Transcript

in Genesis and it’s a 50 yeah so May May that’s our our our heading where we
where we end up the titles it’s often commented about the titles that we have
there’s a sort of a background outline of Genesis that we use like these titles
are there and they very rarely connect with with what we actually believe God
is saying to us at the time but it’s a good enough title and that today it’s a
changing world last time I talked about the things we observe in everyday life
how things can become more or do become more chaotic as I mentioned the
scientific principle of all theory of entropy that everything tends towards
chaos that things deteriorate bad things get worse if you buy a car it rusts
there’s all of that process that things don’t get better they get worse and we
only have to turn on our TV or open up the internet and to see what is
happening it just feels like there is a whole downwards a downhill rush towards
chaos and then we reflected that in actual fact the work of God and in the
world and in our lives is to push back against the chaos and to actually be a
life force in us that that goes against nature that actually creates something
wonderful out of darkness that we went back to Genesis 1 and remembered that in
the beginning there was darkness and there was chaos and there was there was
nothing there and the Spirit of God hovered over it and then at one moment
God said let there be light and he called the chaos into order and he
started to bring all the random atoms and everything that was around and he
gathered them together and he made you and me I mean there anybody that looks
into the the physiology and the biology of the human of the human being can’t
fail to see the hand of God bringing order out of chaos pushing back bringing
direction hope and solution in Ghana there is a traditional symbol can shot
on the screen grab a few if it will come up there we are genuinely it’s very
very well now you see it everywhere you go to Ghana those of you that that many
of you know Ghana better than I do but if you go there you see this all over
the place it’s carved it’s made into jewelry there’s there’s all sorts of
depictions of it it’s and Jane Yami means simply means except to God except
God and for those who have encountered the grace of God the power of God who
attach their lives to Christ and have set their selves to follow him we can
honestly sum up our testimonies in those two words we said except God if they we
accept God there is nothing you know we used to sing that song father God I
wonder how I managed to exist without the knowledge of your parenthood and
your loving care and when I was young and naive I’m old and wise now but when
I was young and naive you know I used to think well yeah I don’t know you know I
don’t exactly know what that means but as you get older and as you go through
life you really can say yeah without the knowledge of your parenthood and your
loving care how did I exist how how does anything happen except God where
without God where would you be think about it just for a moment just reflect
as I’m talking think about your life without the grace of God where would you
be you might not always understand what he does you might not always like what
he does you might not always enjoy what it means to live life on this earth you
might wish that your life had taken a different path you might wish that you
had a different family or you were born into different circumstances or you had
a bit more of an advantage in life but truly honestly we can say without God
and his intervention and the silent influence to transform our lives and to
fight back against the chaos we would absolutely be lost and everybody and
time and time again when people stand up here to give a testimony is if they if
they had given up on faith in God that would have just been lost awash in a sea
of chaos and yet they’re able to say people are able to say week after week
but God except God this was the way things were going but God intervened but
God did something and it’s there it’s this except God principle that we have
to remember and we have to remind that we’re not calling him down from from out
from afar but he’s within us that he’s he’s given us his Holy Spirit and he
walks alongside us even when we don’t know you know when we are faithless the
Bible teaches us he is faithful when we don’t regard him he regards us when we
ignore him he draws close to us he is faithful in every way all my life you
have been faithful all my life you have been so so good and we can say that
whether we feel it or whether we don’t because it’s an objective fact that we
learn from the scripture that all our lives God is faithful and except God we
would be utterly lost now Genesis Joseph’s brothers didn’t start well if
you’ve been following the story the box set as it’s been unfolding you might
even say they were lost causes from the outset they were hopeless horrible
horrible nasty pieces of work they didn’t like Joseph and his coat Joseph
perhaps was a little bit of an upstart a little bit unpleasant probably had a
grating personality but I don’t know if he deserved what happened to him but his
brothers did it to him anyway they they set about to destroy him to have him
first of all killed and when he wasn’t killed they wanted to sell him off into
slavery and they deceived their father into with a with a false story about
what had happened but as I said in one of our previous messages if you’ve
remembered it but if you haven’t remembered it you get a little bit again
today silently imperceptibly these fathers of the 12 tribes of Israel being
shaped and fashioned and schooled in the ways of God so they ended up better than
when they started God was working against the chaos fashioning them
quietly and while they would do it they were just living their own life they
were doing their own thing following their own instincts sometimes but God
was still working still going at it and sometimes we think that God will only
come and work in my life when I’ve got everything right when I’ve prepared the
room for him when I call him down and he says all right I’m ready now now you’ve
you know now you’ve decided that you’re gonna pay me some attention I’ll come
and join you that’s not it even when we’re in our darkest most chaotic most
lost moments God is committed to us in actually working against the chaos as we
put our faith and our trust in him you might look at your life and think well
what hope is there for me maybe if I hadn’t messed up quite so much maybe if
I said earlier if I had more of an advantage in life maybe if I had a
different family maybe if things were different for me things might have
worked out better but that is where we need to look and to open up our eyes and
see that God is working in our lives if you give yourself to him if you open
your heart to him if you trust him not just today nor next week but for the
whole long haul through every circumstance of life through every
success and failure if you trust him not only to forgive your sin you know when
you think oh no I’ve messed up again Lord forgive me and then you go on again
it’s not about just day by day sin but deliverance from the power of sin over
your life so that we’re actually set to live a different life as I’ve said
before the Bible says that before we knew him we were slaves to sin slaves to
sin you know if you’re a slave you don’t have any choice over what you do do you
you don’t have any say in what you do you just do what your master tells you
to do and so if you’re a slave to sin guess what happens but says that through
the power through the power of God he has transformed us from being slaves to
sin to being slaves to righteousness so slave so if we’re a slave to righteous
we do we don’t really have a day by day choice am I going to be you know what am
I going to be whatever we’re slaves to righteousness and slowly imperceptibly
we are transformed into the image of God because of the work that he has said
about to do in us he who began a good work in us it’s faithful to bring it to
completion and we will look back and see just what God can do every single one
and while you’re sitting there this morning listening to me disqualifying
yourself and thinking well yeah it’s not for me remember you are not exempt from
the grace of God except God you wouldn’t be here except God God will do and you
will never see him disappointing you and you might say well he’s already
disappointed me compare our pain can bear our angst but the truth is he
doesn’t disappoint us he brings us to transformation by the grace of God Joseph
seemed to have an awareness of the possibility that his brothers had
changed you see he was now in power he wasn’t in a pit anymore looking at his
torn coat I’m thinking you know what’s gonna happen to me he was he wasn’t in
jail anymore he was now the Prime Minister of Egypt for want of a better
term he had enough power to judge them and to destroy them based on what they’d
done and yet he chose to try and find out what were they now maybe they’re
different he saw the grace of God on his own life he understood that he was only
where he was now because of God how could you be thrown into a pit be left
for dead dragged up sold it to slaves to slow sold into slavery go into Egypt and
go through all they went to be thrown into prison for years and years come
back and finally he’s here except God it’s only God that can do that and he
knew that that God had been at work in his life and as he said later I don’t
want to steal anybody’s thunder but when he said later you know what you meant
for evil God meant for good he was beginning to understand that God was at
work in all of these circumstances that’s why we sing praise praise the
Lord there’s our praise when I’m sure and I’m praise when I’m doubting there’s
as long as I’m breathing I’ve got a reason to praise the Lord Joseph was
seeing that in his own life and so he thought that if well if God has done all
this for me as a result of what they did then maybe just maybe God has also been
at work in them and it was certainly possible and he wanted to see and what
he did in this story and I’d urge you to read it reveals the treasure that God
had been working in their lives treasure in jars of clay treasure in imperfect
jars like ours are but treasure nevertheless and so these brothers had
come back to Egypt and they brought their youngest brother Benjamin Benjamin
was Joseph’s blood brother Benjamin was the son of Rachel just as Joseph was and
he loved Benjamin when they brought him earlier on to his house when I spoke
last time he gave Benjamin five times as much food as everybody else Joseph was
into the whole concept of favorites and he he just loved Benjamin and they and
he had insisted and he’d worked it out that they would bring Benjamin to see
him and it was time for them now to leave and as they prepared to leave
Joseph did something very strange he arranged for his silver cup to be
planted in Benjamin’s sack and for them to be arrested on the way home for
stealing sounds very loving doesn’t it the only conceivable reason I can think
of is so that he and we could see what happened to these brothers over the long
years since they conspired to destroy Joseph so the cup was discovered they
were horrified and they heard the sentence that Joseph had said that when
they find this cup that he’d put in the sack when they find this tell them that
that brother that owns that sack will become my slave and everybody else will
go they were horrified that Benjamin would stay as Joseph’s slave and the
others would go free and so we start to see you can’t even believe this is the
same bunch of wasters that messed up all those chapters ago they started to
express something different they were horrified I mean they basically they’ve
got a get out of jail free card the brothers from before the brothers of
yesteryear might have said oh too bad Benjamin see you later we’re off but
they said no we cannot leave him here on his own they would have jumped at
the opportunity before but against the odds remember the work of God in their
lives against are they beginning to react differently respond differently
now and in verse 18 there’s a really powerful verse chances chapter 44 verse
18 simply says then Judah stepped forward Judah stepped forward and said
please my lord let your servant say just one word to you please do not be angry
with me even though you are as powerful as Pharaoh himself Judah had led the
conspiracy to destroy Joseph Judah had deceived his father Judah had behaved
so badly when it came to Tamar his daughter-in-law go back to Genesis 38
in that parental advisory chapter that we that we read about go back there and
see just what Judah used to be like he was a lost cause to any normal eyes but
in this moment Judah stepped forward stepped forward and spoke he pleaded for
mercy on behalf of his brother on the basis that mercy must be shown to their
father he said I cannot go back without this boy because it will kill my father
it would be it will be the worst possible thing my father cannot bear
that grief and I cannot do it to him and in one moment it’s as if all the dross
falls away and we begin to see I said about treasure in jars of clay it’s
almost like the clay comes away and you start to see well this is beautiful he
said so please my lord let me stay here as a slave instead of the boy and let
the boy return with his brothers for how can I return to my father if the boy is
not with me I couldn’t bear to see the anguish that this would cause my father
Judah stepped forward and says don’t keep him here keep me he would give up
himself that his brothers could go free
I think well what’s happened to Judah who’s got who give him back this is this
is a miracle David talked about miracles miracles miracles miracles that God is
working quietly and imperceptibly in our lives Genesis is a long and complex
history of families it’s the beginning it’s the foundation of our understanding
of how God works I don’t know about you if you ever watch those well I’m sure
you have watched them those long and involved box set things you know
detective stories Netflix or whatever it is whoever subscribes to the devil’s own
channel like that I hear you start off with a six-part thing and you think right
I’m gonna get this I’m gonna follow it all the way through and I’m gonna pick
up all the threads and at the end of it I’m gonna be able to tell you exactly
who done it and and when and when they when it’s all revealed I’m gonna say I
knew that because I’ve followed it through I’m clever but about half an
hour in I get lost I said to Erica what’s happening who’s that where do
they come from I don’t remember that there was Vera that’s one of them that’s
the worst
trouble with Vera is that you follow you try and follow through work it all out
and in somebody who’s never been in the story for the last two hours turns up
and turns out to be the murderer but anyway but you end up waiting for the
final episode to for everything to become clear and to make sense and dare
I say it without being irreverent that the Bible can seem a bit like that at
times but you start by thinking you know what’s happening but then you get
slightly lost and slightly confused you think okay and even reading Genesis even
preparing to speak on Genesis you like well I think I understand it and you go
in backwards and forwards and trying to pick up the threads but it’s a gradual
unfolding and a revealing of God’s plans and purposes until we arrive at the
final episode at the cross and then we have the rest of the New Testament to
pick and explain what all that means but when you get to the cross and you
see and you begin to understand that what Jesus was doing as he and we’re
going to celebrate that as we go through Easter aren’t we what Jesus was doing as
he stepped forward and he gave himself to be nailed on a cross and he gave
himself to be punished and he gave himself to suffer and he gave himself to
go through all that he went to in order that we might go free
then just like a box set if you take time to go over it again then you can
pick up the clue say oh I should have seen that and Genesis even though it’s
way back at the beginning of the scripture even though it’s thousands of
years before this you can pick up the clues all the way through whether it’s
Abraham about to sacrifice his only son and as he lifts the knife there’s a ram
in the thicket and you know saying God himself will provide a ram and it
begins to unfold and there is story after story that if you have eyes to see
maybe if you just read it on its own you think what does that mean a ram why
would God give somebody a son and then tell them tell him to sacrifice him
what’s all that about but when you go through the whole story and you go
through to you know episode 21 of season 6 and you get here then you begin to
understand and you go back to all right okay let’s watch it again let’s let’s
think about it again and this is what was happening here in this case it’s
Judah the son of Leah the one who wasn’t wanted the one who was rejected
the one who wasn’t picked and then Judah became the head of the tribe from which
Jesus was born the Lion of the tribe of Judah and in this story Judah stepped
forward and offered himself as a sacrifice so that his brothers could go
free Judah was manifesting God he didn’t even know himself what he was doing I’m
sure but God was at work in his heart to the extent that he was filling the space
and he was making him a better person he was shaping his character and at this
crucial moment he stepped forward and revealed the heart of God said let me
stay let me give my life in order that these brothers of mine might go free
that he was manifesting the heart of the gospel way back at the beginning of
history and what it shows is that there is no plan B that this is what God
wanted from the beginning they didn’t look and say oh it’s got in a real mess
and now I’ve got to come up with something in order to put it right no in
actual fact the lamb that was slain the Jesus that was crucified was crucified
before the foundation of the earth he was crucified before how do we work
this out I don’t know but he was before Genesis was written and so therefore all
of this was laid down all of this was in place all of this was there for us
before all of this history started to work out and so when we look at it and
we scratch our heads and we think what a mess what an absolute car crash of these
families and everything else going on you begin to see the threads of God’s
will and his heart working out and being manifest through it all and you see as
somebody eloquently put it one Christ in all the scriptures you see all the way
through and we’ll go as we continue you see more and more and more Judah was
manifest Judah was preaching the gospel thousands of years before Judah work
before Jesus was born Judah was redeemed brought back from the edge of
destruction and God began a work in him that was not evident until he was tested
by Joseph and the full beauty of what had happened was revealed when you look
at your life and you wonder what is God doing and then you look at your
circumstances you think I wish these things wouldn’t happen why has God
allowed these things to happen remember it’s those things sometimes and many
times that reveal the beauty of what God is doing in our lives he revealed the
reality of it if everything was just handed to us on a plate we would have
nothing of value but because we go through all that we go through because
we are tested because we are tried because we meet injustice because we are
sad because we grieve because we are complexed all of those things serve to
reveal the heart of God in our lives and what he is doing
Judah came from nothing Judah came from sin to be the father of the tribe of
salvation the salvation that has been planned from before the beginning of
time and slowly slowly God has been working out through history and working
it out through our lives you might have an idea what your life would look like
if I were blessed you ever play that game what if I won the lottery we
couldn’t win the lottery of course because we never play it do we but if
you if you if you if you say well what if I had a million pounds this is what I
would do I’d have a new lawnmower I’d have some new some new spoons and and
everything would be would be good all right okay it’ll go into a trust fund
until I’m old enough to spend it but if I were blessed what would my life look
like and we remember that the Bible teaches us that we have been blessed
with every spiritual blessing in Christ every spiritual blessing he hasn’t
reserved anything he’s poured it out even the national
lottery don’t give us everything they’ve got
but God has given us everything poured out on our lives
we are blessed and so the things that challenge confuse distress us
are all designed to magnify what God is doing in our lives it’s painful to think
about sometimes we don’t like it but Jesus the Lion of the tribe of Judah
has stepped forward on our behalf and because of him we
are free we don’t have to wonder we don’t have to guess anymore we can trust
God whatever happens that’s what happened
at Easter as we approach it that there was a moment
where God said what is going to happen because the only
the only path the only course of action I have
is to judge them and Jesus stepped forward
and said take let me take it that they might go free
and that’s our blessing in the pattern of what was happening in Genesis
and so my request at the end of all this is very very simple
sometimes we over complicate things we twist ourselves in knots
we try to understand God and we just need to bring ourselves back to the
center and breathe and say okay
Jesus I trust you because I’ve not come into this late
I’ve not come into this you know as somebody’s sort of banging on the door
trying that you called me from before the
beginning of time that you have purposes for my life that you have blessed me
with every spiritual blessing in Christ that Christ has
paved the way for me from before the beginning of time there is no plan b
in my life Jesus I trust you we’re not asking for lightning bolts
from heaven just the ability to trust for the journey
maybe you feel like you’ve never ever done it you’ve never actually
let go of everything that is causing you angst and said all right
Lord I trust you don’t know what that means don’t know
what it looks like but I see that you have always been
there and you will always be there and you
will every step of the way all my life you
have been and you will be faithful and sometimes for us it’s a it’s a
coming back always hesitate to use these analogies
because I’m not likening this to to dogs or anything
else but I have a challenge with my dog that sometimes you know he can he can be
wonderfully well behaved and trotting along like a cruft champion sometimes
and and other times he goes absolutely ballistic because there’s something has
happened a pigeon has flown across his path or
something he gets all terribly worked up and what I’ve realized is
there’s you know all the fighting with the lead and you know shouting and trying
to communicate and he doesn’t speak English I found out
and uh and so I just have to pull him back
pull him back to the center get him to sit down and stand still
and we just stand there together like this doing nothing
except calming down and thinking okay and the reason that he’s jumping up and
down and running in every direction is because he’s afraid or because he’s
stimulated because he he wants to do something but he’s like
something has overtaken his brain we know what that feels like don’t we
fear and anxiety and insecurity and worry they take over our brain and we
run in every different direction and there comes a time when god just
wants to say all right come back let’s let’s just sit down together breathe a
little bit calm down and start again
trust me because he’s always there in the middle sometimes it’s in the middle
of our franticness we say lord where are you where are you where are you come
lord help me why have you let this happen
and he’s just there like all right come back to the beginning
and just as I finish there’s a chorus that came to mind which I won’t
sing to you but I will share the words
very simply I don’t know why it came out maybe it’s just inspired by the holy
spirit I need thee oh I need thee
every hour I need thee oh bless me now my savior
I come to thee I need thee oh I need thee every hour I need thee
oh bless me now my savior I come to thee and just like with Alfie my dog
like I said he doesn’t speak English the words the conversation doesn’t produce
much fruit and sometimes it’s just being aware that
actually in my presence he’s safe and he can afford to calm down and maybe
there is that element to our relationship with God that we can’t work
it all out in conversation sometimes we can’t articulate what we feel we don’t
quite know what it means if we’re honest to listen to God
because we we can’t hear him speaking and you know there’s all of that stuff
goes on and sometimes it’s just a matter of
sitting in his presence and saying lord I need you and I trust you and I believe
in you Jesus I believe in you and maybe we can
sing that song Jesus I believe in you is that right
unless you’ve got a different one oh very good
Erica’s all on her own
and just as we do this I would urge you if there’s anything in response in you
if you know what it’s a bit like to be that frantic
person running in every direction trying to work out as you go where is God
and you know there comes a moment where you just have to lay it all aside
and you have to sit still and you have to listen and you have to breathe and
you have to say lord I trust you then trust him and if it will help you
just as Judah’s moment was very very powerful when he stepped forward
there is power in stepping forward if you would like to step forward
and come here and just as a declaration if maybe you can’t speak the words
but you know you want to trust in the lord maybe for the first time
maybe for the hundredth time but you can come
and you can physically stand in his presence
and if you want someone to pray for you someone will pray