Sermon Notes, September 11, 2016
Rev.
Garry McGlinchy
Pastor
Garry’s sermon Sunday was titled “Life in the Hands of the Potter: Joseph,” and
was based on Genesis 37:1-11 and Genesis 45:3-11. In the first passage, where Joseph tells his
dreams, we see that he is arrogant and over-confident. Being Jacob’s favorite son and knowing God’s
design for His life fueled his self-assurance, and as you might imagine, this
did not sit well with his brothers.
Jacob should have seen what was coming in this dysfunctional family. His
brothers hated him, and began to plot and conspire against him. They beat him
up, threw him in a hole, and sold him into slavery. However the pain that he endured teamed with
his self-assurance and knowledge of God allowed him to prosper where most would
have failed. Along the way Jacob added a
quiet wisdom to his confidence and won the hearts of everyone he met. Two things we can learn from Joseph: first,
God uses our suffering to develop strong character and deep wisdom; second, God
uses any situation for His glory.
God
uses our suffering to develop strong character and deep wisdom. It is not uncommon from brothers and sisters
to fight. But how many of you have
irritated your family so much that they sold you into slavery?! Even though Joseph’s brothers went to the
extreme to get rid of their brother, their actions were unjust and unfair. However, God used Joseph’s hardships to mold
him, to shape him, into more than he ever thought possible. God used this hardship, along with a few
others, to readjust his self-assurance into a confidence that was centered in
his knowledge and understanding in God.
God
uses any situation for His glory.
The great thing about this story is that
not only do we see Joseph grow into a godly man, but that through it all
Joseph had a deeper insight into the true reason why God allowed his brothers
to sell him into slavery. He had a deep
perspective that he would not have been exposed to had his brothers left him
alone. The main thing that we can take
away from this story is that God uses any situation for his glory, even when
others intend it for evil. No matter
what you have been through, are going through, or will go through, God has the
power to use that experience for His glory!
God
knew that Joseph’s brothers were going to sell him into slavery. He also knew that Potiphar’s wife would
falsely accuse him of making sexual advances towards her and have Joseph thrown
in jail. He also knew that through those
situations, as unfair as they may have been, they would break Joseph’s pride
and allow room for the Holy Spirit to shape him into the godly man that God
needed him to be.
We
have a God that takes every single situation, that uses everything, whether
it’s good or it’s bad, for His glory, and His alone. You want to know why our country is in
shambles? So that true Christians have
something more to do. The reason why
there’s so much hurt and brokenness in our world, in our country, is so that we
can show people their need for Christ.
Don’t look at it any other way.
It’s so we can be the church wherever we are; so we can follow in His
footsteps through all of this pain; like Christ suffered for us on the cross,
we can suffer with them.
At
the end of Joseph’s story he has the opportunity to come face-to-face with his
brothers and forgive them. This could
only happen if he was living life in the hands of the Potter. It could only happen because he was allowing
God to shape him into someone new, take away all the cracks, the pride, the
attitude, the bragging. It was through
his commitment to god and his dedication to understand God’s purpose in his
life that Joseph was able to grow out of his immature pride into a mature,
Godly wisdom.
Through
all the things that happened to him, his positive response transformed each
setback into a step forward in the right direction. He didn’t stand on the “Why me?”
question. He asked, “What do you want me
to do now, Lord?” People were aware that
wherever Joseph went, God was with him.
The question for us is when we are faced with unforeseen hardships, are
we going to be the “Why me?” person or
the “What do you want me to do now?” person.
Will we allow God to shape us into a vessel to be used for His glory, or
are we going to stay the same and allow our hardships to overtake us? When you are facing setbacks, remember that
God is with you!
No comments:
Post a Comment