Chris Ayers is the Pastor of Wedgewood Baptist Church. He enjoys reading, photography, web site design, golf, and is interested in early Church history, Biblical interpretation, the history of Biblical interpretation, and having fun hanging out with the Wedgewoodians.

 

 

 

Genesis 45:1-8

 

1Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried out, ‘Send everyone away from me.’ So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. 2And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it. 3Joseph said to his brothers, ‘I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?’ But his brothers could not answer him, so dismayed were they at his presence.

4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, ‘Come closer to me.’ And they came closer. He said, ‘I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. 5And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. 6For the famine has been in the land these two years; and there are five more years in which there will be neither ploughing nor harvest. 7God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. 8So it was not you who sent me here, but God . . ."

 

 

Encouraging A Thinking Faith

 

 

Preach the gospel and if necessary use words.

St. Francis
 

Sermon: Overcoming Adversity:  Joseph

 

Sometimes we are confronted with adversity of our own making.-----------If you have ever created adversity for yourself, dug your own deep hole, raise your hand?

Sometimes we mess up our lives ourselves.  But other times we have to deal with adversity because of the actions of others.

Have other people made your life difficult?

Sometimes we mess it up.  Sometimes those around us mess it up.  At other times the origin or cause of the adversity is not clear.

In the story of Joseph we see examples of three scenarios.

Some of the adversity Joseph needed to overcome was created by his own doing.  He not only had dreams about his brothers bowing down to him he told his brothers the dreams.  Is it any wonder they hated him?  It really is not a surprise that his brothers put him in a pit and later sold him into slavery, is it? 

Jacob asked for some of what he got.

Have you ever created adversity for yourself?
On the other hand, part of Joseph’s adversity was caused by his father, Jacob.  Jacob set Joseph up for adversity.

Has anyone ever set you up for adversity? 

Jacob favored Joseph because he was a child of his old age.  Jacob gave Joseph a coat of many colors, or a coat with long sleeves, not exactly what you would call working clothes.   Jacob pampered Joseph, treated him differently from his other children.  That’s a set up, a setup, a formula for adversity to come your way.  I ask again, has anyone ever set you up in a way that it invited trouble into your life?

Sometimes the adversity is of our own making, sometimes it is of the making of others, and yes, sometimes the origin of the adversity is----it’s just not clear.  In the Joseph narrative there is a famine, for example.  There seems to be more than a few famine’s mentioned in the Bible.  Have you noticed that?

Why would a world created by God have famines?  Why do crops fail?  Why is rainfall either too much or not enough?  Why are there famines that create great adversity for people?  Famines of love.  Famines of acceptance.  Famines of attention. Famines of food.  There aren’t any good answers.

There was a famine so Jacob sent his sons, not Joseph, mind you, because he thought Joseph was dead.  And he didn’t send Benjamin because he was the youngest and he didn’t want to lose the baby of the family.  Losing Joseph was bad enough.  Not again.  Not again, Jacob said. 

Have you ever said that?

Jacob sent all his other sons to Egypt to get food.  On their second trip down, despite Jacob’s protests, they took Benjamin with them.  And when they get to Egypt, they don’t know it, but Joseph, Joseph their brother who they sold into slavery, Joseph ad risen to the highest echelon of Egyptian government and Joseph was responsible for distributing food.
Well, you know the story.  Joseph overcame the adversity of being a slave.  Joseph overcame the adversity of being wrongly accused by Potiphar’s wife of sexual misconduct.  But there was one other adversity Joseph had to overcome: he had to deal with his family.

Is dealing with your family an adversity with which you have to deal?

In one of the most beautiful scenes of all the Bible Joseph reveals his identity to his brothers and he says this.  I want you to memorize this.  Joseph says of what his brothers did to him.  He says, “It was not you who sent me here, but God.”  Which is a beautiful way of saying that Joseph did not let the adversity he had to deal with turn him into a bitter, unforgiving person.  He did not let adversity defeat him.  He did not let adversity get the best of him.  Rather, Joseph saw that with God’s help a good thing----a good thing had happened in spite of the adversities before him.

That is my prayer for you no matter the origin of your adversities.  I pray that good things will happen to you, and that you will be a blessing to others, in spite of the adversities that come your way.

As Joseph sent his brothers away, he told them.  “Do not quarrel on the way.”  That to me sounds like a person shaped by a wisdom born out of adversity.

It was not you who sent me here, but God.

 

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