Transcript
Amen, and welcome. Good morning. As we are gathering at all of our campuses across the Upstate, we're glad to be together. Turn to Genesis 41, we'll get there in just a minute. I want to make you aware of a ministry in our community that's stretching across the Upstate called David's Table. And so this is a very unique ministry that is providing care and resources and community for adults with special needs, and that are facing challenges in life. And so the name David's Table comes from 2 Samuel 9. There's this moment when the dust starts to settle where King David says, "Are there any descendants from the house of Saul," who was the king, "that I can bless? Any relationship to Jonathan, who's been very faithful to me, that I could bless?" And they said, "Yeah, there's one son of Jonathan, name of Mephibosheth. He is crippled in both feet," and so hence he's vulnerable. And David says, "Put him at my table. He will eat at my table, David's table, from now on. And though he is crippled in both feet, he is still a son of a king, and he'll be treated like the son of a king." It is a beautiful idea. And so what we know is, is that for folks with disabilities, when they leave high school age, the resources and the opportunities dry up. Most folks who grow up in a home with a disability, 87% of those folks have a single parent leading that home, so the challenges are significant. And so David's Table is a partner of ours. We support them financially and with volunteers, and we want you to know about that, how excited we are for what they are doing. And I mention this, the resources, the purpose, the provision that they are giving to folks, and it's going throughout the week. Bible studies throughout the week, athletic opportunities, artistic opportunities. This past weekend, they have what's called Camp David. Over 400 people were there. A couple hundred of those came from Grace Church, although this is a ministry that reaches into a number of other churches and other ministries. Like I said, it's growing across the Upstate. I want you to know that we support them, that you can get involved supporting or serving directly. But also, as you serve in our church, you are participating in the ministry that they are doing. And some of our folks that focus on that on our staff have looked, and they tell me we have found nothing like this anywhere in the United States. That there are other people who are doing it, but not like this and not to this level. And so we are thrilled to be able to partner with them, that they give us the opportunity to be able to serve with them and help them accomplish their mission. We love to come alongside and want to do that. So I want you to know about David's Table. They're easy to find on the internet. And then if you talk to your campus pastor about wanting to serve or want to connect, we'd love for you to be able to do that. All right. In this series that we're in, Schofield showed us this slide last week, which I love. And he is talking about this journey that Joseph has been on, where there have been these downward steps that would be very discouraging, are very discouraging, is very discouraging. Because some of you can take a napkin at lunch and write this, show me this in your life. That there have been these difficulties that continue to go down. And as we get older, we do feel more and more lost, though it's not just relegated to those who are older. And at the same time, if I'm Joseph, every time he lands in a spot, God seems to do something that speaks subtly to him, "Hey, I'm with you." Like there is some favor granted, some responsibility, some opportunity that's granted to him, which could say to your soul, if you're being aware, "Okay, God is still here. God is still with me. God still cares." And so that is a beautiful thing. What we saw last week in the first part of this chapter, Schofield walked us through this, and this is how I would explain it to my grandchildren. If they said, "Hey, tell us what happens with Joseph and Pharaoh," I'd say, "Here's how it went." That Joseph gets brought out of the prison, and he goes before Pharaoh, and here's what he actually has to say, "Hey, big king, I'm here to tell you that you are not big king. You're a little king. And there is a big king, and he's not you. Big king is so big, he makes big king look like little king. So you're actually a little king. Big king makes some decisions, and the decisions that big king makes, little king can't do nothing about that." And then grandmother jumps in and goes, "Stop using double negatives." But that's part of the story, okay? That's how I make my emphasis with these little ones. And that big king is so big, he makes decisions that little king can't do anything about it. And the things that big king has said, little king has to decide today, does he want to get on board with big king, or does he want to die in the process of not getting on board with big king? That's how big kings roll. Big kings make decisions and control not a few things, they control everything. But the problem with little kings is little kings think they're in control till they run into a big king. That's what Joseph does, knowing that this could be the end of his life. Because that's not the kind of message that you roll out to someone who thinks that they are a big king. Incidentally, I don't know if you've ever thought about this whole king language. Does this sound familiar? People thinking they're big kings, but they're really little kings, and having to align themselves with a real big king? Well, that's my story. When I'm leaving high school, going into college, I am horrified that I might have to turn my life over to someone else, and they'll make decisions for me, and me have to align myself with those decisions. That is not something I was interested in. What we see is that Joseph is very faithful in the dark moments. We've seen him on top a little bit, leading well, but we've seen him be really faithful in the down moments and the difficult moments. The low moments expose us, they shape us. The big moments, the high moments, they expose us, and they shape us also. But what we are seeing in him is that he has a brand of faithfulness that gets him ready for what's next. And the question we have to ask ourselves is: am I faithful in such a way that it gets me ready for what is next? Because next is coming. Verse 37, "Joseph's suggestions were well received by Pharaoh and his officials." Store up grain for seven good years. Seven bad years is coming. We'll be fine. "Pharaoh asked his officials, 'Can anyone find someone else like this who is so obviously filled with the Spirit of God?'" A God that I don't even believe in till the last few minutes. Joseph is the obvious solution. He knows what's going on. Let's put him in charge. Verse 41, "Pharaoh said to Joseph, 'I here by put you in charge of the entire land of Egypt.'" Okay, that's a promotion. "Then Pharaoh removed his signet ring from his hand and placed it on Joseph's finger. He dressed him in fine linen clothing and hung a gold chain around his neck." So signet ring, royalty. Fine clothing, royalty. Gold chain around the neck, rapper. He's doing all of it. So he's a big deal now. In 43, he says this, "Then he had Joseph ride in the chariot reserved for the second in command." So that's affirming. It's not just in here. We're going to tell everybody that you're second in command. And wherever he went, they said, "Kneel down." I mean, he was in a pit, he was in prison, and now he's second in command of this country, and everybody's having to kneel down. He goes, "We're going to drive around town in this chariot, this limousine, presidential limousine, and everybody's going to see who you are, and we're going to announce you, and you're going to bow down." So that sounds like an exciting day. Now, here's how that day would go for me. I don't know how the day would end. I'll tell you how it would start. I'd be like, "So I got the ring, I got the robe, I got the chain, I got the chariot, and we're going around town, and I'm in charge?" And they'd be like, "Yeah." I'd be like, "Okay. Well, here's the thing. I'm good to go around town and do this little dog and pony show, but we're going to Potiphar's house first. And you go ahead and send someone on and tell them I expect to see both of them in the front yard when I get there. I don't need a pound of flesh, but when I get there, I'm just going to be like, 'Is there anything, madam, that you would like to share in this moment? Is there anything that you would like to tell your husband and these other servants? Anything at all, now that I'm second in charge, as to what happened sometime, I don't know, a couple years ago. Anything you want to share?'" You know why I have to do that? Because I'm a king. It's so obvious to me, I was like, "Man, we got to get this worked out." I can't think about nothing else. But that's not the way he processes, apparently. Verse 45: "Then Pharaoh gave Joseph a new Egyptian name." There's two things here that are interesting for us to process. He gets this Zaphathnoth-pa-nehes. So he gets an Egyptian name, and he gave him a wife whose name was Asenath. She was the daughter of Pontiphera, the priest. So famous guy, he's the priest of On. On is the town that is the epicenter of the worship of the sun god called Ra. So he is a big priest in Egypt or an elite social class, not as much ruling, but social class. So he gets this new name and he gets this wife. So here's the question when I read this, and I start to shake a little bit and I go, is he, and yes he is, but to what degree, is he getting assimilated? He just got an Egyptian name. So now people won't call him Joseph, this Jewish name, Hebrew name. They're going to call him that. So now I'm worried that he's getting assimilated, and he can't help that. He can't help that the all-powerful one gives him this new name. He can't do anything about that. But the question is, what he can manage and control is what happens to his identity. Does this name, does this title, does that change his identity, who he is on the inside? When I graduated college, one of my good friends got drafted because of his speed and his talent, he got drafted to the NFL to play. And because of my speed and my talent, I got drafted to seminary. That's where I went. And so he and I were talking on the phone one night and I said, "Man, how's it going?" He goes, "Things are better now. It's calmed down." And I said, "Well, what has calmed down?" He goes, "Me and my attitude." I was like, "What was the attitude?" He goes, "Man." And so if you follow football, NFL, it's called the league by those people who go in, right? Or the people that are in there, it's the league. And he goes, "You get drafted, you get put in the league, man, you're in the league." He goes, "It's like four weeks there where I'm like, big stuff, because I'm in the league." He goes, "Then after a few weeks, I realize that's not-- It's great." He goes, "It's great. I get paid well and get to have incredible opportunity." He goes, "But that's not who I am. The league is not who I am." And there's this moment where it's penetrating, and then he comes to his senses and goes, oh, this is just what I'm doing for now. It's where God has put me and that's awesome, but it can't go deep and it can't seep down into our soul because we desperately don't want Joseph to become an Egyptian, which is hypocritical for a bunch of us because we don't want him to become an Egyptian, but we do want us to be Americans. You go American and Egypt, they're not the same. They're not the same in all senses, but they are the same in that they are not the kingdom of God, and all the nations in Revelation do get judged because at the end of the day, all the nations are the same, because they are not God's kingdom. And so all those nations stand before Him. And so we don't want him to become an Egyptian. We don't want him to get lost, but we also have to ask ourselves the question, how much of this culture is seeping into our souls? We don't want it to happen to him, and we shouldn't want it to happen to us. And he gets this Egyptian wife. This is a little complicated. What's really interesting, and I already said, her dad is famous. He's a big deal. And so what's Pharaoh doing? Pharaoh's saying, "Here's the best I have to offer you. You are the best at what you do. You are saving our country. I'm going to give you this woman as a wife who is the best that we have. She represents everything that we are, everything that we care about. She is top, top, top. She matches you." He is trying to pay him a compliment and puts Joseph into what we would call a mixed marriage, which we know clearly from the New Testament is not something we should choose. So we can err on two sides here, get gone, but we can say, oh, this is license for me to go marry a non-Christian because Joseph does it. But that was not a good idea. There are dozens and dozens and dozens of people in our church today who will give testimony to that is not a good idea, right? And does God ever work it out? Sure He does, sometimes, but it's not because, it's in spite of the situation we put ourselves in. And then we also don't want to go to the other side of being overly critical of Joseph, because we don't understand all this. This is being forced on him. The question will be through the name and through the wife and through the status and through the power, does it change who Joseph is on the inside? We saw him in the pit. We saw him in prison be true to who he is and who he's called to be, but will he be true to that when everything is going his way, when he does not need God anymore? He can do all of this on his own. Verse 46. "He was 30 years old when he began serving in the court of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. And when Joseph left Pharaoh's presence, he inspected the entire land of Egypt. And as he predicted, for seven years, the land produced incredible crops. During those years, Joseph gathered all the crops grown in Egypt and stored the grain in surrounding fields and cities, and he piled up huge amounts of grain like sand on the seashore. Finally, he stopped keeping records because there was so much to measure." He goes to work making sure everybody is producing. Every corner, every field, everybody is producing and we are gathering. He's executing on the plan and he's living life. 30 years old. Verse 50. During this time, before the first years of the famine, everything is really fruitful before the famine, and so is he. Two sons were born to Joseph and his wife. And who is his wife? Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, the priest of On, because I just want to make sure you understand, we're bringing together a very complicated situation. Joseph named the older son Manasseh, for he had said, "God made me forget all my troubles and everyone in my father's family." Does he mean that in the most literal sense? I don't even know who my father is anymore, and those brothers, I can't remember what they did to me. Not in the most literal sense, because we know that when he meets them in the future, he's going to lose it. It's going to be so emotional and so important to him. He is literally going to melt down. So it is not true that he literally forgets. It's that this season overshadows-- The new season overshadows the old season. We're in a new season that I'm able to embrace that gives even some perspective to the old season, that it overshadows that. It gives new life and new meaning, so I don't have to be dominated by the old one. So in that run, it's hard to imagine Clemson used to have this great football team. Now they're just kind of like the Gamecocks all the time, but anyway, back to that. In '15, '16, '17, '18, there was this incredible run by Clemson. They were winning all these football games. And we'd be watching a game at night during that season, during that time, and something bad would happen for us, and I would start murmuring, complaining, griping, whatever, and my son would look at me like, "What? It's just a fumble. It's fine. It's too bad. It's fine. Why are you getting so... " I went to counseling. I got some real help on this. What I found was, if you go back a decade or more before that, there was another coach at Clemson named Tommy West. We lost so many games during that time. We were so horrible that it sent me into a decades-long depression that I never could fully get out of, and that even when we were winning, I couldn't make sense of the winning, right? I just could not fully embrace the new moment. And for the young one, he's like, "Let's embrace the new moment." And I'm like, "No, I'm just telling you, earthquake is getting ready to happen. Something bad. This is all falling apart." And of course, everything does at some point. But it was just funny how the old season overshadowed the new season And what Joseph is saying, the new season has overshadowed the old season, that the loss is always there, but I should not resist and try to hang on. And we do resist, and we do try to hang on sometimes because the loss is real and I'm trying to regather that loss, trying to regain it. I'm trying to reframe what happened. I don't want to let it go because I want it back. I want to make it right, or I want to get justice for what happened to me, and I become obsessed with the old season and can't embrace the new season. And that's a tough thing for a bunch of us. And at moments, it's tough for all of us. But there has to come a moment, there's a moment for Joseph where the past has lost its power and he's experiencing new freedom where he doesn't have to think about the past every day. The past is no longer tender to the touch. Back in the winter, I cut my leg with a tool and I had to go get stitches, technically staples, in my leg. It's all fine. But when you get that, I'm sitting there at night looking like, "Gotta be more careful." And I've learned some good lessons. But I'm looking at it, and I'm looking at these staples in my leg and I'm thinking, "Okay, I'm super grateful how this works and how this has now solved this problem," right? But it's super tender and I just have to be careful with it. But then there comes a time, in about 10 days, when you're like, "These staples have to leave. They're driving me crazy." And so they come out. But it's still tender for a while. You're still protective. "Just careful, everybody stay back," right? But then you get now months and months down the road, and I was wearing shorts the other day and someone asked me about the scar that's on my leg. I was like, "Well, here's what happened." But it's not tender to the touch. It's not something I'm like, "Oh, stay back. Don't get near me." I don't have to keep my leg up at night. The scar is still there, but it is not tender to the touch. And Joseph has moved to a place where he says, "Manasseh, this son, God has made me forget my troubles, that I now have freedom. It's not tender to the touch." And we do live in a culture that wants a pound of flesh for everything, and that finds validation and emotional comfort in not moving on. That I need everybody to be reminded what happened to me, and I need them to keep paying for it. Verse 52, the second son. Joseph named his second son Ephraim, for he said, "God has made me fruitful in the land." So Manasseh, forgetting, is related to the name. This one is fruitful. Ephraim is fruitful in the land of my grief. Notice the land of my grief. He's not pretending like the grief's not real. He's not pretending like he didn't get hurt. He's not pretending like he hasn't been mistreated. This land, in some sense, represents grief to me. I didn't ask to come here. I didn't ask to be thrown in a pit. I didn't ask to be elevated and then thrown in prison. I didn't ask for any of this. This land has not been my choice, but God has made me fruitful even here. Just that idea that I am fruitful, listen to this, in the worst place. That I can be fruitful in the most difficult season. I do not get to choose how many good seasons I get and how many difficult seasons I get. What I get to choose is to align myself with God and let Him allow me to be as fruitful as possible in those good seasons and in those bad seasons. And that that fruitfulness doesn't look the same. When things are not going well, sometimes fruitfulness looks like survival. And then there are times when things are going my way and that energy should not be directed back towards me, it should be directed towards being fruitful and blessing other people, which is what he's starting to do. This fruitfulness, God has made me fruitful, does not justify other people's sin, but it does give a picture of redemption. And I know you're going to say I'm past midlife, but I just feel like I'm a midlife person. What I've noticed about my midlife people is that we are in a season of reaping. Now we're all still in a season of sowing. It's just younger, you feel like you're doing more sowing and little reaping. Older, you're doing more reaping and less sowing, but we're all still sowing. But we are in a big season of reaping. And when you look out and the reaping does not feel good, my tribe is consistently looking for someone to blame. It's just a chronic disease of my people. We are blaming spouse, church, job, parents that have been gone, right? We will look for anybody to blame for the fact that things have not gone well, and the reason things have not gone well is super complicated. It's not as simple as one thing, what God has done or what I've done. There's a lot more to it than that. But let's don't miss this. Manasseh, Ephraim. Those are not Egyptian names. Those are Hebrew names. Pharaoh changed this man's name and married him to this woman and brought her into famous family, ruling elite social class in Egypt. And these two names are Hebrew names. The statement, Manasseh and Ephraim, forgetting and fruitfulness, is a statement of worship to Yahweh, gratitude to Yahweh, dedication to Yahweh, that, hey, Mrs. Joseph, whatever, this is who we are. We worship Yahweh. Our lives are his lives. And that's what I tried to tell Pharaoh a couple years ago, was that Pharaoh thought he was the big king, but you need to know, hon, we worship the big king. Pharaoh's the little king. I'm a little king. You're a little queen. We're all little. And our little kids are going to worship Yahweh because he's the big king. That's the case that he's making to her. And she's getting to see the credibility of that. And just so we don't miss this, the priest of On, his grandchildren worship Yahweh. That God said after the garden, everything got frayed. And we're going to see a picture of this in Acts on the day of Pentecost, where the nations are there, and God's people are being extracted from the nations and brought back to him. And we see it through them speaking this language where they can all understand who God is. Right now they're fractured, but we're already getting to see God is already reclaiming his people. He's like, there is this dirty, gritty moment in a pit that you're like, "Oh man, this is a tough story." And now we have the most powerful nation in the world, and one of God's people who worships Yahweh, exalted to the highest place in that nation, and is infiltrating the highest levels with Yahweh, and the names that are Hebrew names, that speak to the idea of this is who we worship. God is already infecting the nations and extracting his people. It goes from this dirty, little, gritty moment in a pit to having cosmic implications of what's happening with the nations. Only God can write this story. To go from a dirty little pit to cosmic movement of what's happening among these nations. Verse 53. And we live in both all the time. We still live in the pit with the little gritty, dirty, doing what we can do to help people and to serve people and to worship God. And then there are these cosmic things happening at the same time. Verse 53. At last, the seven years of bumper crops throughout the land of Egypt came to an end, just like God said it would. Then the seven years of famine began, just as Joseph had predicted. The famine also struck all the surrounding countries, but throughout the land of Egypt, there was plenty of food. God had decided something, and it happened. Verse 55. Eventually, however, the famine spread throughout the land of Egypt as well. Things get worse. Then the people cried out to Pharaoh for food. "Go to Joseph and do whatever he tells you." That's a nice delegation move. 56. So when severe famine everywhere, Joseph opened the storehouse and distributed grain to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe throughout the land of Egypt, and people from all around came to Egypt to buy grain. Not just Egypt, but other nations, other peoples. From Joseph because the famine was so severe. Here is kind of what's happening. That's Manasseh. There's both the names. Sorry, I didn't give you that. Here's what I do want you to do. Joseph is thinking more about God and less about people, and that's what brings about this moment. God blessed Abraham in Genesis 12 And that flows through Joseph, and now Joseph is blessing Egypt without even trying. God has set up the moment, and he's doing that. And then Egypt is now blessing the world, and it's in a very practical way. There's some spiritual implications, but it's very practical at this moment. So even now, these people and those folks are enjoying the blessing of God and don't even know it. And that's true today. We're breathing air, we're eating food, we're enjoying the general revelation and comfort that God gives and don't even realize what has caused all that. We just take it for granted. So that's still true. So for the big story, if you're a Christian, there's a number of things that I think spark the imagination that can stir you. The idea that good can come from my suffering and that it does come from my suffering. And I'm not saying-- We've got to be careful and not say, "That's the reason God causes me to suffer is so the good can come from it." I think it's far more complex than that, and I don't think we can go there. I don't think we can ascend and try to grasp all that God is doing. I don't think we can do that. But we can at least acknowledge and know that He has a plan that can be trusted if I can trust Him. Can I trust Him till He works it all out? There's a passage that means a lot to me in 2 Corinthians, and it means a lot to a lot of people. He makes this case. And the Book of 2 Corinthians has a lot of suffering in it. Paul's personal struggle, his personal journey, and so you get a lot of his thoughts about how he processes all that. He goes, "Because what do we want to do? We want to give up sometimes. That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day." He goes, "You have to embrace. There's a physicality that He promises with decay, but then there's a spiritual side that is the transcendence, and that it's actually growing. For our present troubles are small and don't last very long, yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever." Now, you do have to spend a minute here. When he says, "Our troubles are small and won't last very long," he does not mean that in the most cavalier sense. That you have struggled with cancer for a decade, he's not saying that it's nothing, and that that's easy, and that that's short. That's not what he's saying. Or else, if he was, then that would be the end of the flow of the argument. It's related to this, that it produces something that outweighs, and it's a glory. He goes, "Compared to what we're going to, it's small. Compared to the glory that we will experience, that suffering is small. Compared to the amount of time that we will be with God in glory forever, this is a short window of taking care of a spouse who's chronically ill." It does go on for decades. He goes, "But I'm telling you, those decades, compared to eternal glory, are very short." And the part that's the most difficult to grasp is this, it produces something. It's not just something to endure, but that something in the suffering is changing me. And all those experiences, the good experiences, but the tough experiences, because all these things, they change me and get me ready for what's next. They help shape, and they create a depth and being in touch with what is real, what reality really is. It's creating that weight and that glory in us, and it's a very interesting idea. So that it only makes sense in relationship to where it's going. He goes, "So we don't look at the troubles we can see now. Rather, we fix our gaze on things we cannot see. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever." If there was a verse that I would say memorize in this culture, that last one. Do not become fixated on things that I can see because they will not last. And the evidence is in front of you all the time. Every Christmas gift you got as a child, where is it at now? It's gone. God is telling us in the most profound ways, all of this is going away, but the things that transcend are staying. So for you as a Christian, this is what I would put for you to process on to think about. If you're a non-Christian, if you think about the story of Joseph, he is one who was exalted, rejected, exalted, and then everybody starts coming to him to get life. I just want to say, does that sound familiar at all? Jesus is one who was exalted. He came and lived on this earth and died on a cross to pay for your sins, to wipe away your guilt, your shame, your sin, to remove all that from you. He is the atonement, the one who would make the sacrifice to pay for your sins. And all your sins go on Him, and all His righteousness goes on you. And in that, He was rejected. But then He was raised from the dead to prove that God accepted that sacrifice, and He was exalted to the highest place. And now we all go to Him for life. He was rejected and exalted, and now we go to Him for life. So I would plead with you to put your faith and trust in Jesus. That Joseph is a picture of that in some ways. It helps stir your imagination to what God has been doing in real gritty ways and real cosmic ways. And so I put that before you. Let's worship and we'll sing together. Father, we are grateful for a chance to be able to sit, ponder Your Word, to have Your Spirit speak to us. I pray that we, like Joseph, would be a group of people who spend more time thinking about You and less time thinking about people. That we would spend more time thinking about the work that You're doing in us and less time processing on what has been done to us by other people and how we have been hurt. That we would fully learn to forget to the level that You want us to and embrace the fruitfulness of the season. That the new season, the new wave that is coming towards us, is what You have for us. And if You were God in the good times, then You have been God in those bad times. You have overseen the whole process. You are the big King who has been orchestrating all of this, and we can trust You until You bring resolution. That we would also embrace the idea that You are producing something in us that has eternal value, eternal weight, eternal glory, eternal light is being built, moved into us, growing in us because of what You are doing in all these situations in our lives. We ask that You give us strength and patience, and You give us faith to trust in You. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.
