Sermon - The Story of Joseph Pt 4

The Story of Joseph pt 4

Genesis 41:1a

21/10/07

Would God still be good…?

I’ve been really looking forward to getting to this part of the story. It’s been a bleak road for Joseph to travel. He’s been hated by his brothers, sold into slavery, lied about, thrown in prison, then he has an opportunity to get a message about his innocence to the pharaoh, only to have the messenger completely forget about him for 2 years.

We take up the story in Genesis 41:1 – “Two years later the king dreamed…”

There’s been a lot of great stuff that we have learned about God already in this story. There’s been some really valuable things we’ve learned from Joseph about how to live with integrity and hope even in the worst circumstances, how to minister to others despite your own hardships and so on; but this is the part of the story that we’ve been anxious to get to. This is the part where the lights go on and we find out why God has allowed all of this stuff to occur. This is the part where we get inspired about the possibilities for happy endings to our own difficult circumstances, because we know how this story ends. God sends Pharaoh a dream that only Joseph can interpret. The cupbearer remembers the young Hebrew from prison and tells Pharaoh about him. Joseph is brought out, cleaned up and has an audience with the king of Egypt. He not only tells Pharaoh the meaning of his dream, but gives him some very good advice about what to do about it. Pharaoh is so impressed that he promotes Joseph to second-in-charge of the whole kingdom. This leads to safety and prosperity for Egypt, and ultimately to the reconciliation of Joseph with his family and the preservation of his family through perilous times. This story becomes a foreshadowing of the story of Jesus. Joseph, rejected by his brothers, was the one that God used to save them.

There are some wonderfully uplifting truths that we learn in the conclusion to the story of Joseph.

But before we go there, I need to ask a question…

Would this still be a good story if it ended with Joseph spending the rest of his days in prison? Would God still be good if he didn’t deliver Joseph from those awful circumstances?

You see sometimes we are tempted to worship the God of happy endings. We want a God who will eventually rewards us with promotions, possessions, popularity, prestige or whatever else it is that our hearts desire.

Why did Joseph continue to serve God with integrity? Was it because he believed that God would finally reward his faithfulness and rescue him from prison, perhaps even making it possible for Joseph to return home to his family? Joseph certainly hoped for something like this, but I don’t believe that is why he worshiped God. I think Joseph worshiped God because he knew that God is worthy of worship.

Hebrews 11:32 - 38

³² Well, how much more do I need to say? It would take too long to recount the stories of the faith of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and all the prophets. ³³ By faith these people overthrew kingdoms, ruled with justice, and received what God had promised them. They shut the mouths of lions, ³⁴ quenched the flames of fire, and escaped death by the edge of the sword. Their weakness was turned to strength. They became strong in battle and put whole armies to flight. ³⁵ Women received their loved ones back again from death.

But others trusted God and were tortured, preferring to die rather than turn from God and be free. They placed their hope in the resurrection to a better life. ³⁶ Some were mocked, and their backs were cut open with whips. Others were chained in dungeons. ³⁷ Some died by stoning, and some were sawed in half; others were killed with the sword. Some went about in skins of sheep and goats, hungry and oppressed and mistreated. ³⁸ They were too good for this world. They wandered over deserts and mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground

Here is something that many of us struggle to get our heads around: God is good to the women who received their loved ones back again from death, and He is good to the mothers and children who died in the Arenas of Rome. God is good to the ones who overthrew kingdoms, and He is good to the ones who died in the prisons and work camps of evil governments. God is good to the ones who escaped death by the edge of the sword, and He is good to the those who felt that sword pierce their bodies.

God is good because He is good, not because of what He does or doesn’t do in your circumstances or mine. God deserves our worship because He is God, not because of what we want to receive from Him.

Matthew 6:33

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Who was ever told as a kid that they had to eat all of their vegetables or they wouldn’t get any dessert?

I think that is the way that some people approach this verse! You’ve got to seek first God’s and His righteousness, and if you do that, you’ll get the things that you really want. So go to church and bible study and try to do the right thing, and if you can stick at that God will give you everything you need to be happy.

I’ve got news for people who think like that – God’s kingdom and His righteousness is the dessert!

Philippians 4:12-13

I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. ^13 I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

Philippians 3:7-11

^7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. ^8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ ^9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. ^10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ^11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Paul discovered that knowing Christ and living for him is the most satisfying, rewarding, joyful way to live. Have you discovered this truth for yourself?

We are heading into an election, and so we all expect to be seeing and hearing a lot of propaganda over the next few weeks. As good as political strategists and marketing experts are, there is someone who is much more adept at getting people to swallow his line. Satan is a liar and has been from the beginning. He has been very successful at even fooling Christians into buying his products. He sells us the dreams of pleasure, of accumulation, of leisure time, of the good opinion of others, of hassle-free sex, of success or whatever else it is that we have a weak spot for.

Here’s the truth of the situation according to the Bible…

If you look for satisfaction and security in relationships, work, pleasure, possessions you will be disappointed and eventually destroyed.

If you look to God to give you satisfaction and security in relationships, work, pleasure, possessions and so on, you will be disappointed to learn that there is no guarantee that He will give you what you want. (Remember Hebrews 11?)

If you seek God, if you earnestly want to put God first in your life, if your heart’s desire is to see Him glorified in your life, then you will discover satisfaction and security in Him. You will be content to trust that God will do what is best in your relationships, work, leisure time, possessions and so on, and you will find joy and consolation in that fact. You will be concerned about those other things but not controlled by them. Like the Apostle Paul, and like Joseph in our story, you will be content no matter what your circumstances are or have been. You will disarm the power of Satan to lure you away to worship false gods.

I want you to understand how important this distinction is. Far too many Christians seem to make their worship of God conditional upon what is going on in their lives. If times are tough, they seem to believe they have a right to sulk or shake their fists at God and demand better treatment. God does not owe us anything! He has given us everything in Jesus, how dare we act as though that is not enough.

This all sounds a bit harsh, but realising the truth about this is the only way to find real happiness.

When the Apostle Paul got toward the end of his life –pretty much alone in a damp and miserable dungeon – he wrote these words to his younger friend Timothy:

2 Timothy 4:7-8

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. ^8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

When God calls me home, I bet I won’t be thinking about how good I was at computer games, or even using computers for work. I won’t be thinking about body-surfing or playing sport. I won’t be worrying about what people in town thought of me, or my reputation as a preacher and leader. I will be thinking about what Jesus has thought of my life.

I won’t find satisfaction in the fact that for a while my children thought I was the strongest and smartest man in the world. I’ll find satisfaction in whatever I’ve done to point them to Jesus. I won’t care who made fun of me or attacked me if by doing so they gave me an opportunity to glorify Jesus and share in His sufferings.

Now I begin to be a disciple, and have no desire after anything visible or invisible, that I may attain to Jesus Christ. Let fire and the cross; let the crowds of wild beasts; let breakings, tearings, and separations of bones; let cutting off of members; let bruising to pieces of the whole body; and let the very torment of the devil come upon me: only let me attain to Jesus Christ …

All the pleasures of the world, and all the kingdoms of this earth, shall profit me nothing. It is better for me to die in behalf of Jesus Christ, than to reign over all the ends of the earth. "For what shall a man be profited, if he gain the whole world, but lose his own soul?" Him I seek, who died for us: Him I desire, who rose again for our sake. This is the gain which is laid up for me. Pardon me, brethren: do not hinder me from living, do not wish to keep me in a state of death; and while I desire to belong to God, do not ye give me over to the world. Suffer me to obtain pure light: when I have gone thither, I shall indeed be a man of God. Permit me to be an imitator of the passion of my God.

- Ignatius of Antioch (c 35 – 107AD)

Sermon - The Story of Joseph Pt 3

The Story of Joseph pt 3

Joseph in Prison

Genesis 40

Recap

We’re going through the story of Joseph in the book of Genesis. Last week we explored the two different reactions Joseph got from people in Egypt. He was a godly person plonked smack-bang into a godless society. Some people respected and admired him, treating him really well. Others were offended by his values and treated him badly. That’s what happens whenever you put a godly person into a godly environment. One or both of those reactions is to be expected.

I didn’t go over this too much last week, but I want you to know that the more different the person is to their environment, the greater the reaction will be either way. A person who is a little bit godly in an environment that is a little bit godless won’t stand out that much, and won’t get much of a reaction. A person who is very godly in an environment which is a little bit godless will provoke a lot more reaction, positive and negative. A very godly person in a very godless environment is really going to cause a stir! Philippians 2:15 puts it like this: You are to live clean, innocent lives as children of God in a dark world full of crooked and perverse people. Let your lives shine brightly before them.

Here’s what I find exciting. I don’t know if you’ve realised it, but Australia is becoming more and more obviously godless. Our values, attitudes and behaviours are becoming more and more opposed to what you would expect from people who know God and know God’s ways.

That’s a bit scary, because most of us want to fit in and be accepted. We just want to be free to get on with doing what is right without causing much of a fuss. But God is not interested in us fitting in. God is not interested in us being anonymous. He wants us to be salt and light in a world that needs to taste and see Him through us.

So the story so far is like this: Joseph, 17 years old, youngest and favourite son in a wealthy household. His brothers hate him and conspire to sell him into slavery. He goes to Egypt and becomes a trusted and powerful servant in a wealthy household. Then he refuses to sleep with his master’s wife, so she pretends that he tried to rape her and he is thrown into the Pharaoh’s prison.

Here’s what happens next:

Story

Some time later, Pharaoh’s chief cup-bearer and chief baker offended him. ² Pharaoh became very angry with these officials, ³ and he put them in the prison where Joseph was, in the palace of Potiphar, the captain of the guard. ⁴ They remained in prison for quite some time, and Potiphar assigned Joseph to take care of them.

Have you ever had one of those “AHA!” moments, where you see something that you’ve never seen before? Christians should get these all the time, because God is always revealing stuff to us to help us grow and reflect Him more.

I had an “AHA!” moment preparing this sermon. Most translations don’t mention Potiphar’s name in this chapter, they just mention that the prison was in the house of the captain of the guard. Who was the captain of the guard? Potiphar!

Potiphar’s palace included a dungeon in which the most important prisoners were kept. Prisoners of royal significance. Not run of the mill criminals, these were the people who had received the personal displeasure of Pharaoh.

Isn’t it interesting that despite being turned against Joseph by his wife’s lies, Potiphar decides to keep him close by – in the royal prison in his own house – instead of doing whatever was standard practice for slaves who had broken the law (which I suspect would have been execution)?

Isn’t it interesting that Potiphar allows his wife’s alleged attempted rapist to be promoted in his jail to a position of responsibility?

Isn’t it interesting that when two senior officials get thrown in jail, Potiphar chooses to have Joseph take personal care of them? Now, remember that this was a position of trust. If either of these men were pardoned, they would return to positions where they would have influence with Pharaoh. Potiphar could not afford to have these men treated shabbily, even if they were in jail. If he did, you could be sure that there would be payback when they got out. This little paragraph shows that despite all that has happened, despite Potiphar’s loyalties and his actions, he actually still trusts Joseph. He’s made a big show of being furious and throwing Joseph in jail, but yet deep down there still seems to be a trust in Joseph and perhaps a curiosity about him.

Never think that when people seem to turn against you or when they treat you badly, that there isn’t something deeper going on inside them. Stand firm in your character and trust God – you don’t know what might end up happening. The Bible says that we should do good to those who mistreat us, and Joseph is an example of what that looks like. He is in Potiphar’s prison but he still is trustworthy and hard-working. He is a blessing to the one who has treated him unjustly.

⁵ One night the cup-bearer and the baker each had a dream, and each dream had its own meaning. ⁶ The next morning Joseph noticed the dejected look on their faces. ⁷ “Why do you look so worried today?” he asked.

Did you know that there are opportunities all around us to talk with people about what is going on in their lives? There are opportunities to shine God’s light into people’s lives if we will just pay attention to what is going on. Joseph looks and sees two men who are looking down and says “What’s wrong with you guys today, you’re looking worried?”

I want you to do something for me: Turn to the person next to you, and give them your best worried look. Take turns looking worried. Now give each other an impatient look. Now try a sad look. Now a confused look.

There’s two things that stand out to me about what Joseph does right here. Firstly,

1. He names the right emotion. I don’t know about you, but I could have easily mixed up any of those looks that you guys were giving each other a few minutes ago. Joseph had the ability to discern what they were feeling. Some people seem to be very good at doing that, but I have noticed that like most things, it is something that improves with practice. Joseph seems to be someone who pays attention to people, and how they are feeling. This is a bit different to the 17 year old “You guys will bow down to me one day” Joseph at the start of our story! (By the way, Joseph is about 28 years of age now).
2. He cares about how they are feeling. He asks them why they are looking worried. He is interested in how they feel and shows his care by inviting them to talk about it - and Joseph is a man!

Because Joseph is interested, pays attention and cares enough to ask a question, we have an opportunity for ministry.

⁸ And they replied, “We both had dreams last night, but there is no one here to tell us what they mean.”

“Interpreting dreams is God’s business,” Joseph replied. “Tell me what you saw.”

⁹ The cup-bearer told his dream first. “In my dream,” he said, “I saw a vine in front of me. ¹⁰ It had three branches that began to bud and blossom, and soon there were clusters of ripe grapes. ¹¹ I was holding Pharaoh’s wine cup in my hand, so I took the grapes and squeezed the juice into it. Then I placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.”

¹² “I know what the dream means,” Joseph said. “The three branches mean three days. ¹³ Within three days Pharaoh will take you out of prison and return you to your position as his chief cup-bearer. ¹⁴ And please have some pity on me when you are back in his favor. Mention me to Pharaoh, and ask him to let me out of here. ¹⁵ For I was kidnapped from my homeland, the land of the Hebrews, and now I’m here in jail, but I did nothing to deserve it.”

¹⁶ When the chief baker saw that the first dream had such a good meaning, he told his dream to Joseph, too. “In my dream,” he said, “there were three baskets of pastries on my head. ¹⁷ In the top basket were all kinds of bakery goods for Pharaoh, but the birds came and ate them.”

¹⁸ “I’ll tell you what it means,” Joseph told him. “The three baskets mean three days. ¹⁹ Three days from now Pharaoh will cut off your head and impale your body on a pole. Then birds will come and peck away at your flesh.”

²⁰ Pharaoh’s birthday came three days later, and he gave a banquet for all his officials and household staff. He sent for his chief cup-bearer and chief baker, and they were brought to him from the prison. ²¹ He then restored the chief cup-bearer to his former position, ²² but he sentenced the chief baker to be impaled on a pole, just as Joseph had predicted. ²³ Pharaoh’s cup-bearer, however, promptly forgot all about Joseph, never giving him another thought.

So here we have two men who are ready to receive Joseph’s ministry. Joseph has been caring for them, has built a relationship with them. They have gotten to know his character. Now he has invited them to share what is troubling them, and they do.

What is the first thing that Joseph does? He points them to God. The literal sense of what he says is : “The meaning of dreams belongs with God”. The solution to your problem is with God. The answer to your questions is with God. Don’t look to me. Don’t look to anyone else, it is God who you need to deal with. But then he says “Tell me what you saw”. These men do not know God, they do not know how to find their answers in God. Joseph is ready to be the mediator. He will be the one who will ask God for the answer. He will be the one that God reveals the truth to, and he will share that truth with the two men.

When we did our study in 1 Peter we discovered that like Joseph, you and I have this role with people who do not yet know God. We are called a kingdom of priests, and our role is to be God’s ambassadors to the world.

Now, there are plenty of people who will tell others what they want to hear. Not many people would have problems giving the good news to the cup-bearer. Not many of us would be willing to give the bad news to the baker, and certainly not in the gorily detailed way that Joseph did! Joseph said what God put in his mind to say, and he did not water it down or change it to suit his hearers or to maintain his own popularity.

I was at Hillary’s boat harbour the other week, and I walked past a booth a number of times where you could go to get a “reading”. I caught a glimpse of some cards on a table, but regardless of the methods, there was someone in there who claimed to be able to give truth to people. You might expect to hear about your” past lives” or who you might fall in love with or what you need to do to find happiness in life, and reassurance that yes, you will find happiness and wealth as long as you do what the psychic tells you to.

Imagine if Joseph had a booth like that – he’d be out of business in a week!

People in our society have plenty of places to turn for the truth. I can just imagine a conversation like this…

“I went to see Madam Shining-Dawn on Saturday. She told me that I had been a courtesan in Venice in a previous life, which explains why I’ve always loved Italian food; and I do find the sound of lapping water very soothing. She also sold me some charms that I can wear to make men go crazy over me, and she assured me that they will bring Mr Right to my door in the near future. What did you do on the weekend?”

“I spent the weekend with my sister. She saw me checking my horoscope in the paper, and wanted to talk about it. She said that she believes it’s appointed for humans to live only once, and then to face judgment! She said that God finds my current lifestyle offensive, and has a much better plan for my life, but get this - I would need to ask for God’s forgiveness and submit to His control!”

“I hate that religious bigotry! Did you get mad at her?”

“I sure did! We had a fight about it and I left. The funny thing is though, that even though a lot of what she says just makes me mad, I sometimes wish that my life was more like hers. This stuff seems to really work for her, and sometimes I wonder if it’s better than what I’m doing.”

You can change the details of this story in millions of ways, but this is the sort of story that I want to see being played out in our community.

I want us to be people like Joseph who pay attention to those around us, care for them and are ready to minister God’s love and truth to them, whether it’s easy or not; whether it’s popular or not.

I want the people around us to see the sort of character that Potiphar and the two officials saw in Joseph. I want people to feel able to open up with us and share what it is that troubles them, confuses them, saddens them and so on; and to know that the only cure is found with God. The answers are with God.

But there’s something else we need to see in this part of Joseph’s story – sometimes the fruit of ministry is a long time in coming. We can shine God’s truth and love into people’s lives, and they can keep going as though nothing has happened. Then all of a sudden when the time is right, the lights will go on. God gave the cup-bearer the dream when he was in the right place to receive its meaning. The purpose of that dream though was not revealed until 2 years down the track, which we will find out more about next week. In the meantime the cup-bearer forgets all about Joseph, and Joseph stays in prison, perhaps wondering what God is up to and why life has turned out the way it has.

None of the ministry that this church has poured in to the lives of children, young people and adults over the years has been wasted. We haven’t always gotten it right, in fact, we have made plenty of mistakes between us over the years. But we have also shone the love and truth of God into many lives. When the time is right, it will be remembered. The seed has been sown, the foundation has been laid. In the meantime we wait, and pray, and work, and pay attention to see what new opportunities for ministry God is bringing our way.

Sermon - The Story of Joseph Pt 2

The Story of Joseph pt 2

Genesis 39

07/10/07

Genesis 39

¹ Now when Joseph arrived in Egypt with the Ishmaelite traders, he was purchased by Potiphar, a member of the personal staff of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. Potiphar was the captain of the palace guard.

² The Lord was with Joseph and blessed him greatly as he served in the home of his Egyptian master. ³ Potiphar noticed this and realized that the Lord was with Joseph, giving him success in everything he did. ⁴ So Joseph naturally became quite a favorite with him. Potiphar soon put Joseph in charge of his entire household and entrusted him with all his business dealings. ⁵ From the day Joseph was put in charge, the Lord began to bless Potiphar for Joseph’s sake. All his household affairs began to run smoothly, and his crops and livestock flourished. ⁶ So Potiphar gave Joseph complete administrative responsibility over everything he owned. With Joseph there, he didn’t have a worry in the world, except to decide what he wanted to eat!

Now Joseph was a very handsome and well-built young man. ⁷ And about this time, Potiphar’s wife began to desire him and invited him to sleep with her. ⁸ But Joseph refused. “Look,” he told her, “my master trusts me with everything in his entire household. ⁹ No one here has more authority than I do! He has held back nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How could I ever do such a wicked thing? It would be a great sin against God.”

¹⁰ She kept putting pressure on him day after day, but he refused to sleep with her, and he kept out of her way as much as possible. ¹¹ One day, however, no one else was around when he was doing his work inside the house. ¹² She came and grabbed him by his shirt, demanding, “Sleep with me!” Joseph tore himself away, but as he did, his shirt came off. She was left holding it as he ran from the house.

¹³ When she saw that she had his shirt and that he had fled, ¹⁴ she began screaming. Soon all the men around the place came running. “My husband has brought this Hebrew slave here to insult us!” she sobbed. “He tried to rape me, but I screamed. ¹⁵ When he heard my loud cries, he ran and left his shirt behind with me.”

¹⁶ She kept the shirt with her, and when her husband came home that night, ¹⁷ she told him her story. “That Hebrew slave you’ve had around here tried to make a fool of me,” she said. ¹⁸ “I was saved only by my screams. He ran out, leaving his shirt behind!”

¹⁹ After hearing his wife’s story, Potiphar was furious! ²⁰ He took Joseph and threw him into the prison where the king’s prisoners were held. ²¹ But the Lord was with Joseph there, too, and he granted Joseph favor with the chief jailer. ²² Before long, the jailer put Joseph in charge of all the other prisoners and over everything that happened in the prison. ²³ The chief jailer had no more worries after that, because Joseph took care of everything. The Lord was with him, making everything run smoothly and successfully.

This story contains so many great teaching points. We could talk about having a right attitude toward work, how to handle temptation, how to respond to false allegations, trusting God in your circumstances and so on.

Today though I’m going to zoom in to one particular aspect of the story, and that is to look at the ways that people respond to a righteous life. Joseph was committed to living rightly – he lived as someone who knew the presence of God. You and I are also committed to living rightly. What can we learn from the way that others responded to Joseph that will help us to be prepared for the reactions we will face when we choose to live God’s way in a world which does not know God?

Potiphar – a man impressed.

At the start of our story we see that Potiphar was very impressed with Joseph. He did not worry about anything, because he trusted Joseph’s skill and integrity. He saw that God had blessed all that Joseph did, and he was happy to reap the benefits of that.

I can tell you from experience that it is huge blessing to be able to trust the integrity and ability of people who work for you. It gives great confidence, peace and freedom when you are sure of these things, as Potiphar was with Joseph.

I wonder what was going on in Potiphar’s mind because of Joseph. The Egyptians had all sorts of gods for all sorts of purposes, but in comes Joseph who worships a foreign God who claims to be God alone. The things that Joseph does seem to have the blessing of this God, in a way that none of Egypt’s gods have ever demonstrated. Potiphar shrewdly places Joseph over everything, thus bringing God’s blessing on his entire estate. I wonder though whether something was stirring in Potiphar’s heart over all this. I wonder if Joseph’s character and the blessing of God was looking very attractive to a man used to very different realities.

It reminds me of what Paul says in…

Titus 2:9&10

⁹ Slaves must obey their masters and do their best to please them. They must not talk back ¹⁰ or steal, but they must show themselves to be entirely trustworthy and good. Then they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive in every way.

Of course this doesn’t only apply to those who are slaves or those who work for someone else. Jesus said in…

Matthew 5:15-16

¹⁵ Don’t hide your light under a basket! Instead, put it on a stand and let it shine for all. ¹⁶ In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.

Genesis 39:3 tells us that Potiphar realized that God was with Joseph – is that what people see in you and I? Are people attracted to God because of your life? Do people think well of God because of the way you represent Him? Do they even thank God for you?

We should not be surprised when this happens. The Bible explains that the way we live must be different to those who do not know God. It lays out the many blessings that we have as God’s children. If these things aren’t noticeable, then there must surely be something wrong. The further our society moves away from God’s standards, the more obvious God’s children should be. That is, of course, as long as we are living by God’s standards and not the standards of our society.

The story is not all rosy for Joseph, however. It’s not too long before living to please God gets him in trouble with someone else…

Potiphar’s Wife - a lover spurned.

If you are committed to living to please God in a world which does not know God, there is going to be a collision that is bound to happen. For Joseph, that collision took place in the area of sexual ethics – is it OK to sleep with your master’s wife? For Joseph, the answer was a definite “no”, but that put him at odds with Potiphar’s wife.

Temptation comes initially with some flirtation, then prolonged nagging, and finally by literally grasping at Joseph.

Joseph deals with the initial temptation firmly but respectfully – he explains that he would consider such an act to be a betrayal of Potiphar’s trust and a sin against God. Potiphar’s wife is apparently not used to having to restrain her own desires, or to being rejected; and so she continues to pursue Joseph. After finally discovering that she cannot have him, her desire turns to hatred and she punishes him in the most cruel way.

Does this sort of thing ever happen in our experience? You bet it does!

Are there people around you who try to pull you away from living for God? Are there people who try to involve you in their own sinful behaviours? Are there people who genuinely like you or love you, but are jealous of the fact that God owns your heart and guides your life? Are there people who get offended that you don’t join with them in things that you know God disapproves of?

1 Peter 4:1-5

So then, since Christ suffered physical pain, you must arm yourselves with the same attitude he had, and be ready to suffer, too. For if you are willing to suffer for Christ, you have decided to stop sinning. ² And you won’t spend the rest of your life chasing after evil desires, but you will be anxious to do the will of God. ³ You have had enough in the past of the evil things that godless people enjoy—their immorality and lust, their feasting and drunkenness and wild parties, and their terrible worship of idols.

⁴ Of course, your former friends are very surprised when you no longer join them in the wicked things they do, and they say evil things about you. ⁵ But just remember that they will have to face God, who will judge everyone, both the living and the dead.

For many of us, learning to not be controlled by what other people might think of us and say about us is a difficult journey to take. We all want to be accepted. We want to be respected and approved of. We want to be treated fairly. We want to be spoken about truthfully.

The reality is that if we live for God there are going to be times when we are rejected. There will be times when we are despised. There will be times when we will be lied about. There are going to be times when people will want to hurt us. This isn’t because the people who do these things are horrible monsters, it’s just that we can’t give them what they want, and so they get hurt and angry. Potiphar’s wife may have been a very nice person, but Joseph defied her authority and made her feel unattractive, humiliated, frustrated and perhaps even a little guilty. Of course she was going to lash out at him.

When we get treated badly, there are a couple of things that we need to keep in mind:

1) Like in the story of Joseph, we need to remember that God is always with us and has a good plan for our lives. Nothing anyone does is able to thwart the work of God in us and His plan for us, as long as we ourselves are keeping in step with Him. God’s approval of me is enough, I don’t need to chase anyone else’s approval. God’s presence in my life is enough, I don’t need to rely on anyone else or anything else.

2) There will be a time when God will judge everyone. If you are a child of God, that time brings no fear, just a joyful expectation of eternal happiness. Others do not have that hope, so instead of being concerned about whatever short-term pain they have inflicted on us – no matter how deep - maybe we should share God’s concern that they be prepared for that time of judgement. If they continue on their present course the expectation is fearful, but wouldn’t it be wonderful if they had a change of heart before then and came to know Jesus as their Lord and Saviour? Instead of dwelling on how to get even or brooding over the pain they have caused us, let’s focus on their salvation. After all, are we any different without the grace of God in our lives?

When we live wholeheartedly for God, we will experience these sorts of responses in the people around us. Often because of our fear of the second type of response, we put on our camouflage gear and we try to look as much like citizens of this world as we can while being as true to the kingdom of God as we can. We avoid as many potential conflicts as we can.

Instead of being Christians in Camouflage, let’s determine in our hearts to be Salt and Light? Let’s not put any barriers in people’s way, but let’s not hide our different-ness either. Let’s live rightly and boldly in the place God has put us.

Article - The Wrong End of the Stick

The Wrong End of the Stick

Gizmo Shopping Goes Bad

I love checking out e-bay for cheap gizmo’s! A couple of weeks ago I ordered a Bluetooth headset to pair up with my laptop so that we can make free long-distance voice calls over the internet. A brilliant bit of money-saving! The only problem was that I didn’t read the item description properly, and when it arrived it had a U.S. style plug instead of an Aussie one. Until I sort that out the headset is useless to me.

Sometimes We Don’t Read People Very Well Either

Just like I didn’t read the description of the item I ordered well enough, we very often don’t read the people around us well enough to really understand what they are thinking, how they are feeling and what they are trying to say to us. I am sometimes staggered by just how badly people get the wrong end of the stick about other people – especially people who think they know each other really well.

It Hurts When our Hearts are Missed

We all know what it is like to be misunderstood at times. Whenever I tell my kids to go get a book each for me to read them before bed, they are sure to return with several! We all condition our minds to hear what we want to hear or what we expect to hear. When you expect to be criticised by someone, you will usually hear a compliment as a veiled criticism regardless of how it was intended. Sometimes people make genuine efforts to relate positively with us, but our negative expectations cause us to be unaware or suspicious about that. It can be a little frustrating if we are misunderstood when communicating information, but it is hurtful when we are misunderstood in who we are and how we feel. I have spoken to many people who have hurt over the fact that their spouse or children feels unloved or unappreciated by them. “How can they think that I don’t care about them?” they say, and then they list all the ways that they have attempted to show care to that person. Somehow the message has not gotten through.

How Do We Give People the Right End of the Stick?

(For those unfamiliar with this expression, it means “How can we make sure people are getting the right message from us?”)!!

There’s a huge number of strategies to help make communication work better. Here’s just 2 for today:

Tune In

Learn to pay attention to your own feelings and the feelings of those around you. In the vast majority of situations, what you are talking about is less important than how you treat those you are talking to, so pay attention to things that affect how people are feeling during your conversation. Is everyone feeling listened to? Do people feel comfortable enough to genuinely express what they think or feel? Learn to ask good questions that help the person speaking to clarify their own thoughts & feelings, and help those listening to clearly understand what that person is trying to express.

Learn a New Language

If you are trying to improve a relationship, you need to start speaking the same language. For some people, it doesn’t matter how much you say “I love you”, if you don’t help with the dishes, you don’t really care! Someone else couldn’t care less about what you do for them - they want to have some quality time alone in order to feel cared for. Others respond better to encouraging and tender words or physical closeness or thoughtful gifts. If you want someone to “get” the fact that you really do care about them, you need to take the time to learn to express that care in the language in which they best receive it. If you are feeling uncared for, try looking at what that person does to see if they actually are trying to show you how they feel, you just aren’t reading them right.

That’s all for now!

Mike Birch

Sermon - Pictures of Growth

Pictures of Growth

I didn't use any notes for this one, but click on the "Recent Sermon Audio" link to the left to have a listen!

Article - The Importance of Deadlines

Building Better Marriages

The Importance of Deadlines

It’s been a pretty busy couple of months in our house, and not much has been happening on the gardening front. Last week something happened to change that - Tidy Towns judging! Tuesday was T.T-Day, and we knew that as patriotic Narembeenites that we needed to have the place spruced up by then. Monday saw us finally get stuck into hoeing, raking, weeding, planting, pruning, mowing and sweeping in an effort to meet the deadline. Now we enjoy the fact that we’ve got the place looking a lot nicer than it was. We just needed a deadline to force us to make it a priority and get it done.

Have you ever wondered why it’s called a deadline? It become a popular term in the newspaper business in the 1920’s to mean the time that a story had to be in by in order to be printed. If it was not submitted on time, your story was dead. It probably originated though during the American Civil War as the name given to the line that prisoners in prison camps could not cross without being shot.

Sometimes in life there are very clear deadlines, but a lot of times we can let some important things slide because we don’t have a deadline that forces us into action.

What are some things that are important to you in your marriage? What are some things that haven’t been going so well that could use some attention? What are some things that would bring you closer together? What would help you be better parents/grandparents? What issues tend to come up repeatedly that haven’t been properly worked out?

I’ve got to admit, we worked pretty hard on Monday to meet our garden deadline, but we knew that it was worth the effort. Improving a marriage can be hard work – it can also be a lot of fun. Sometimes we put off things that are difficult, but then we never reap the rewards that come from doing them. As a result marriage does not provide us with the fulfilment that it should, conflicts can remain unresolved and bitterness, disappointment and apathy set it.

What sort of deadlines would most help your marriage? Some examples might be: “We will spend a romantic weekend away together before harvest starts”

“We’re going to sit down and talk about _____________ by the end of the month”

(It’s better to plan a definite time to talk about important things when you will both be ready to concentrate.)

Of course, the real challenge then is to actually make sure that you meet your own deadlines. Make a date and time and stick with it.

Don’t settle for a mediocre marriage. Don’t rip off your spouse by taking your relationship for granted. It takes work, so set your deadlines and make sure you get it done!

Mike Birch

Sermon, the Three Disciplines of Christian Growth

The Three Disciplines of Christian Growth

There's no manuscript for this one, so please have a listen to the audio by clicking on the link to the left. This table may be useful to you as you listen though:

Preparation (Looking Forward)	Awareness & Action (Looking Within & Without)	Reflection/Restoration (Looking Backward)
Spirit, Mind, Body, Emotions, Relationships, Habits, Environment	Listening and Doing	Reviewing
Jesus Growing up in Nazareth Baptism and Desert Journey Private times with the Father Garden of Gethsemane	John 5:19 19 Jesus gave them this answer: “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.	Jesus with the Disciples Eg's: Mark 9:14-21 – failure to drive out a demon Matthew 16:13-20 – Peter’s confession of the Christ.

Article - The Lost Tomb of Christ?

The Lost Tomb of Christ?

This week “60 Minutes” featured a story from Tara Brown about the latest controversy surrounding an alleged discovery of the tomb of Jesus. Media hype has been fuelled by a documentary by film-maker James Cameron which argues that bones found in 10 ossuaries — small caskets used to store bones — may belong to Jesus Christ and a number of His associates.

Cameron’s documentary has been widely criticized by scholars world-wide, with even the experts who worked on the film expressing doubt that the tomb is the tomb of Jesus. Shimon Gibson, who was featured in the 60 Minutes report, has been quoted as saying "Personally, I'm skeptical that this is the tomb of Jesus and I made this point very clear to the filmmakers".[1] Just doing a basic search on the internet reveals the overwhelmingly critical response from archaeologists and scholars who specialise in Middle Eastern history.

Stephen Pfann, a scholar at the University of the Holy Land in Jerusalem made an insightful comment when he said "I don't think that Christians are going to buy into this, but skeptics, in general, would like to see something that pokes holes into the story that so many people hold dear."

It has been widely asserted that throughout history religion has promoted an “unscientific” worldview which represses genuine scientific enquiry. Some people think that Science and Religion are like oil and water –they just don’t mix. Some go further and assume that there must be a tension between the two – that Science will one day overcome the ‘need’ for Religion or that Religion (that is, religious extremism) will plunge us back into another ‘dark age’ where freedom of expression, thought and enquiry are no longer tolerated. That might seem far-fetched, but there are some places in the world that operate like this even today.

However, many people have come to appreciate that Science and Religion can be greatly enriched by one another. Certainly, the bible contains many “scientific” observations and reflections which are in harmony with it’s teachings about things which cannot be dealt with in a scientific manner. For example, you can observe the incredible complexity of creation through scientific observation, and you can grow to understand the mechanisms of our physical Universe, but none of that answers the question of whether there is a Creator or not. That is a decision which you make on the basis of the evidence. The evidence does not make the decision for you, it merely informs you.

We need to recognise, though, that we are not purely rational beings. We do not make decisions based on evidence and reasoning alone. We each are impacted by our motives, emotions, personal histories, present environment and so on. The Bible goes one step further (warning - this might freak out people who have a purely “scientific” mindset) to say that there is are spiritual beings who seek to influence us. That’s a huge subject which I would be happy to answer questions about if you are interested!

If you look at modern advertising techniques, you will find that very rarely do advertisers attempt to get you to buy their product by providing evidence as to why that is a good choice. Rather, they try to hook in to your emotions to create a positive feeling that you associate with their product. They have discovered that this is far more persuasive than a rational approach.

People who for whatever reason seek to undermine Christianity know that all they need to do is create an image of credibility to the impression that the key elements of Christianity have been ‘disproven’. Most people would prefer to believe that is the case, because if it’s true that Jesus really did rise from the dead, maybe His promise of returning is also true. Maybe that stuff about sin and judgement, the need for forgiveness and the promise of eternal life is also true - but that means we are no longer safe to ignore God. We need to be prepared to meet Him.

You are free to believe what you like, but does what you believe stack up with the evidence? Have you bothered to find out? I believe the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus – as well as the reliability of the Bible in general – is extremely compelling. Are you willing to check it out?

---

[1] “Jesus tomb film scholars backtrack”, Etgar Lefkovits, The Jerusalem Post Apr 11, 2007

Sermon - Church for Real Men

Church for Real Men

Father’s Day 2007

Introduction – A Real Man

Some of you may remember this story from last Christmas, but for the sake of those who weren’t there, I’m going to tell it again. It’s the story of a father, and what a father’s love has caused him to do.

Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedalled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars–all in the same day.

Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. And what has Rick done for his father? Not much–except save his life.

This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.

“He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life;'' Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. “Put him in an institution.''

But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. “No way,'' Dick says he was told. “There's nothing going on in his brain.''

“Tell him a joke,'' Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain. Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? “Go Bruins!'' Rick was then enrolled in his local public school.

After a high school classmate was paralysed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, “Dad, I want to do that.'' Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described “porker'' who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he tried. “Then it was me who was handicapped,'' Dick says. “I was sore for two weeks.''

That day changed Rick's life. “Dad,'' he typed, “when we were running, it felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!'' And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.

“No way,'' Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyt's weren't quite a single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following year.

Then somebody said, “Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?'' How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick tried. Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four gruelling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii.

Last year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best time'? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992 – only 35 minutes off the world record.

“No question about it,'' Rick types. “My dad is the Father of the Century.''

Watch Team Hoyt video

Today we are talking about what it means to be a “Real Man”. When you think about the “Real Men” that you have known, what sort of qualities are you thinking about? What is it that makes a man a “real man”?

And where are you likely to find a real man? Do you find him sitting in a pew or out on a football field?

Yesterday I got to attend my first ever live AFL match. The West Coast Eagles v. Essendon at Subiaco Oval. Fantastic! I want to show you a video clip of one player in the AFL who is widely regarded as a real man – Brisbane’s Jonathan Brown. (The video quality isn’t great, but you’ll get the idea!)

Watch Jonathan Brown video

2 Timothy 1:7 says:

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

I’m going to ask you to do something that might seem a little strange, but it will be worth it. I want you to talk to the person next to you about how the men in the videos we have seen so far have shown qualities of power, love and self-discipline. You’ve got 1 minute!

.....

OK, now that you’ve identified those qualities in Dick Hoyt and in Jonathan Brown, let’s start thinking about our lives, and how this Scripture comments on the way we live.

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

Paul writes this sentence to a young man who has great gifts and a great heritage. He has what is needed in order to be a man of godly influence. He has been called and equipped by God to be a teacher and leader in the Church.

Yet Paul knows that having the ability is one thing, putting it into practice is quite another.

On Monday and Tuesday I was participating in a Ministry Life Skills course with a group of fellow Ministers. By the way, the term “life skills” is just another way of saying “wisdom”. The Hebrew word for wisdom literally means “skilled living”.

One of the things that we looked at during the course was the internal voices that we listen to. One holds us back, and the other gives us confidence to act.

We did a number of activities that required us to share ideas or to take leadership, but we saw that most of us tended to hold ourselves back. We might have had an idea of how to solve the problem, but we didn’t speak up because we didn’t want to seem bossy or arrogant, or we were afraid of being wrong and looking silly. So the confident ones did all the speaking while the quiet ones just let them take the lead. Timothy was probably one of these quiet ones, and Paul knew that he had the wisdom and the spiritual gifting to speak and to lead, but he lacked the confidence to actually step up and do it.

Timothy needed to start listening to the right voice. Not his voice of caution, hesitation and self doubt – he needed to listen to the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of power.

When people are trapped by their own timidity, it is very easy for them to make excuses about that. They don’t speak up in a group because the loud ones never listen to them anyway. They don’t take the lead because that would be pushing yourself forward instead of being humble. They resent those people who are confident enough to do what they would like to do, but they tell themselves that they are more spiritual because they are being more submissive and quicker to listen and slower to speak and so on. In fact, because we so often speak on self-sacrifice and submission and humility and so on, we can sometimes give the impression that the ideal Christian man or woman is a timid one, instead of one filled with Spiritual power. We make it seem that to be a good Christian man you should be a wimp, but men were made to want to be powerful.

Men, I want to remind you today that you are called to be spiritually powerful.

Proverbs 28:1 says:

The wicked man flees though no one pursues,

but the righteous are as bold as a lion.

What is that going to look like in your life?

Let me start off by talking about what it looks like in my life…

I have certain things that I am good at doing and some things that I don’t feel that I do well. I have things that I like doing, and things that I do not enjoy doing. There are things about myself that I am comfortable about, and there are things about myself that I don’t feel so secure about. We are all like that.

When I am thinking about what I will do, am I going to choose the things I like doing or the things I don’t like doing? Will I choose the things that I enjoy of the things I don’t? Will I choose the things that make me feel confident or the things I am nervous about?

In 2 Corinthians 12: 8-10, the Apostle Paul tells some of his own story:

Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. ^ But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. ^ That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

How do these verses relate to my situation?

First of all, it tells me that I must not rely on my own strengths in order to fulfill the ministry that God has called me to. That principle is true for me and for you. How often do we stick to what we feel confident doing, and fail to step out in faith believing that God will work through us even in areas that we feel completely inadequate in? We need to be bold in our strengths and in our weaknesses. “It’s not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord” – Zech. 4:6

2 Timothy 4:5 says:

But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

The duties of my ministry that I feel OK about doing are things like teaching groups of all ages, leading youth and children’s activities, writing articles and web pages and all the stuff that I can do by myself.

What I struggle most to do is to relate to adults in certain situations. In a meeting where I don’t have a specific role, I am one of the people who think a lot about what they should say but don’t actually speak up and say it. If I try once and someone speaks over me, then that’s it for the rest of the meeting! You guys don’t see that side of me so much, because as your Pastor I have a definite role to play, but in other situations it’s very different.

I’m not confident in making friends, and I think more in terms of tasks than in terms of people. I’m not someone who others feel a natural liking for or loyalty toward. People often feel like it’s hard to really get to know me. That can be a handicap in my role.

Ephesians 4:11-12 says:

It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, ^to prepare God’s people for works of service

Given my natural strengths, what part of preparing you guys for works of service will I emphasize and what will I neglect?

I will emphasis the teaching side, but I will tend to neglect the coming alongside, challenging and encouraging part of it. I will work hard in ministry and wonder why some people do not feel the same sense of enthusiasm or responsibility, but I will often not ask them personally why this is the case.

How about for you? What are your strengths and weaknesses? What are the duties that God has called you to? What parts of that are you neglecting and what parts are you doing well?

I have a couple of suggestions for you as you think about this:

First of all you will need to remember that you are in a spiritual battle, and therefore you need to be spiritually prepared. You need the self-discipline to make sure that your lifestyle is fitting for someone who is a warrior. You need to keep spiritually strong. You need to keep spiritually focussed. We talked last week about not getting distracted by civilian affairs. You need to put that teaching into practice.

Secondly, you need to stop listening to your own voice or to other people’s voices that hold you back from being and doing what God has called you to be and do. Don’t give in to fear. Stand firm for what you believe in and are committed to.

What are some examples of this?

How are you exercising spiritual leadership in your home? It’s not as though you need to be the one who drives every “spiritual” activity, but are you taking the initiative to have healthy disciplines in your home? Do you show an eagerness to discuss spiritual matters? Do you pray with your family?

How are you using the spiritual gifts that God has given you? Are you confident in the area of service that God has called you to? How are you growing in skill in your service?

What happens when your sporting club or social circle schedules activities on Sunday mornings? Do you tell them that you are unavailable at those times, or do you stay silent? Do you act embarrassed of church, or do people sense that you are deeply committed to your faith and your church family? I am certainly not saying that we should not be flexible so we are free to listen to the leading of the Holy Spirit, but have we gone past flexible so that pretty much anything qualifies as a reason to miss church? Do you see our Sunday services as essential team training for the battle that we are in?

Do not wimp out of the Christian life. Do not wimp out of the role that God has called you to play in this church family. We need you. The next generation of Christians needs a healthy church to inherit. This community needs a healthy church to witness to it, even though it will always make it tough for you to stay committed.

Are you up to the challenge, men? There are plenty of reasons for you to opt out, or is this church going to be a church for real men?