Abundant life lies outside of you comfort zone

 Read Genesis 12

To get to the story of Abram, whom you will eventually come to know as Abraham, we have to go to Ur near Babylon and Abraham’s father, Terah.

Ur was south, southeast of Babylon near the southern edge of the Fertile Crescent.  The Tigris and Euphrates still govern this area and merge into the Khor Abdullah or the River of God as it flows into the Persian or Arabian Gulf depending upon which shore you stand.

God directed Terah to pick up his family and go to Canaan.  He went north along the Fertile Crescent but stopped and settled in the northern part of the crescent. Harran—a town with the same name of his son who had passed away and was about as far north as Nineveh but farther east.

So, if you want to find this northern city go north of Damascus and east of Nineveh. In any case, this is where Terah, the father of Abraham stopped and settled, along with other family members. Terah would die in Harran.

But God had other plans and geography in store for Abraham. God told Abram to pick up and leave Harran and go where he sent him.  This journey was precedent by a covenant.

I will make you into a great nation,

    and I will bless you;

I will make your name great,

    and you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you,

    and whoever curses you I will curse;

and all peoples on earth

    will be blessed through you.

God said:

·       I will bless you.

·       I will make your name great.

·       You will be a blessing.

·       I will bless those who bless you.

·       I will curse those who come against you.

·       All the peoples of the earth will be blessed through you.

So, Abraham picked up his wife, Sarai, who was still barren at this point.  His nephew Lot threw in with them. His father and grandfather were already dead at this point.

Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

 

So now add to the covenant blessing, a Promised Land. So now, perhaps we see a part of the curse that Noah placed upon Canaan, in that the land would be given to the descendants of Shem and Abraham as the Promised Land.

In any case, this land was not to be delivered to the people of Abraham for several centuries.  Abraham now continued through the Negev to Egypt because of famine and hardship in the land where his descendants would return  He build an altar and made an offering to the Lord before he headed down to Egypt.

It is in Egypt that we see Abram’s human weakness exposed.  Despite the promises and blessings of God, Abram feared for his life.  His wife was beautiful and, in his mind, if the Pharoah saw her, he would kill him and take her for his own wife.

 

So, Abram concocted this story to pass his wife off as his sister.  It was sort of a half-truth.  She was like a half-sister.  Family trees didn’t branch that much back then, but the effects would be as promised by God.  The Pharoah would be cursed—afflicted-for taking Sarai believing her to be available to marital consummation.

Abram was compensated nicely for his deception but the Pharoah was no dummy. He figured out what had happened, scolded Abram, and sent him and his family packing with everything they had. So Abram pick up some livestock from his time in Egypt and they left.

Abram had not placed much stock in God’s promises to him but God held up his end.  We have our children sing of how Father Abraham had many sons, many sons had father Abraham. Those promises would be fulfilled later on.

For now, we see a very human Abraham.  He follows God’s directions but when left to his own decisiveness, we don’t see much faith.  Faith would come.  Faith would be tested, but for now, we just see a man with human weaknesses.

God will use Abram for great things.  The Savior of the world will come through his line. For now, he is just a man with human fault.

Adam and Eve sinned.

Cain killed.

Noah though he found favor with God, got drunk and shamed himself.

Terah didn’t follow through on instructions.

Abraham deceived didn’t trust God to protect him and gave up his wife to save his own skin.

Need I say more that God uses imperfect people.  He perfects us in Christ, but we come to him in full Ikea mode—some assembly required.

One of the more comforting memes that has been floating around for a few years is one that reads:  GOD ALREADY FACTORED IN YOUR STUPIDITY WHEN HE CALLED YOU TO HIS PURPOSE.

God factored in my intelligence or lack thereof, my hardheadedness, my stubbornness, my heart that seeks after him but sometimes get distracted, my boldness that sometimes comes off as too strong, my critical and creative thinking that sometimes should just yield to obedience, my innate propensity to speak the truth and my struggle to make sure it is spoken in love, my dashing good looks and corresponding dry humor in mixed propositions, and other things.

God already knew those things when he called me to my purpose.

I fought against the goads of God calling a crusty old Marine into ordain ministry.  Why does God want someone who can peel the paint of the walls with colorful language?  I was asking the wrong question. You don’t ask God, why?

You may ask, Is it I, Lord?  Is that you calling?  But his sheep know his voice. 

Our reply is just, send me.  I am ready to serve.  I will obey.  I will trust.

I’m sure that God has already factored in a list of things that you might think disqualifying as well.  Maybe you are afraid of failure.  Maybe you fear success.  Then God will expect more.

Maybe you have a hard time directly confronting an issue or a person.  Maybe you are afraid that you will have to fix the copy machine.  Maybe you can’t say no. 

Maybe you are afraid to venture out of your comfort zone.  If that’s part of it, remember that most of life—abundant life—lies outside of your present comfort zone.

Today, just take note that Abraham was just a man, with flaws, with doubts, and who made mistakes.

God did not kick him to the curb.  He would become a patriarch in the line that would produce Israel and the Christ.  God had great things in store for him and one day he would be noted as a pillar of faith.

Remember that our salvation comes in a moment.  Our discipleship takes time.

Look to the beginning of the story of Abraham and see that God took a man—a simple man—and chose him to do great things.

Never doubt what God will do if you are willing to receive him, his directions, take his yoke and learn from him, and trust him over your own understanding.

We struggle.  God is faithful.

We resist patience.  God is patient, desiring all to come to him before the time for judgment.

God is the Potter.  We are to be the clay.

I will conclude as I have many times before.  Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your path straight.

God will equip and provision you for the calling he has placed on your life.

Amen.

 

Matthew 2 - Part 2

 

Read Matthew 2

The wise men visited Jesus after following a star.  This is not a manger scene but one that takes place in a house.  It could have been up to 2 years after his birth in a barn or cave or sheltered part of a livestock area.

What I ask you to think on just for the moment is that these wise men were warned to go back home a different way than they had come.  At the least, they would not be stopping in to give Herod a report on this newborn king.

They were warned in a dream.

Do you remember chapter 1?  Joseph was told to take Mary as his wife in a dream.  What is conceived in her is of God.

An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream.

The wise men did return home via a different route.  Herod never got his report.  He did not want to worship this child whom men from afar knew as the King of the Jews.  He wanted to kill him.  A precise location would have made the job easy.

That didn’t happen so Herod decided to kill every male child two years old and younger.  Compare this to precision bombing and carpet bombing.  If you can’t target precisely, you just kill everyone in a certain area.

This wasn’t a new idea.  Remember at the beginning of Exodus, the Pharaoh who did not remember Joseph ordered all male firstborn killed.  Herod had different motives and increased the target area by two years, but this was simple power politics.

If your replacement is dead before he has a chance to replace you, then you might live a longer life.  It’s like Niccolò Machiavelli and William Shakespeare wrote this part. 

It might have been an effective strategy except that God had warned Joseph in a dream to pack up his family and leave.  Once again, an angel of the Lord had spoken to Joseph in a dream and Joseph had obeyed.

The angel didn’t say go rent a U-Haul tomorrow, have a yard sale to get rid of stuff you don’t need to take, and hold one last gathering with friends.  The angel said, Get em and go.

The angel also told Joseph to stay there until he gave him further instructions.  He did tell Joseph the why part.  Herod wanted to kill. Jesus. 

Herod reigned death upon countless children but eventually he died.  The angel of the Lord once again came to Joseph in a dream and told him to return to Israel. He did.

While the perceived urgency here is not evident, the instructions were to get up and go.

Can you imagine the life of young Jesus?  He gets wonderful gifts then the next thing you know they are leaving town in the middle of the night for Egypt.  Then then a few years later, they get up in the middle of the night and head back to the Promised Land.

When I was stationed in Orlando, Florida there was a drought one year and the housing area that we lived in was evacuated because of wildfires.  It was a get up and go situation in the late afternoon, but the back of my truck was full of photo albums and other things that were considered too valuable to leave behind.

Joseph picked up his family and surely few possessions and just did what he was told.  Get up and go.

When Joseph returned to his home country, he discovered that Herod’s son was on the throne.  Again, an angel of the Lord warned Joseph and told him to go to Galilee instead of Bethlehem or Judea. 

He did.

Much of this was to fulfill scripture but Joseph had to obey the angel of the Lord that came in a dream.  Unlike Luke’s gospel where angels physically appeared, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream again and again.

In a dream!

Occasionally, I have awakened in the middle of the night because of a dream.  All I remember of the dreams now is that they were the best ideas and plot construction and plot twists for the greatest novels the world has ever known.

So, I wrote it all down and went back to bed.  Some of you know that I have perfect penmanship when I am awake. It’s so perfect that I am nearly illiterate without a keyboard.

You should have seen me trying to decipher my notes from my dream.  Those great American novels will remain unwritten.

But even if your dream remains crystal clear to you, how do you know that your mind is not playing tricks on you?  It’s a serious question.  How do you know?

That brings us to John’s gospel, specifically, chapter 10.  Jesus used the example of shepherd and sheep.  The sheep know the voice of the shepherd.  In fact, they will run away from a stranger’s voice.

This is an example of using things known to the people.  The sheep know the voice of the shepherd.  There is an existing and trusted relationship.

While Joseph probably never had an angel visit him in a dream before Mary became pregnant; he had an existing relationship with God.  He trusted God.  He trusted God over his own understanding.

Joseph was predisposed to receive a message from God because he trusted God over his own understanding.  This is where I want to leave the story and venture into our time.

Do we know the voice of our Shepherd?

Do we know what to believe in this age of deception?

Will we stick to the truth when the propaganda of the world sounds enticing?

Will we trust God or our own emotional longings?

The level of deception in this world is at an all-time high.  It is ridiculous what people in this country claim to believe.  It’s not just the Antifa-types that are easy to spot.  It’s the Christians being deceived, leaving the truth for some emotional fix.

It’s those of us who seek the specks in each other’s eyes and ignore the lumberyard in our own so as not to feel the need to love one another or fulfill our commissions.  We put others down so our obligations are fulfilled. 

That’s not how it works.  We were warned against this.

I’m going to label Joseph with an attribute not mentioned—courage.  He did what the angel of the Lord told him to do each and every time.

The first time surely cost him some friends or acquaintances.

The next few times surely cost him a few looks from his wife.

We don’t know much about Joseph after Jesus turned 12 but what we do know is that he was strong and courageous much like God had called Joshua to be.

Joseph did what God required of him without doing a cost-benefit analysis.

Joseph did what God required of him without delay.

Joseph did what God required of him without regret.  Hold on.  It doesn’t say that.

It does.  You just have to look for it.  Time and again, Joseph obeyed the angel of the Lord.  You don’t do that if you regretted a previous decision to follow God’s instructions.

Regret leads you back to your own understanding.

Back to us.  Will we do what God calls us to do without estimating what it costs us?

Will we do what God calls us to do without delay?

Will we do what God calls us to do without regret?

Will we know it’s God who is calling?  Will we know his voice in whatever form he chooses to speak to us?

You will have trouble in the world.  Will we take courage in knowing that our Lord has overcome the world?

Joseph doesn’t get much coverage in the Bible, but what he does get is powerful.  It is a powerful example to us to trust in the Lord and not our own understanding.

When we know the message that we have received is of the Lord, we obey.  We obey courageously without considering the personal cost to us.

Are you ready to be more like Joseph?  Are you ready?

Amen.

What you intended for evil...

This has been a tough year for violence—senseless violence.  Just when you think it can’t get any worse, evil finds a way to do more and more.  In this post-modern century, evil is still at work in the word.

Evil is still at work in the world.   Don’t you just wish that you could turn back the clock to another time?

This morning, we will turn back the clock about 4000 years and introduce a man named Jacob.  He was the son of Isaac who was the son of Abraham.  God would call him Israel.  Read chapters 32 and 35 when you get a chance.

He had many sons himself, from 2 wives and 2 maidservants.  One of these sons was named Joseph.  The Vacation Bible School that just took place centered on this man named Joseph, his dreams, and his journey from prison to palace.

Joseph and Benjamin were the youngest children, born to Rachel, but it was Joseph whom was given a richly ornate robe.   Today we have come to call it his coat of many colors. 

His brothers were jealous.  Imagine hearing, “Dad loves you more” from 10 older brothers.  Benjamin was younger.  Perhaps this jealously would have just played out in wrestling matches and double dog dares, but Joseph had dreams and he shared them.

Sheaves of his brothers bowing to his own sheave and even the sun, moon, and stars bowing to him upset his brothers and even his father.  What are you saying here kid?  You will rule over us?  Is that it?

It seemed that everyone was upset with Joseph, but note verse 37:11.  Jacob kept the matter in mind.  That is, he pondered these thoughts of his young son as more than just the crazy rebelliousness of a young man.

The story of Joseph really comes into full swing when his 10 older brothers are tending flocks and Israel sends him to check on them.  He heads out to Scheckem and finds they are not there.  After some discussion with a local, he believes them to be in Dothan and sets out to find them.

The brothers saw him coming.  Perhaps this is the first known use of the overused saying, “They saw you coming.”  It fits.

They saw him coming and started plotting.  Among the schemes was an option to kill their young brother.  Reuben intervened and convinced them to throw him in an empty well.  Don’t think that Joseph was just going along with whatever his brothers decided.  He did pleaded for his life.

During this time when Joseph was in the cistern, Reuben went somewhere.  We don’t know exactly what happened next.  Perhaps it was Reuben’s turn to watch the sheep, but what happened next transpired without the oldest brother present. 

A caravan of Ishmaelites was headed their way.  The brothers had decided not to kill Joseph.  Even if they hated him, he was still flesh and blood kin.  They decided to sell him to the traders and received 20 shekels of sliver for him.

When Reuben returned he was furious.  Well, not upset enough to go after his little brother.  The question remains unanswered whether or not he took his cut of the 20 shekels.  That’s a good topic for Monday night Bible study.

In any case Joseph was gone and they needed a cover story.  Upset or not, even Reuben would be complicit in this.  They took his ornate robe—no way that was included in the deal—and ripped it to pieces.  They slaughtered a goat and dipped it in its blood.

This is where you get to scratch your head and think, “And out of these men will come the tribes of God’s Chosen People.”

They are each 2 shekels richer by selling their brother.

Surely the flesh of the goat didn’t go to waste.  They had a goat roast party to celebrate their ill-gotten gains.

Finally, they bring the pieces of robe back to their father presenting it to him in feigned innocence saying, “does this look like your son’s coat?”  It’s pretty good as far as criminal thinking goes.  If you let dad draw his own conclusions, you don’t have to get 10 stories straight.

The story shifts back to Joseph.  He was sold to Potiphar, the captain of Pharaoh’s guard.  I’m sure you are wondering the same thing that I am.  What was the price?  The wholesale cost was 20 shekels of silver; what was the retail price of the man who would ultimately save Egypt and God’s Chosen People?

We don’t get that answer but we do get this:  “And the Lord was with Joseph and he prospered.”

Joseph, at whatever price Potiphar paid, was a bargain.  He was successful at everything he did and pretty soon he was running everything that his master could put in his charge.

I can imagine hearing the captain of the guard talking at the officers club.  “You wouldn’t believe the deal I got on this Hebrew kid.  He is smart, industrious, and it seems like everything I give him to do he finds a way to make it work.  I think I made the deal of a lifetime.”

The problem was that Joseph was what we might call a strapping young man and it seems that Potiphar’s wife was something of a cougar.  Yes, she wanted him.

In an encounter where she grabs his robe and he runs away not wanting any part of betraying his master, she is left with his robe and he is fleeing the scene.  The script gets flipped and Joseph is branded the aggressor.

Welcome to the Pharaoh’s prison where we are told that the Lord was with Joseph once again.  He became the warden’s favorite and even made a couple of friends. 

These were the Pharaoh’s former cupbearer and baker.  Each of which would present Joseph with dreams and Joseph would explain them.

The explanation was good for the cupbearer and not so good for the baker, but Joseph asked that when the cupbearer was restored to his position that he put in a good word for him.

Here we see that Joseph is faithful to trust in his Lord but not stoic.  He tells the cupbearer that he got a bum rap.  He was brought to Egypt not of his own free will and once here committed no crimes.

Of course that story goes around a few hundred time a day in prison, but Joseph saw an opportunity to get his case before Pharaoh and he was proactive.

The cupbearer was restored to his position and immediately pleaded for Joseph’s release.  No he didn’t.  He forgot to mention Joseph for a full 2 years.

He didn’t remember of his own accord but because the Pharaoh had dreams and nobody could help him to interpret them.  But the cupbearer remembered Joseph.

The Pharaoh’s dreams consisted of 7 fine looking head of cattle coming up out of the Nile followed by 7 of the scrawniest cows you could imagine.  To top it off, the scrawny cows ate the big healthy cows.

He had a second dream involving grain that portrayed the same message—a message that it took Joseph to reveal to the Pharaoh.  Egypt would be blessed with 7 years of abundance that would be followed by 7 years of famine.

Joseph didn’t stop there.  He prescribed what must be done.  In every part of Egypt, 1/5 of the harvest must be collected and stored for each of the 7 years.  That is 20% of each year’s harvest was to be held back by the government to weather the lean years to come.

Joseph then told Pharaoh that he must appoint a wise man to oversee this most important project.  Pharaoh knowing of no such man among his counselors and commanders and seeing God at work in Joseph, appointed Joseph.

At the Age of 30, this man who was discarded by his own brothers, sent to prison without cause, and seemed to be forgotten was now in charge of all of Egypt—all of it.  Only Pharaoh himself would not be answerable to Joseph.

He was given an Egyptian name:  Zaphenath-Paneah.  We don’t know what the name meant at the time; perhaps it was “Revealer of Secrets” or  “God Speaks.”  He was given a wife.  He was in charge and over all things in Egypt.  Joseph did what he had always done because the Lord was with him.  He executed the plan that would save many lives.

Now we return to Jacob and his sons.  Famine has come.  They are hungry.  Egypt has grain so he sends all but Benjamin to buy grain.  There are stories within stories that transpire next until Joseph finally reveals himself to his brothers.

We jump ahead somewhat to God’s chosen people moving to Egypt, being given land in the hill country of Goshen, and beginning to grow into the nation of Israel in this foreign land.

Jacob—Israel lived 17 years in Egypt with all of his sons as this young nation began to emerge.  Then at the age of 147 years, he died.  He had given instructions to his sons that he was to be buried in Canaan in the place that Abraham had purchased long ago.

The Pharaoh granted Joseph leave to bury his father—how could he not.  Joseph had saved a nation, actually two nations.   So Joseph and his brothers buried their father.

Reality sunk in for the brothers.  Dad’s gone.  Our brother Joseph is the most powerful man in the world.  We did him wrong.  Now we are surely going to pay for what we did.

These brothers longed for forgiveness but know at best they can only be slaves.  Long ago they sold themselves into slavery.  These men are without hope.  They fall down at Joseph’s feet declaring themselves to be his slaves.

But Joseph said, “What you intended for evil, God intended for good, and the saving of many lives which is being accomplished now.”

Make no mistake, these brothers acted long ago with malice aforethought against their brother.  They plotted his death but settled for selling him into slavery.

This was hate in action.

They did evil.  They did wrong.  They did it to their own brother.

But Joseph reminded his brothers that he was not God and he did not sit in the judgment seat.  For all that Joseph had been through he was now in a position to save many lives and many lives were being saved.  Joseph’s heart and mind were set on reconciliation, not retaliation.

He told his brothers that he would not only care for them but for their children as well.  We see wisdom and mercy and a heart of reconciliation in Joseph, but we also see that there is evil in the world.

There is evil in the world but God has not orphaned us to deal with it on our own.  In Joseph’s darkest hours, we note that the Lord was with him and he prospered wherever he was.

There is evil at work in the world today.  We hear about it more frequently across more media platforms every year.  It is there.  It is not going away in this age and we should not be surprised.

What is surprising is how many Christians forget that God is with us.  The Lord is with us and will prosper us.

The Lord has given us gifts and talents and special abilities that we are to put to use and then we are to trust in the Lord that he will work things for good for those of us who love him and are called according to his purpose.

Today, let us take a lesson from Joseph.  He was not stoic.  He didn’t go through life saying, “It’s nothing.”  He knew that he had been wronged.  He didn’t like it but he trusted God.

He made the most of every circumstance that was thrust upon him and the Lord was with him and what he did prospered.

We have been here many times before.  We don’t focus on the world.  We are aware of what is going on in the world but we focus on what God has called us to do and trust him to direct our paths.

We work at everything we do as if we are working for God and not for others.

We go into this dark and sometimes evil world as salt and light and love.  People need to taste the goodness of God in us.  We need to be a light in the darkness.

But we must trust God even when our circumstances seemed to be turned inside out and upside down.  We need to trust God and put our gifts and talents to use even when everything seems to be going against us.

It only took a moment for Joseph to go from the depths of prison to commanding everything in Egypt and in a position to save many lives, including those of his own family.  In a single moment everything can change.

For Joseph, Egypt, and God’s Chosen people acts of evil and hate had been stripped of their own selfish intent and replaced with God’s purpose.

The Lord was with Joseph and the Lord is with us.  We will not become discouraged even when evil seems to prevail all around us for the Lord is with us.

We will prosper in everything the Lord calls us to do.

Amen.