So he could preserve the lives of many people. As you can see this day. So now don't be afraid. I will provide for you and your little children. Then he consoled them and spoke kindly to them.
The word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. You may be seated.
The song we just sang is called My Tribute. We often think about a tribute as something that is nice and kind and going to do something in honor of, speak well of. But a tribute at the end of the day was to take something of great value and to take that thing of great value and to offer it up. As a sign, as a showing of I'm going to give it all over. My tribute is not just sort of, Well, let me honor God now.
I mean, I might not have done it later. Or, you know, I might not do it. I didn't do it earlier. But right now, let me offer this tribute. Right? And it's just kind of a moment in time. But for God to be glorified is a whole life type of response. And this is what we see with Joseph here in the book of Genesis. One of the commentators, as I was preparing for this week, said something so brilliant, and I really loved it.
He said, Isn't it interesting that the beginning of Genesis, the book of Genesis, starts with God proclaiming, It is good. And then everything goes upside down. And then you get to the end of the book of Genesis. And through his servant Joseph, he is able to say once again, It is good.
The mercy that has been shown here, it shows that God is the one who is great and wonderful and generous. And through his servants, we see his greatness and his wonder. And we get to see his generosity. Joseph is the youngest brother here, and he has these dreams. And as he has these dreams, the dreams are of his brothers and even his family. A faithful reading of the text will show you that even his own father, Jacob, who gets renamed Israel later, and his father, Jacob, even says, You really think the family is going to bow down to you, son?
Is that kind of how you see things going here? But he has these revelations. He has these visions of what's going to happen. And each one is the same, where the other things, everyone's gathered together, but they're all gathering and laying down and falling down in front of him. And they take this the wrong way. They see this as a thwart to their power. They see this as a thwart to their image. They see this as a threat to their reputation of some kind.
And Joseph, this youngest, he's favored by his dad. He's the youngest kid. Everybody's praising him. And all of a sudden, not only is everyone praising him, but now everybody's got to bow down to him.
And there's a huge mistake that gets made in all of this. All of this. There's a huge mistake. Everybody's wondering about themselves. They're all wondering, well, what about me?
Don't I get mine? Or why do we got to bow down to him? And I don't understand. The funny thing is, is none of this had anything to do with bowing down to Joseph.
The question they failed to ask, and this is the question each of us has got to ask in our own lives. It's kind of the sermon at the end kind of deal. What is God doing?
Jacob, Israel, had made it about him. The brothers had all made it about him.
Potiphar's wife had made everything about her. The cupbearer in prison had made it all about him. Him and the baker, right? The cupbearer makes it all about him. I'll explain all this in a minute. Some of you are going, wait, I hadn't read Genesis in a while. All right, buddy.
And in the end, everybody finds themselves kneeling before Joseph. But what they didn't understand is that none of this was about them. And it really and truly wasn't even about Joseph in the end. This was about mercy. Joseph happened to be the one who was able to show the mercy. God had elevated a man who did not care about himself, but only cared about God so that God could be glorified and God's traits would be revealed to everyone. What we miss when we read this scripture, it's quite significant.
I'm reading from the New English translation, so it's a little more amplified sometimes. Yours may say it a little different, but it's generally the same thing. Listen to this. Right there near the end. But Joseph answered them, don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? He's sitting there going, I'm not God. I can't dole out the right kind of justice here. And you don't need to be worried about his wrath right now. You're standing before me. And he simply says this.
As for you, you meant to harm me, but God intended it for a good purpose. And we put a period. Don't we? We put a period at the end of that sentence. Well, what you meant for evil, God meant for good. But we fail to ask this question. Why?
To what good? To what end? And what we tend to do with the text is we try to make the text about ourselves. And we're trying to interpret our own circumstances. And we're trying to look for how we're going to come out on top in this thing. Oh, they meant to harm me. They spoke evil against me. Oh, they said the things. And oh, this bad thing happened. But guess what? I'm going to be okay.
This is so hard to say. But I say it with great ease. It's not about you. So every time we get upset with God because, well, this terrible bad thing happened and I'm supposed to come out on top. You ever ask the question why you're supposed to come out on top? It ain't for your glory. It's for his. It's for his. So instead of a period at the end of that part of the text, pay attention to the comma. At least in mine it shows a comma there.
Oh, but those and yours or this. It's like, whoo, what are you talking about? As for you, you meant to harm me. But God intended it for a good purpose. So he could preserve the lives of many people. As you see this day. Why did God spare Joseph? Not for Joseph's sake. For God's sake. God is good. God is generous. God is merciful. And he used a smart man with a strong faith to be in the right place at the right times.
Plural. I'll go back to that in a second. So that when the day came, all that man's smart thinking and all that man's stewardship could come full on into play.
See, what had happened was, what had happened was, there was a great famine.
Joseph gets smart. He says, famine's coming. We're going to have to save up. And so they start saving. They believe in this man who says, we've got to put some back. And they do. And as they put back, as they store up, guess what happens? The whole region goes into a famine. And no one's got food. People have to come from far and wide. Even Joseph's family has to cross the Jordan. Come to Egypt. Because Egypt's the one that had the stuffs.
All the food stuffs that they were going to need. And so as they get there and they find that Egypt has everything, guess who's at the very top of the, pardon the pun, food chain?
It's their brother. It's Joseph. They didn't know what had happened to him. Why didn't they? Well, we'll go all the way back to the beginning. They didn't like Joseph. They didn't like his dreams. They didn't like that God had blessed him. They didn't like that their own father was partial to him. But they weren't thinking about the fact that God was up to something through Joseph. They just thought about themselves.
And so they took him and they sold him into slavery. They told their father, a wild animal has eaten our brother. And broke their father's heart. Lying to him with a lie that was dreadful. Terrible. Terrible. Destructive.
But he's faithful. And he's good. And he trusts in the Lord. And because he was a good servant, he gets raised up inside of one of the governor's houses there in Egypt. Potiphar, who trusts him with everything. The guy was so good. Joseph was so good at what he did that Potiphar said, I'm just going to make this guy my executive and I'm going to go on vacation. That's not what the text says. But it basically tells us that Joseph just ran everything.
He was just automating everything. And Potiphar got to sit back and enjoy it and go, God, this guy's great. He is just running all of my resources and all of my business. And he's doing a fantastic. And everyone benefited from it. But then Potiphar's wife had an eye for Joseph. And she tried to make something terrible happen. And Joseph would have none of it. So she lies and says that Joseph had an eye for her. And he gets locked up for it.
Man, loved by his father, hated by his brothers, sold into slavery, works his way up, does a great thing. And then someone lies about him, tries to tarnish his reputation, he goes into prison. Well, guess what a man who doesn't do anything but surrender himself to serve other people. Guess what a good man does when he's down? He keeps serving. And he goes into the prison and starts serving everyone in the prison. And basically the warden hands him the keys and says, Would you just watch over everybody in prison and make sure they're doing all right?
And he says, Yes, sir. And makes a go at it in the prison. And everyone loves him. And there's two officials who got in trouble. The cupbearer to the king and the royal baker. And they get thrown into prison as well.
They start to notice how good Joseph is. And they start to have some dreams. They're really worried about these dreams. And nobody can interpret what's going on. But there's a man they've become friends with who's quite good with interpreting dreams. And Joseph says, Well, God's the one who grants clarity. Let's ask the Lord. And he says, Here's what your dreams mean. And the baker, he's going to swing. In three days, he's going to die. He ain't real happy about it. But that's what ends up happening.
The cupbearer, he says, In three days, you're going to get yanked out of here. And you're going to get a pride of place and position. And I tell you what. Don't forget me when you get back in that house. Make sure they know I'm down here and that I'm just serving away.
So the cupbearer says, You got it, Joseph. Cupbearer gets back up in there. Takes his pride position. Life's going great. And Joseph who? Totally ignores Joseph's request. But Joseph doesn't gripe. He keeps serving. A couple years go by. Still serving. Not complaining.
Cupbearer's got a problem.
The pharaoh's got a dream. And he needs it interpreted. And all of a sudden, the cupbearer goes, I know a guy. I got a guy. Every time you say that, you get a little bit hard. I hope when somebody's got a guy, you know. It's usually to fix your car. But anyway.
And so, they go get Joseph. They pull him out and go, I think I remember you. He interprets the dream. He gets reinstated into his place. And then, he enters back into serving the pharaoh's household again. And that's when, that's when, he starts saving for the famine. Because bad things are coming. And he saw it. And he knew it. And he uses the wisdom of God to the glory of God. Because what people intended for bad for him, God intended for good.
For the saving of many lives. So, let me ask you a couple of questions.
What is it that God is using you for right now? That you don't know why. But you know that he needs the glory. And maybe we need to take a step back and ask a question behind that one. Have you been Joseph's brothers?
Not happy about the fact that something is happening. And you don't like it. And you're wondering why you're not doing better. When it's not about you at all. Have you ever wondered if the circumstances you're going through. Are something that God has orchestrated. For the good of the saving of many lives. That he wants to use you for a bigger and greater purpose. Because last time I checked. God was bigger than my feelings, my emotions, and my daily routine. If there's anything that's true.
He wants to take you as a vessel. To be filled with his goodness. And then raised up for a purpose that serves the larger purpose.
Joseph did not think about himself. He kept serving and serving and serving. He kept giving and giving and giving. He's not giving thought to himself. He's only giving thought to how can I continue to just be faithful. We spend so much time trying to put a period at the end of. Or in the middle. Excuse me. In the middle of verse 20. As for you, you meant to harm me. But God intended it for a good purpose. And we keep thinking it's for our good purpose.
But what if your best purpose, your good purpose. Is to be used by God. To do something where it's not about you getting the credit. As much as God getting the credit. And everybody else benefiting.
How remarkable it would be to be Joseph in today's world. And in today's world, this is not a Joseph world. It's not a Joseph world right now. You look around at the personality types that are around us. And everybody is seeking the recognition. Everybody's seeking how can I make my mark. How can I... And that's the problem. It's the I and the I and the I. But what if we laid ourselves down? What if we humbled ourselves? I don't know. The way Jesus did to the cross?
Well, that's humility.
That's humility. In Bible study this week. In the pastor's study. We were studying in the book of Luke. And as we looked at the chapter where John the Baptist is struggling. He's struggling. He's in prison. He's struggling. Jesus said, I've come to release the captives. And his cousin, who's a prophet, is a captive. He's struggling.
And he sends his disciples to go and to say, hey, tell Jesus or ask Jesus, are you the one to come or do we need to wait for another? And Jesus said, you tell them everything, everything that the Messiah is to come to do, it's happening right here and right now. Blessed is the one who does not take an offense at me. What Jesus was telling John is he was saying, you are where you are right now. And let God be glorified.
Let God be glorified. Don't glorify your doubt. Don't glorify your worry. Do you hear me, church? Do not glorify your worry. Do not glorify your doubt. Your doubt wants to be highlighted. It wants attention. It wants for you to say, focus on me. Focus on the fear. Focus on the what if. If you'll just focus on that. No. That will consume you. If you want to be free, then we abandon the fear. We abandon the doubt. We hand it over as an offering to God saying whether I get kicked out of my family or I get kicked out of my job or whether I have to go to prison.
Because these are all the things that happened to Joseph. He stayed faithful because his life was not his own. Your life. Hear me. This is incredibly encouraging. I hope you can hear it as such. Your life is not your own. It's not your own.
You are fearfully and wonderfully made.
And all things work to the good of those who are called according to his purpose. If you're made in his image and you know his love, then you are in his purposes. Submit to the good that God wants to do and let your life bring him glory. Amen. That's what we want to see. Don't make it about you. Joseph was a master at making it about God. I love the fact that we just don't hear him griping and complaining. Isn't that refreshing?
Oh, please go back in the scriptures in Genesis. Please go back and start with the story of Joseph. And read about his life. And it's so refreshing that he's not griping and complaining. No, he's a man who trusts God wherever he is. He's not looking for advancement. But he will look at how he can advance God. And I love that. God, God, how do I get to glorify you today? You get to wake up on Monday morning. You've already woken up today.
Unless you're a big nap taker. You could say it at the end of a Sunday afternoon nap, I guess. The Falcons play at one. So there's a nap time. But. Sorry.
There's a lot of football fans in the room. They're not laughing right now. It's not funny. But.
But tomorrow morning, Monday morning, you get to wake up. And these are words that you could say. You could say these words. You may not. You might not take the opportunity. I don't know. But you could wake up tomorrow morning and you could say these words. God, my life is yours. And I get to put the focus on you today. And so when I eat my breakfast, may you be glorified. Lord, when I make my first phone call. May they hear good news from my lips about you, Lord.
My first interaction with somebody. May it be holy. May it be pleasing in your sight. God, I get to glorify you today. And listen, I'm. I'm young, but I'm not this young. I realize it might not start that way. You may stub your toe the moment you get out of bed.
You may have a tough conversation. I get it. I get it. But the call to glorify the Lord wherever you are with everything that you have, it is there. Be faithful to it. Hear the calling. That wherever you are. Whatever you are. Whatever you're doing. Whatever is happening to you. Whatever is happening to you. I'm going to [stomp] the floor when I say it. Whatever is happening to you. It's an opportunity. To give it to God. Will you be glorified? By getting all upset.
Or will God be glorified? Because you get to be His light. In a seemingly dark place. It's up to you. It's a choice you get to make. I pray that you make it with the Spirit of God. Amen? Let's pray.
