The Point

Well today we are wrapping up our series in the life of Joseph and if you ask me this has just been an amazing eight weeks in our worship services, during the weekdays in small groups, and by the way we have to thank those who opened their homes, their offices, those who gathered here on campus or in coffee shops around the county, and especially those who led and facilitated all of these great conversations. Can we thank all those who made this a reality because again it's been something that's blessed so many of us?

If you were with us last weekend, René invited you to email him and share how God is working in your life. Since René asked me to read all his emails so he doesn't have to, I have some of that. I'm kidding, but I am gonna be sharing some of the emails he forwarded to me as we go through this message time. In fact, I want to begin with this one by Mary Barton. She belongs to a group in the Rodeo Gulch mobile home park and this is her experience. This is cool because you might identify with us on a number of levels. She says, "Since retiring a few years ago I've been looking for a new purpose. When this Joseph study was being started I got the idea of starting one in our park. I introduced myself to a neighbor, Susan Hughes, while walking one morning as I'd heard she attended TLC. Susan, people are talking about you; you're an attender at TLC. She had been thinking the same thing. Before our walk was over we had met up with two other neighbors and they jumped on the idea. I had only been thinking about doing it but it was obvious God was already at work so I stepped out in faith and said I would facilitate, not lead, facilitate, just keep that clear. We have all been blessed by the experience; new friendships have been formed and each week we go deeper in loving and trusting one another."

Well thank you, Mary, and that's wonderful that these ladies have found fellowship and love and friendship. We're just grateful to know that. You know, I think one of the reasons this series in the life of Joseph has been so meaningful for us is that even though he lived 3,700 years ago and his life was just different than ours on just about every level, we identify with him and we identify with the deep questions that his life surfaces. Like how do you survive all the complexities, chaos, and confusion of life? What do you do when people treat you unfairly, when they hurt, malign, or flat out just forget you? What do you do when you hit a dead end and how do you move forward from there?

Well, we're gonna be looking at some of those issues and themes. Along these lines, I read a story this week. I just want to read just a few snippets because it really kind of connects to what we've been seeing. In 1965, Admiral Jim Stockdale right here became the highest ranking prisoner in the most notorious POW camp in Vietnam. He was tortured brutally over 20 times during his stay there and he had no set release date, no certainty that he would ever be reunited with his family. But in 1973, he did get out. He was reunited with his family, he became a national hero, and a professor at Stanford University. In an interview, author Jim Collins asked him how did you deal with so much pain and uncertainty? His answer: "I never lost faith in the end of the story." Now that right there, that's the story of Joseph: never lose faith in the end of the story.

The point you see over and over again in Joseph's story is that pain is inevitable but misery is optional. That's hard. Life's uncertain; we're all gonna experience pain, but misery—that's something different; that's optional. And the difference comes down to one thing: my focus. What's your focus today? What's the thing that has just been occupying your mind, your heart over these past couple weeks, maybe months, maybe even years? Well, as we wrap up the series today, we're gonna see three things that Joseph focused on, and these are three things that kept him on course even though he had no idea where that course was leading him. Let that sink in for a moment. Joseph stayed on course even though he didn't know where God was going to take him; he only saw that retrospectively after he had already arrived.

Now how did that happen? Well, clearly God was working behind the scenes providentially, but as for Joseph, again he focused on some simple things that made a massive difference. When it comes to focus, it really cuts both ways. For example, if you spend all your time simply focusing on questions like why did this happen, why did God allow this, why me, why now, why, why, why, well you may never get the answer to that question, and even if you do, it's not going to change your circumstances at all. But what it might do is invite further misery into your life as you become consumed by why. You see, you can't always change the facts, but you can always choose your focus.

Joseph stayed focused on, first of all, a simple mission: to serve well. That's the first thing he focused on: serve well. I mean, how did Joseph consistently bloom wherever he was planted? He was faithful to the tasks at hand; he served well under Potiphar and then the prison warden and ultimately under Pharaoh. He worked for their good even though he had very little in common with any of them. But when they prospered, so did he. In fact, Joseph served Potiphar so well it says in Genesis 39:4 that Potiphar put Joseph in charge of his household and entrusted to his care everything he owned. That's a lot of trust. And then it says, and by the way, that was going well for a while, wasn't it? Until after repeatedly refusing Mrs. Potiphar's advances, she turns on him and she says to her husband, "This Hebrew slave of yours, who you think so highly of, he tried to make sport of me." There's a big turn in his life.

By the way, have you ever wondered why Potiphar didn't just kill Joseph right there and then? I mean, clearly he could have done so without consequence. This guy is the captain of Pharaoh's guard, perhaps the very same guy who presided over the brutal execution of the chief baker who burned Pharaoh's toast one day. Yet when his own wife levies a very serious accusation, it's not like Potiphar says, "Well, you know, you're making this stuff up." No, he doesn't do that. But at the same time, he doesn't exactly mete out the level of punishment on Joseph that he clearly could have. I think that has to do with the fact that he had already established a track record; his character was already established in the eyes of Potiphar.

So Potiphar sends him to prison, where it says before long the warden put Joseph in charge of all the other prisoners and over everything that happened in the prison. How much confidence do you have to have in an inmate that you hand him the keys to the prison? And that's what the warden does. I mean, it's amazing: new environment, same Joseph. And then several years later, when God empowers Joseph to interpret Pharaoh's dream and then he comes up, like on the spot, with his comprehensive famine relief plan, what's Pharaoh's response? Well, Genesis 41:41 says Pharaoh said to Joseph, "I hereby put you in charge of the entire land of Egypt," which was the world superpower at the time. So this has got to be the biggest promotion in history. But Joseph just has a way of inspiring confidence and trust, and so Pharaoh hands him the keys to the kingdom.

Of course, the Lord was with Joseph through all this; the Lord is granting him favor in the eyes of Potiphar, in the prison warden, and Pharaoh. But at the same time, he's not a robot; he has freedom to behave and to choose what he will make his focus, doesn't he? And so you might say he's cooperating with God's blessing in his life, and it came out of simply focusing on this simple mission to serve well. I don't have a whole lot of agency, but I can serve well in the things that are right in front of me. Let me ask you, have you ever noticed that serving others is an antidote to self-pity? Now, because it shifts your focus away from yourself and away from the things that you probably can't change and onto the things that you actually can.

I think back of this last month and all of the things that have been going on under the banner of acts of kindness, like TLC volunteers who put together 200 gift bags for the faculty and staff at Watsonville High School recently. Here's a response of just one of those teachers. It says, "I am Debbie Mitchell, a teacher at Watsonville High School. This is my 46th year at Watsonville High." Wow, she's like, "Yeah, I know, huh?" And receiving the acts of kindness bag from TLC yesterday was one of the nicest things I've ever experienced. Wow, little kindness goes a long way, doesn't it?

There's a small group that meets at Indiana Rivera's home and they made it their goal to just collect a bunch of socks that they would give to an organization called Hope's Closet. There you are right there, hi Indiana! But Hope's Closet is an organization that provides basic necessities for children in low-income foster care or homeless situations. Another small group in our Morgan Hill-Gilroy area got together one evening for what they called a friends-giving meal, and then the next day they spent in Gilroy where they were giving food and clothing and other necessities to less fortunate people in that area. One of the couples that's in that group, Graham and Sarah Melville, they emailed this: "One of the best parts was just hanging out with folk who are in such difficult circumstances in general through just falling on tough economic times. It was a good weekend." I could cite so many more examples.

Here's just a couple: a thousand PJs collected, sorted, and delivered to Project Pajamas, which is an outreach for children that are in the family court system. Our own TLCS middle schoolers put together 120 toiletry bags to be given out to homeless people. Small groups that did electrical, paint, yard projects, garden projects, even fixing bikes at a foster home. It was just all these things going on; the list goes on. But first of all, let me just say God bless you for all of your service. And then also during that time you had stuff going on in your own life; you had hurts and worries and struggles, and yet you chose to focus on the needs of those around you.

You know, sometimes this is really significant because so often it's easy for us to get kind of hung up in questions like, "Oh God, what is your grand plan for my life? Can you just lay it all out for me right now?" And yet I think it's a much wiser, a much more productive question to simply ask, "Lord, how can I serve you today? What's a need right in front of my face?" And you attended to those types of needs day after day or with some consistency. And you know what's gonna happen? The Lord is gonna string that together into that purpose that you're longing to discover. But like they say, every journey just starts with the first step, right? Focus on God and just let him lead you from there.

It's like what the Apostle Peter says when he says, "Live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us." Ironically, what they were typically accusing the Christians of was being atheists because they wouldn't pay tribute to the pagan gods. And yet what Peter is saying is, look, we're not just meeting physical needs—that's good and great—but we're also serving God's plans to reach people spiritually, to persuade them, win them over through how we are serving them. Peter's saying, get this gang, some of those who once opposed us will eventually be celebrating with us when Jesus returns. Wow, that's the power of just simply serving well. It's a simple mission, but it can lead to eternal results.

The second thing Joseph focused on was his simple message: I can't, God can. I mean, Joseph was an exceptional person, but listen to me, if all we get out of this is Joseph's a great guy, be like Joseph, then René and I have failed because the star of the story is God, and Joseph's aware of that. And that's why he keeps deferring to, "No, this is not about me; this is about God and his power." It says in Genesis 39:2, "The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered in the house of his Egyptian master." And then later it says, "While Joseph was there in the prison, the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden." Joseph is well aware of this. In fact, this is how we know because when Pharaoh calls him into the palace and says, "Hey man, I hear you're the guy; you know how to interpret dreams, so come bring it on. I'm ready; let me see you do your stuff; dazzle me," what's Joseph's response? "I cannot do it, but God will." And after giving the interpretation, Joseph just keeps emphasizing over and again, "God has revealed to Pharaoh what he's about to do. God has shown Pharaoh what he's about to do. The matter has been firmly decided by God, and God will do it."

Now bear in mind it's been 13 years since Joseph shared his own dreams with his family, right? And it's been downhill ever since. How easy would it have been, how maybe even typical would it have been in that moment for Joseph to say, "Hey, let me tell you something, Pharaoh. I had some crazy dreams of my life and boy, look where that got me. I mean, it was terrible, so I think it's all cynical and bitter, and it's like you want your interpretation? Here you go: life stinks, the end. Thank you very much, drops the mic, he's out." I mean, instead of all of this, it's like, "It's not riding on me; I can't, God can." Remember what Jim Stockdale learned in the POW camp: never lose faith in the end of the story. When it comes to overcoming sin, suffering, and death, the story isn't over. Just a major theme throughout this book: the story is not over. Where I can't, God can. Where I'm weak, God is strong.

In fact, you may have noticed this; you may have experienced it in your own life. It's in the most desperate situations that we see the most evidence that God is at work. Anybody? Have you experienced this before where it's like the bottom has fallen out and yet somehow God is holding me? God's keeping me up because God meets us to the level of our need. I mean, just this last week we had a short-term team return from Jordan. Did you know that Jordan has an overall population of 10 million people? So it's a relatively small country, but roughly 3 million of those people are refugees—30% of the population in a country that's relatively not well-resourced—and they're primarily from Syria and Iraq and Yemen, all because of war. One of those refugees is this man right here; his name is Yusuf, which is ironically Joseph in Arabic. Yusuf is a doctor, and yet when he fled Iraq, he left all of that behind him. Imagine all those years of study, establishing his practice—all of that gone when he crosses the Jordanian border with nothing more than the shirt on his back and a little tote.

If you just were to hear that story, you might say, "Well, that's just one of those abject tragedies; we read about them all the time. So sad that someone's life just got, you know, squelched just like that." And yet if that was the narrative that someone suggested, they would be wrong because in Amman, Jordan, now Dr. Yusuf works in a number of clinics, part of a ministry that Twin Lakes Church supports. He receives just a small stipend; they don't have a big budget, and yet he makes a massive impact. You know, right now he has over 600 active patients, all of them are refugees, all of them receiving quality medical care for free because that's all they can afford. Here's Dr. Yusuf expressing his own perspective on this.

Being a refugee myself is helping me to understand that the things that I have been through, it's not unique for me. Every patient I'm treating here in the clinic is having the same needs, the same concerns, the same fear that I have been through. So I understand them; I can understand what they feel, and I can understand what their needs are. It is difficult for me in the beginning, but now I can help more my fellow refugees. I think it's a blessing. Isn't it amazing? It's a blessing, he says, a blessing. And yet in so many words he's saying, you know, I've learned things through my pain that they couldn't teach me in medical school. I can connect with people on a deeper level who need someone who can understand where they're coming from, and that's a blessing for him. And not only that, but he's also been given new dreams that God has given him. In fact, one of them just came true recently. Here's what he has to say.

Today, just today, we received our ultrasound device. So this was one of the steps that it was just a dream, and this dream came through today. It just radiates joy, doesn't he? And I would venture to say that Dr. Yusuf experiences more joy on a daily basis than most people who are living in much more comfortable circumstances because his life is all about that: I can't, but God can, and God is working through him in such a wonderful way. The Apostle Paul describes something similar to this, looking back on a very painful time and experience in his own life, and then he does not sugarcoat it at all in 2 Corinthians 1 when he says this: "We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought that we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die." That's how bad it was. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely on God who raises the dead. You know what? That's the gospel in a nutshell right there: I can't, but God can. Yeah, amen!

And in your life right now, let me ask you, where do you need to preach that simple message to yourself? Where is it in your life where you say, "I can't endure this; I can't manage this; I don't know if I have the strength to get through this, the wisdom, the will, the wherewithal. I can't, but God can." Can you make that your focus today? Is God bigger than that problem? Then I think God can deal with it. Keep your focus on him, his power, his grace, his provision because your story is not over.

That brings us to this third thing that Joseph stayed focused on, and it was his simple belief that God is always at work, even and most often when we can't see it. Joseph, if you recall, had a vision at 17, a literal dream that God had some kind of endgame. He didn't know what it was, but over the course of time, as he was able to kind of look back, he was able to grow in his understanding that God was always working behind the scenes for his good. Remember what he said to his brothers many years later, now with some perspective and ability to kind of see God working? He says, "And now do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. And if God sent me ahead of you, so that it was not you who sent me here but God, he made me a father to Pharaoh, Lord of his entire household, and ruler of all Egypt." Now he's like, who could imagine somebody writing this script? I just sense his heart just bursting in humility and gratitude when he says, "Now hurry back to my father and say to him, this is what your son Joseph says: God has made me Lord of all Egypt. You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives."

And listen, church, what God did back then he is still doing now. In fact, amen! In fact, I mean, this is an incredibly compelling story; it's one of the best hits of the Old Testament, it really is. But as compelling as it is, the supreme example of this is the cross, where what was intended for evil and harm and death, God intended for good. And in fact, God to this day is using it for the saving of many lives. And when God saves your life, you can get through anything. Amen to that!

So I just want to close with a final testimony from a woman in this church who talks about a painful thing in her own past, but listen to what God has done. Her name is Linda Felt, and she says, "After losing our first daughter, Angelica Rose, when I was pregnant full term and in a car accident 32 years ago, I have seen how God has caused good to come out of a very difficult circumstance. He has healed both my husband and I through having to walk through forgiveness of the person who hit my car. God has taken a difficult and questioning why God situation to be a powerful testimony of his love and forgiveness. God always uses our hard things for good and gives us the ability and empathy to speak and encourage others. If we allow him to do this, he will never waste anything in our life." That's her story; that's true. And no matter what's going on in your story, God is still working those things for his good as well. That's the promise we have.

And so what's that thing? What's the hurt, what's the wound, the stressor, the obstacle, the relationship that just seems so overwhelming, so massive, so out of your control? God's promised to use this familiar verse, but hear it anew today: Romans 8:28 and we know that in all things God works for the good, the bad, the ugly—all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Church, that's you, and this applies to you even when you can't see it. It's happening right now.

And so as we close in prayer, I'm gonna invite you to do something that may feel a little uncomfortable; that's okay. I'm gonna invite you, as we pray, to just hold your hands out like this with your palms up. And what you're saying when you do this—and if you don't agree, you can put them back down—what you're saying is this: "God, I receive whatever you put into my hands, and I also keep my hands open, knowing that at times you may also remove things from them or allow them to be taken. But whether it's in the giving or the taking, I trust that you are good." And I want you to imagine that thing right now that I've been encouraging you to identify, just resting before God and saying, "Lord, here it is; here I am; I'm all yours."

So Lord, we come before you with open hands, and Lord, this is a sacred moment. This is how you call us to live; this is how you call us to be; this is where we find life and joy and hope. And so Lord, we just want to affirm your goodness and your love and the way that you're working that's so far beyond what we can even begin to piece together. But Lord, I do pray that as we look back, we would be able to see your fingerprints in the events of our lives; we could see the movement of your hand to the extent that we need to so that we might remain encouraged. And so with all these things in mind, Lord, I pray that you would bless and keep your people because I pray these things in the name of our matchless Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. All God's people said, amen. Amen. God bless you.