The Embrace

You'll get through this. Say that out loud with me. You'll get through this. Do you believe it? All right, that's the name of our series in the life of Joseph. Not Joseph and Mary that you hear about at Christmas time, Joseph. This is the Joseph who lived long before that Joseph, for almost 2,000 years before that Joseph. In fact, this Joseph, whose story is told in the book of Genesis, this is one of the oldest stories that people still tell to each other. And that's because, first of all, it's just a great story. And second, because it deals with this universal question in times of despair and questions and unfulfilled dreams. How do you keep your hope alive? Every human being, I think, at one time or another, all throughout history has asked themselves this question. And what I love about this part of the Bible is that the answer is kind of buried inside of a story. And so it's particularly captivating.

Good morning, my name is René, one of the pastors here. I want to invite you to grab your message notes that look like this. If you're with us for the very first time, we are so glad you're here. Every single service now, I'm meeting one new person after another. I was over in loft coffee this morning. Just met one new first-time visitor after another. So welcome. We always give you this very simple handout. The sermon message notes on one side. And then what you need to know about some of the stuff coming up, the Twin Lakes Church and the links for you to get connected there on the other side. And that'll help you follow along.

Now, next weekend, I want to alert you, that's our series wrap-up. So send group photos, kindness project stories, any insights that you've had as the series has gone on to me at René@tlc.org because we'd love to share your story. We have a ton of community groups studying this material in small groups all around the county and they're all doing projects like collecting socks for the homeless warming project or food for our big massive food drive. So let me know what you're doing and learning. Send me pics. Let's spur one another on to love and good deeds. It's going to be a great weekend.

So this past week, I read about a fascinating Italian artist named Julia Bernard-Delly. And here's her story. One day, she's drawing. It's morning and so she's drinking coffee and she reaches for a pencil and she spills her coffee all over her drawing paper. And she's about to just clean it all up when something occurs to her and she takes her finger and starts dabbling in the spill and turns it into a portrait of the singer Amy Winehouse. And that moment changed her whole life. Her unique specialty has become turning just random coffee spills into masterpieces. And she now actually travels the world and does this sponsored, of course, by, what do you think, coffee companies. Hey, maybe we can get her a loft.

And when I saw this, I thought, you know, this is exactly what God does, doesn't he? He turns our spills into masterpieces. And one of the best examples of that in the entire Bible is, of course, the story of Joseph, which we've been in now for seven weeks with the wrap-up coming next weekend. And just as a recap, if you're joining us for the first time previously on the life of Joseph, we've seen that he was thrown into a pit by his own brothers, sold into slavery by them, falsely accused, forgotten in prison in Egypt until he eventually climbs the ladder. He's brought into Pharaoh's service. He has made second in charge over all of Egypt. He starts the very first food bank in the world. And then those wicked brothers of his come begging for food. The very brothers who had beaten him and left him for dead two decades before, they don't recognize him in his new Egyptian identity. And so he is able to test them anonymously until he finally sees true evidence of change. He sees something in them that lets them know they've changed. Their character is now different. And that moment when the penny drops for him is where we left him last weekend.

And so let's pick up the story in Genesis 45. Now remember, his brothers still do not know who he is. When he yells in verse 3, "I am Joseph." And he has only been speaking to them in Egyptian through an interpreter. They've never heard him speak their Canaanite language, some kind of pre-Hebrew type dialect. And so it probably would have sounded something like this. "Ani yos efei." And of course they're like, "What is this Egyptian talking about?" "Is my father still alive?" He's going into conversation. But his brothers were speechless. They were sta—their jaws just kung, right? They're stunned to realize that Joseph was standing there in front of them. I bet they were.

You know, I love Gustave Duret. He was in the 18th century. He was a French engraver. And he had a great—he did the whole Bible in engravings. And I love this picture of that moment. There's Joseph, there's his brothers. And if you zoom in and look more closely at his brothers, you can see they're not really sure this is good news, right? They're like, "Oh no, please don't kill us." You know, he's trying to reassure him. So he says, "Please come closer." And they came closer. And he said again, "I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into slavery." In Egypt, it's funny to me how he feels he needs to jog their memories, right? "But don't be upset and don't be angry with yourselves for selling me to this place. It was God who sent me here ahead of you to preserve your lives. This famine that has ravaged the land for two years is going to last five more years and there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. But God has sent me ahead of you to keep you and your families alive at a preserve, many survivors. So it was God who sent me here, not you. And he is the one who may be an advisor to Pharaoh, the manager of his entire palace and the governor of all Egypt.

Now, hurry back to my father and tell him, "This is what your son Joseph says." First of all, I'm still alive. And secondly, God has made me master over all the land of Egypt. So come down to me immediately, verse 14, "Then Joseph threw his arms around his brother, Benjamin, and wept and Benjamin wept as they embraced. Joseph kissed each of his brothers as he wept over them." And afterward, his brothers talked with him. That just kind of cracks me up because that must have been a little bit of an awkward conversation, right? You know, so how is slavery? You know, I don't know what they talked about. But in what Joseph said, I don't know if you picked up a concept he repeats about four or five times. It's the first core belief that you and I really need to plug into. If we have this core belief, we are going to be equipped to get through the toughest times in life. So jot this down in your notes.

Number one, God works invisibly. Say that out loud with me. God works invisibly. And by that, I don't mean you never ever see him work. I mean, he even works when you don't see any evidence of him. He's always at work, even when you don't see it. I don't know if you noticed what I was talking about. Joseph says it was God who sent me. God sent me ahead of you. It was God who sent me here. God has made me master and so on. Now think about this for a second. Is he right? Because what was the evidence? Think back over the last seven weeks. Did you see God in the story? What did you see? Because all I saw were treacherous brothers and slave masters and forgetful inmates and famine. I didn't see manna from heaven. I didn't see prison bars opening. I didn't see angels appearing. I didn't see God at all. But looking back, Joseph realizes, I see how it all worked out. God was at play the whole time.

Have you ever experienced this in your own life? Where something at the time, I got fired. We broke up. I lost money. I lost a job. Something has happened in your life that was like the worst day of your life. But looking back, you go, wow, I see God's hand happening the whole time. Anybody here ever have something like that in your lives? Raise your hand if you have. Just raise your hand. And could you please keep your hands up? Go ahead and raise your hand if that's true in your life. Keep your hands up. Now, keep your hands up. If you are going through time of trouble right now, look around. Keep your hands up. Look around. These are testimonies. And I want to tell you something. One year, you are going to be raising your hand. And you are going to be thinking about the trouble you're in now. Thank you. You can put your hands down. That's because I can trust that God is at work even when I cannot see Him. Even when I cannot see Him. This is very important.

And think of this. Seeing His past, all the trials in His past the way Joseph does, this was a choice that Joseph made, right? He could have looked at all of these events and said, well, I only see bad luck or good luck. I see bad luck, good luck, bad luck, bad luck, good luck, bad luck, good luck. My life's been like this crazy roller coaster. But instead, he goes, God, God, God, God, God. And somebody else could have looked at the very same evidence and said, where was God? But Joseph sees God right there. And you have the same exact choice. Ever heard the phrase, God moves in mysterious ways? Raise your hand if you've ever heard this phrase. Right? We've all heard it, right? It's to the point where you just, it's like, what a cliche, right? What a bromide. Do you know the backstory of this phrase? It's fascinating. A guy named William Cowper wrote it. It's part of a poem he wrote. He lived in England of the 1700s.

And by the way, you know how every fashion trend tends to come back, right? Like all the clothes I wore when I was 10 are now like the hippest clothes in the universe. When do we get the powdered wigs? That's what I want to know. Because I kind of want them, you know? Just no more bad hair days. You just pop it on. It's like a hat, only its hair. Anyway, William Cowper. Intense life, afflicted with mental illness, severe depression. He tries to commit suicide not one time, not two times, but three times. Finally, against his will, he's sent to an insane asylum for a number of years. And it's there that he becomes a devoted follower of Jesus. And after being released, he becomes a close friend of John Newton, the man who wrote the hymn "Amazing Grace." And like him, Cowper also becomes an ardent abolitionist and writes a number of anti-slavery poems, including one often quoted 200 years later by Martin Luther King, Jr. during the American Civil Rights Movement.

Well, Cowper continues to have bouts of depression, often on, mostly on, his whole life. But he felt like that weakness was the very thing that God used to give his life purpose. After all, it was in the asylum that he became a Christian, and that changed its whole life around in terms of a sense of purpose. And he felt like his forced years of institutionalization gave him such empathy for enslaved people. So with that as the context for his poem, listen to these words. "God moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps on the sea, and he rides upon the storm. Judge not the Lord by feeble sense. Trust him for his grace. Behind a frowning providence, he hides a smiling face. His purposes will ripen, fast, unfolding every hour. The bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower." He's talking about his own mental illness and saying, you know, "I'm still struggling with it, but I see even this as a tool that God is using in my life." Puts it a little bit differently, doesn't it? God is working in his life invisibly, but certainly.

So back to the story Joseph tells his brothers, "Go get dad. Get the wives, the kids, the dogs. Move here to Egypt." He says, "I'm going to take care of every need." And so they bring everyone back, and he lavishes property and provision and protection on them. Chapter 48, verse 1, "One day, not long after this, word came to Joseph, 'Your father is failing rapidly.'" And so Joseph went to visit his father, and he took with him his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim. And when Joseph arrived Jacob, that's Joseph's dad, was told, "Your son Joseph has come to see you." And so Jacob gathered his strength and sat up in his bed. And I picture him coughing, propped up on one arm on his bed, and Joseph leaning in to put his ear by his father's trembling lips as he kind of wheezes out one last secret that he's apparently never told anyone before.

Jacob said to Joseph, "God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me. He said to me, 'I will make you fruitful and I will multiply your descendants, and I will make you a multitude of nations, and I will give this land of Canaan to your descendants after you as an everlasting possession.'" And that little paragraph, I see kind of the second core belief that helps people get through anything. And it's this, "God works inevitably." God works in — say that out loud with me — God works inevitably. That means nothing can stop Him. Did you notice in that vision four times God says the two-word phrase, "I will"? "I will," "I will," "I will," "I will." "I am going to make this happen." And it did. We know they were there in Egypt for over 400 years. They grew to 2 million people over there. However, the Bible says, "A new Pharaoh who knew not Joseph came and he made their descendants slaves for 400 years. Yet even then God was at work."

Because during that time God did make them into a nation from whom the prophets would come and the Bible would come and the Messiah would come from whom the whole world would be blessed. Think of the ways we've all been blessed by the Jewish people. And think of all the billions of people whose souls have been saved through faith in Jesus Christ, who was one of their descendants. I mean, God was using all that mess to save not just the dozens of members of Joseph's family, but the billions of people who were to come despite those 400 years of slavery because God works inevitably. Now before we go to point three, I just want to explore a couple of implications of this. One is this. The pressure is off to figure out God's will because God works inevitably.

Sometimes people think, and I've been there myself, "I have to figure out God's purpose for my life." And I see two inflection points in our lifespans when this really, really obsesses us when you're launching in your 20s and when you're about to retire. And that's when you want to know, "What is God's will for my life? What is His purpose for me?" And that's totally understandable. The fallacy is when we think, "If I can't figure it out, it's not going to happen." Joseph had no idea what God was doing. No clue where he fit into God's plan. God did it anyway because God's will is inevitable. Now, if that's true, then the next obvious implication is then do my actions make any difference at all if it's all just faded?

Well, I think of it like this. Let's say that we are all passengers on a giant ocean liner. Now, let me ask you a question. Who is in charge of that ship and its destination? Who is it? The captain, obviously, of the boat. Now, does that mean your choices on board don't matter? Years ago, Lori and I were asked to be the speakers on a cruise on a ship just like this to Cabo and Mazatlán and Puerto Vallarta. They called us up and said, "You know, you can go for absolutely free if you just agree to do some teaching every night." So I said, "Well, let me pray about it." "Hey!" You know, it was like clearly this was God's will. And we had a great time. What an amazing blessing.

Well, next to our cabin one night, we hear crashing and yelling at a crew member knocks on our door, "Please remain at your cabin until further notice." Next thing we know, we hear a wench outside our window, "Aaaah!" And the couple who had been next to us, while they're yelling the entire time, "Aaaah!" They are being lowered down into a waiting Mexican police boat. It turns out they've been very belligerent throughout the cruise and had apparently picked one fight too many. Now since then, Paul and Robin Spurlock have repented, but still... My point is, your choices on board matter. Your choices can ruin the trip for you. Your choices can improve the trip for you and for other people. Your choices matter. They change the whole quality of your experience for you and for other people.

And also, that captain is going to get that cruise exactly when and where it needs to go. God controls my destiny. I just fulfill my responsibility. Joseph was faithful to his responsibilities every single time. And listen, listen closely to this. Your attitude and your actions are all you can really control anyway, right? That's the only thing that you've got control over, your attitude and your actions. So choose to live with godly character, loving, gentle, faithful, self-controlled, generous to the poor. Jesus said this, didn't he? Don't worry about tomorrow. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these other things will be added unto you.

But there's one final plot twist in Joseph's story. Dad dies and the older brothers freak out. Chapter 50 verse 15. But now that their father was dead, Joseph's brothers became fearful. Now Joseph will show his anger and pay us back for all the wrong we did to him. And so they sent this message to Joseph and they're completely making this up. Where your father died, he instructed us to say to you, please forgive your brothers for the great wrong they did to you. Yeah, for their sin and treating you so cruel. They thought like maybe if he thinks dad said this, that he won't kill us. So we the servants of the God of your father beg you to forgive our sin. And would Joseph receive this message? He broke down and wept. Why? He's not mad. He's just sad. He realizes they still don't get it.

They're forgiven and they're loved after he's provided for all their needs. Just lavished his grace upon them. Does this ring a bell? It's like when believers come to God and they grovel. Please forgive me. I'm sorry. I'm so stupid. Stupid, stupid. He says, but my child, I've already forgiven you on the cross. And I've lavished my grace on you this whole time, unconditionally. Well then his brothers came and threw themselves down before Joseph. Look where your slaves. But Joseph replied, don't be afraid of me. Am I God that I can punish you? And then the next thing Joseph says is one of the all time great verses in the Bible. Are you ready for this? Genesis 50:20, you intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then don't be afraid.

I want you to look at just two words here in this verse. The first is the word intended. I was really fascinated this week when I was studying this to learn that the verb he uses therefore intended is a Hebrew word that traces its origin to the word weave, as in weaving a carpet or a tapestry. And to me it's kind of a subtle callback to that code of many colors. Woven together out of different textures and different dyed material. I love the way Max Lucado analyzes this word choice. You wove evil, Joseph was saying, but God rewove it together for good. God, the master weaver stretches the yarn and intertwines the colors. And as he does, a design emerges. Nothing in this story glosses over the presence of evil. Blood stains, tear stains are everywhere. And time and again God redeemed the pain. And that's the third core belief that I really need if I'm going to get through anything. Trust that God works redemptively. God works redemptively. He brings good from bad.

Now I want you to focus on a couple of other words in that last verse. The words, but God, if you miss anything else I say this morning, don't miss those two words. In fact, say those two words with me out loud. But God, say them again. But God, I'm going to ask you to say those again a couple more times as we close your author. Lisa Terkhurst says, we often get stopped by a single two-word phrase, but I, but I fail, but I'm too old, but I'm too young, but I'm from a dysfunctional family, but I'm uneducated, but I have anxiety, but I have a disability, but I'm qualified, but I can't. We all feel that sometimes. That's why I love the two-word phrase Joseph uses because his brothers are butt-eyeing themselves. But I'm so bad, but I'm sinner, but I feel so guilty, but I feel so ashamed, but I am afraid. But God intended it for good.

Joseph doesn't say, no, no, no, you didn't do anything wrong. He said, yes, yes, the butt-eye, that's all true, but God changed. Earl Palmer says, these two words summarize the whole message of scripture, the heart of the gospel. We disobeyed, but God. We sinned, but God. We rebelled, but God. We wandered away, but God. And listen, that means no matter what you're facing today, no matter if you brought it on yourself, no matter what obstacles seem overwhelming to you, hear the good news for you, it seems bad now, but God. Say that with me out loud, but God. That means you can trust God is working even when it seems evil is winning. Amen?

Three weeks ago, I climbed the steps to the crisis pregnancy center across the street from Dominican Hospital here in Santa Cruz, and I'm going there to meet with her director, Tana McGinnis, and we were there to meet about something else entirely when I think God prompted her to say, just out of the blue, you know, my life is really an example of Genesis 50:20, the verse that we're studying right now in this point. Now what makes this unusual is Tana doesn't attend TLC. She goes to another great local church, so she doesn't know that we've been going through the life of Joseph. Out of the blue, she goes, because I'm just asking her, you know, where she grew up or whatever, she goes, man, my life is a great example of Genesis 50:20. So as a pastor always looking for a good illustration, I'm like, tell me more.

And she tells me her story. She grew up in a wealthy family as in multimillionaire wealthy, but she was molested at 13 by a relative. She starts drinking and using, runs away from home at 13, and she's put into foster care. And in those days, foster care was a little bit different. The very first home she's put into is literally a cult, a religious cult up in Boulder Creek. And then she's put into a mental facility in the Central Valley for a year. And much of that time is in what they call the seclusion room. That's the room with padded walls. Well, this does not help her. She gets out, she starts stealing cars. As a teenager, she's convicted of grand theft auto. So all this has gone wrong by the time she's 17 and she's suicidal. And she hears about Jesus. And she accepts Jesus. And nothing changes.

She says, now I believe in Jesus, but I wasn't going to church and nobody was really discipling me, so I was still drinking and using and all the rest of that stuff. She meets her boyfriend, Darren, and they have a little relationship. And right after they break up, Tana discovers she is pregnant at 17 and unmarried. She moves back home. Her mom and grandma want her to have an abortion. Now Tana suspects that part of the pressure came from the fact that she and Darren were an interracial couple. And there was some, possibly some prejudice involved there. But Tana wants to have the baby. And so she leaves home again and she wanders into a crisis pregnancy center and she gets support. And her ex, Darren, reaches out to her and they commit to raising that baby together. And then comes a second crisis pregnancy.

And it's finally at that point that they start going to church, start getting sober. And in 2000, Tana starts volunteering here at our pregnancy resource center as a counselor and now a director. And listen to her quote. She says, "All those horrible things that happened, I never would have my ministry without them. Because of them, I can understand and have compassion and hope for our clients because we see them at a moment in their lives that's low. But God sees their potential so I can believe for them. I get it. Everybody thought I was a loser, but God saw what I would become. We know God has them from beginning to end. And so we can serve with love and compassion." Isn't that a beautiful story? And I love the way God has worked through her. I love what they're doing at the pregnancy resource center.

You know, I love their motto. They say, "We are pro-family, pro-woman, and for life in all of its stages." And they assist in such practical, practical ways. But it goes even further than that. So Tana and Darren get married and they buy years and years later, they buy their first home. It's up in Boulder Creek. And she says, "I'm walking down the street one day and I realize we are right down the street from the cult." That was my first foster home. It's no longer there. Somebody bought the property. And she says this, "I feel like God is even redeeming my memory of Boulder Creek for me." You see, that is how God works. You see why she told me now that her story was a great example of Genesis 50:20? She meant it for evil for a while for herself. But God used that, rewove it into something good, the saving of many lives.

So in your own self-talk, learn to replace "but I" with "but God." Say that with me out loud again, "but God." And as we move into communion to close the service today, I want you to think of this. Listen, think of how the cross is the ultimate example of this, right? I mean, at the crucifixion it seemed always lost. Jesus is dead. The disciples scram. The movement is done as Acts 10:40 says, "They killed him by hanging him on a cross." Say it out loud with me, "But God raised him from the dead." You know, one of my favorite examples of Julia Bernardelli's coffee spill masterpieces is one she did of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, God reaching to Adam. Because that's just what God did through Christ on the cross, right? To all of us fallen, Adams and Eves. I was lost, but God reached out to touch us with his life forever through Jesus Christ, Christ on the cross. And we give thanks for that during communion, the ultimate "but God" moment.

Let's pray together. Would you bow your heads with me? Lord, as we come to communion now, we remember the world is a mess. I am a sinner. But God sent his one and only son. But God is still at work right now, invisibly, inevitably, redemptively. And with our heads still bowed, I would just love to talk to you right now, just with everybody's head bowed, everybody's eye closed, would you like to receive Jesus as your Savior? Maybe you've never done this before. That simply means to believe in him as the Savior sent by God to touch us with his love and save us through his sacrifice. You can pray something like this if you'd just like to settle it right now. Make this kind of your first communion. "Father, I find I want to live right, but I, but I am fallen, but I am a sinner, but I am too weak." And now I realize the whole gospel is but God, but you sent your son to redeem me, to release me, and to touch me with life. And so I receive that now through Christ. I don't understand it, but I put my trust in you. Amen.