Week 28 BELIEVE: faithfulness
November 12, 2017
RUMC
Our reading today was just the climax
of the Joseph story… Rather than read all 13 chapters, let me tell you a story
and you watch for examples of faithfulness.
Joseph was Abraham’s great grandson. There was
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and then Joseph.
Joseph was Jacob’s favorite son because
he was the “son of his old age,” and he didn’t try to hide it. His favor is
symbolized the beautiful coat of many colors he gave Joseph as a special gift.
His 12 brothers were understandably jealous.
One day, while they were out in the
fields, the brothers cooked up this scheme of throwing Joseph into a pit and
telling their father that he had been killed by a wild animal. When some
Midianite traders came by, they saw an opportunity to sell their brother as a
slave instead of killing him. Joseph was taken to Egypt and sold to a high
official’s household.
While he was in Egypt his master saw,
“that the Lord was with him” and he went from being a mere slave to a trusted
part of the household. It wasn’t long though before Joseph found himself in
prison, for something he didn’t do.
Joseph became known as an interpreter
of dreams. Pharaoh had a dream that no one could interpret but Joseph. The
dream predicted 7 years of bumper crops followed by 7 years of famine. Joseph
then proposed to Pharaoh that 20% of the food that was produced for the next 7
years (the good years) be stored for use during the 7 years of drought.
Pharaoh was so impressed, that he
appointed Joseph himself to the position of governor to carry out the plan. Joseph
went from prison to Governor, 2nd in command only to Pharaoh himself.
When the 7 years of famine came, Egypt
was in a good position not only to feed its people, but also to sell grain for
others who came to Egypt looking for help.
Joseph’s brothers were among the
refugees searching for food because Canaan suffered a terrible drought. As
“LUCK” would have it, Joseph himself was selling the grain. However, it had
been so long that they didn’t recognize their own brother.
Joseph recognized them but didn’t let
on. He treated them like strangers and even accusing them of being spies. He
insisted that they prove who they were by bringing their youngest brother
Benjamin to Egypt. It took a lot of convincing, and the prospect of his whole
family starving to death, to get Jacob to send Benjamin back with them.
Finally, the brothers returned to Egypt, this time with Benjamin along.
Joseph was not done playing tricks. He
gave them grain, but slipped one of his silver cups in the top of a sack. Then
he accused them of stealing and had them arrested and brought back. While being
questioned, they told the whole story of their family. Joseph couldn’t stand it
any longer. (This is where our passage picks up today) He revealed his identity
to them, they are amazed, and there is that great tearful reunion.
Pharaoh insisted that the whole family
come to Egypt where they lived happily, until the Egyptians made them slaves.
(But that is another story)
You can find all of that and a lot more
in Genesis 37-50. I recommend it because it is really a great story, but more
importantly, there is a great lesson in it for us.
The lesson is about faithfulness. Faithfulness
is stick-to-itiveness. Sticking with it no matter what.
Did you notice God’s faithful
stick-to-itiveness to Joseph? God stuck to his promise to make Israel a great
nation.
• God’s
stick-to-itiveness in spite of Jacob’s favoritism...
• God’s
stick-to-itiveness in spite of the brother’s plan to get rid of Joseph…
• God’s
stick-to-itiveness in spite of the false accusation and imprisonment…
• God’s
stick-to-itiveness in spite of the famine in the land…
• God’s
stick-to-itiveness to care for the nation of Israel no matter what… That is
faithfulness.
Throughout the Bible, throughout
history and, day by day in our lives it seems like whenever things start to
look hopeless, suddenly we see how God has been working behind the scenes all
along. God had stick-to-itiveness for the people of Israel no matter how many
times they betrayed him because when God is a faithful God. God’s
stick-to-itiveness to us is just as strong, because God’s love is a faithful
love.
When I look at my life when it seemed
things were going wrong.
• God’s
stick-to-itiveness provides an alternative plan.
• God’s
stick-to-itiveness finds a way to provide hope.
• God’s
stick-to-itiveness makes a way for things to turn out to be better than I ever
dreamed.
• God’s
stick-to-itiveness finds a way to bring something good out of something bad.
God’s stick-to-itiveness in action is
what we call faithfulness.
Turn to Galatians 5:22 (p 191)
<<<someone start reading>>> “By contrast, the fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness…” STOP
right there. “Faithfulness.” The fruit of the spirit is “faithfulness.” We have
been talking about God’s faithfulness as stick-to-itiveness. We are called to
be faithful too, as we become more and more like Jesus we are to grow in our
stick-to-itiveness to God.
So what does faithfulness mean in our
lives? We might think of the faithfulness of a good dog. What is faithful about
a dog? He sticks with you no matter what.
Or we might think about the faithful
husband or wife. What is a faithfulness in marriage? When one spouse sticks by
the other spouse NO MATTER WHAT.
So, as we consider the fruit of the
spirit, faithfulness as our call to stick by God NO MATTER WHAT.
It means we stick with God in good
times and in bad. We stick with God in easy times and in hard times. It means
we have stick-to-itiveness in our faith.
Joseph had stick-to-itiveness or
faithfulness in his relationship with God. He stuck with God in the pit. He
stuck with God in the palace. He stuck with God in the prison. And Joseph stuck
with God when he rose to power. Joseph stuck with God, no matter what.
I think our faithfulness or
stick-to-itiveness has several dimensions.
•
Being faithful to God means trusting God, no matter what. Trusting God no
matter where we are. Just because we don’t see God, from the bottom of our pit…
just because we don’t see God from our hospital bed… just because we don’t see
God from the darkness of our depression… doesn’t mean God is not there. Being a
faithful disciple means our faith has stick-to-itiveness no matter what. We have
faith in God and praise God, whether we see God or not. We have faith in God
and praise God in all circumstances.
After all that happened, Joseph’s final
words in the book of Genesis are, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it
for good.” (Genesis 50:19-20). Looking back on his life, Joseph could see God’s
faithfulness at work, and he doesn’t regret sticking with God.
Turn to Isaiah 41:10 to read a promise on
which we can stand. <<<>>> God says, “So do not fear, for I
am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and
help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Being faithful to
God means trusting God, no matter what.
•
Second, being faithful means obeying God no matter what. We have an advantage
over Joseph. The Bible is very clear about what we are supposed to do. We can
read it in the commandments; we can study Jesus’ teachings. We know in our
hearts that God wants us to treat others with love, and respect, and grace, and
forgiveness; and being faithful means doing all of that no matter what. Joseph
had many opportunities to be dishonest, to become bitter, to refuse to forgive,
to take revenge, to sin and he refused every one of them. Joseph was faithful
to God by obeying all God wanted him to do no matter what. We are faithful by
obeying God no matter what.
Turn to John 14:21 to read a promise on which
we can stand <<<>>> “Whoever has my commands and keeps them
is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I
too will love them and show myself to them.” Being faithful means obeying God
no matter what.
•
Third, being faithful to God means sharing our gift and abilities freely. God
Gave Joseph many gifts, not the least of which was interpreting dreams. Maybe,
like me, you aren’t much for interpreting dreams, but you can do something.
Teach, visit, offer a ride, bake, greet, invite a neighbor to church, cook on
Wednesday night, teach Bible school, read to a child, donate to Christmas in
Grundy, volunteer for Christmas in Grundy… the list of possibilities is endless
because God has given each of us gifts we haven’t even opened yet.
What are your strengths? What are your
passions? What makes your heart sing, or your blood boil? Your skills,
abilities, and passions are God’s gifts to you. Open them. Take a chance. Be
generous with your time, your energy, your knowledge, your abilities, and your
passions. Every person in ministry means that … in some way
• big
or small
• inside
or outside the church
…everyone is making a difference for
Jesus. That is what we mean by “every person in ministry.” And that is what it
means to be faithful.
Turn to 1 Peter 4:10 to see a command we
should follow <<<>>> I’m going to read from the New
international version, because it actually uses the word faithful, but it means
the same thing in your Bible. “Each of you should use whatever gift you have
received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various
forms.” Being faithful means being generous with our gifts, no matter what.
•
Finally, being faithfulness means being a generous steward. Joseph was a
careful steward of what he had. Take, for instance the food he stored for Egypt
during those 7 plentiful years. Getting people to give 20% is not that easy.
Saving is not that easy. But he did it.
Then when the lean years came, he was
generous with all who had need. God has given us much. We might not feel like
we have much, but if we are honest, most of us have at least a little more than
enough. Be faithful caring for what God has given you and be generous. Next
week we will have an opportunity to show our faithfulness to God by promising
to support the ministries of the church in 2018. Prayerfully consider what
faithful, generous giving means to you and your family and be ready to offer
your estimate of giving whatever it might be. Being faithful means being good
stewards and generous givers.
Turn to Matthew chapter 25 starting in the
14th verse. You will recognize this as the parable of the talents.
<<<>>>You probably remember that one servant was given 5
talents, one two talents and the other 1 talent. They were told to take care of
them until the master returned.
The first two servants, the ones with 5
and 2 talents, invested them and returned to the master the talents and the
interest. The master’s response? Check out verse 21. “Well done, good and
faithful servants.” You might think that is because they doubled his money, but
that is not it. Let’s read about the other steward.
The steward with one talent buried it and
returned all of it to the master and he was condemned. He wasn’t condemned for
what he did. …Look at verse 26. He was called a ‘wicked and slothful servant.”
Notice, it isn’t because he did wrong. He buried it and returned every penny to
his master. He is condemned because he did nothing. He played it safe.
Faithfulness is not playing it safe. It is not conserving what we have.
Faithfulness is taking a risk, using what we have for something even greater.
That is how we experience the fullness of our faith which we call faithfulness.
•
Trusting God even when it is hard.
• Obeying
God even if it is risky.
• Stepping
out to use our gifts in ministry even if we are not sure of ourselves.
• Taking
a risk to be generous with what we have.
That is stick-to-itiveness or
faithfulness.
As a church… as individuals we are not
called to be successful as the world measures success. We are not called to be
a mega church. I am not called to be another John Wesley. You are not called to
be something you are not. We are all merely invited to be faithful.
Faithfulness is not a requirement, a
prerequisite, or a condition of our salvation. Rather faithfulness is the only
way we have to adequately love the God who is abundantly faithful to us. May
you choose to be faithful, not because you have to … but because you love God
so much that there is no other way to say thank you.
May you one day hear those precious
words, well done, good and faithful servant, well done.
AMEN
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