Grow Strong in God’s Grace (Wk 16)
Learning How to be a Faithful Farmer for God’s Harvest!
The Faith that Elevates You Out of the Pits!
Hebrews 11:22 (NASB)
God is in the business of transforming stories through the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are to grow strong in God’s grace as active participants in the world He created. God has entrusted His creation to His people to work as His Harvest workers – “All the world’s a field, and all the disciples of Jesus Christ merely farmers!” Therefore, let’s be faithful farmers by following the four-step strategy of a hard-working farmer: 1) cultivate people with faith; 2) sow the good seed of God’s grace (the gospel) into their hearts and minds; 3) care for them as their stories are transformed into fruit-bearing plants; and 4) reap a harvest of praise as the church of Jesus Christ.
This strategy must be empowered by the Holy Spirit because apart from God we cannot bear any good fruit (John 15:5)! Therefore, harvest workers of God’s kingdom are called to grow strong in God’s grace. Let’s take the first step by learning from the transforming stories of the Hall of Faith, found in Hebrews 11. Today’s story is about Joseph, found in Hebrews 11:22, “By faith Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the exodus of the sons of Israel, and gave orders concerning his bones.” To be clear, this passage in the New Testament is not referring to Joseph the husband of Mary; rather, it is pointing to one of the most famous Old Testament stories – the Genesis account of Joseph, the eleventh son of Jacob. His story inspired the long enduring Andrew Lloyd Weber musical, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Jacket.” This is a story that has found a bridge into our culture and has inspired generations of Jewish and Christian people to live with integrity and to put their trust in a sovereign God during injustice and suffering. The problem is that it has been made into a “feel good” story without revealing the true depth of the story. We need to look at the depths of Joseph’s story, in all its gore and glory, for it to be more than a moralistic platitude.
STEP #1 OF THE FARMER’S STRATEGY: CULTIVATE THE SOIL WITH FAITH
A decade ago, I was in Chicago at the Moody Bible Institute’s Pastors’ Conference when a celebrity pastor, who has since fallen from ministry notoriety because of toxic leadership practices, stated that every day in church ministry a pastor either becomes bitter or better. In that moment, the Holy Spirit convicted me: I had allowed myself to get bitter at some people and situations that had occurred over the years of my pastorate and that bitterness had started to form a hard, cynical place in me. It had started to inform the way I viewed people and situations, and those people and situations needed a fresh wind of God’s Spirit through me, not a stale wind of human hurt from me. In that moment, I did the only thing I could do, I honestly yielded to the Holy Spirit by crying out for God’s presence and power in me.
Each of us has a daily decision to make; it’s a choice: to choose better or to become bitter! The choice to allow bitterness to grow in our soul or to actively take steps to be transformed into a godly person through the circumstances of our lives is not just for pastors. The choice to embrace spiritual transformation is for every person who is faced with disappointment, discouragement, despair, and/or depression. This is for every person born under the sun, who experienced childhood, navigated friendships, went to school, has worked, has been a part of a church, has dated, has married, has kids, has faced medical issues. This is part of the human experience for all people regardless of human labels. This is about:
- A teenage boy who is ridiculed by his friends because he won’t follow the crowd when it comes to partying or compromising his Christian beliefs. He is starting to wonder if it really matters to hold strong in his beliefs.
- A college-age girl who has her heart broken because she won’t have sex with her boyfriend and then finds he has smeared her reputation at school. She is struggling to remain strong in her commitment to remain pure before marriage.
- A young man who won’t commit to anyone because of the heartache he has carried with him after watching his parent’s fight for years, before their divorce. He wonders if marriage is even a worthwhile option for his life.
- A professional woman who won’t forgive herself for the abortion her husband asked her to have when they were in college. Now, 20 years later, she is haunted by feelings of bitterness towards him as they are successful, but lonely as they never made time for kids and a pregnancy never just happened again. She presses into her career and works another long day to keep herself from thinking about him or her pain.
- An older man who has loyally worked 25 years for the same company finds himself suddenly out of work with no benefits and nothing to show for his dedication. He has no idea if he can start all over and give his best to a boss or company ever again.
- A widowed woman who is lonely as her children and grandchildren are too busy to care for her emotional or physical needs, and she doesn’t want to impose on them. She questions whether there is a purpose for her any longer and if life is worth living.
Brothers and sisters, you may not be able to control the situations and circumstances of your life, just as much as you cannot change your parents, control your grown children’s behavior, or change the medical diagnosis, but… God has given you – His beloved and chosen child – the ability to choose better over bitter in every circumstance; to choose FAITH! Hebrews 11:1-2 defines faith for us, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old gained approval.” What we learn from Hebrews 11 and each of the transforming stories of God’s grace through faith, is that faith is a person’s God-given ability to trust God and His promises through every circumstance of life so that He can use you for His greater plan and eternal purposes. When we live by faith, we reap a harvest of praise, bringing glory to God in the ups and downs of life. Let’s take the second step to learn how this happens.
STEP #2 OF THE FARMER’S STRATEGY: SOW THE GOOD SEED OF GOD’S GRACE
Joseph’s story is told in Genesis. His birth is recorded in chapter 30. Joseph’s story begins and ends in the dynamics of family: a very dysfunctional one! Joseph was born as the first son to Jacob’s favored wife Rachel (Genesis 30:22-24), but the eleventh son of his father’s four wives. You want to talk about the original blended family, this is even more complex because this was polygamy: One father and four competing wives who had a total of twelve sons and a daughter. Joseph’s childhood is marked by:
- His father’s relationship with Grandpa Laban fell apart which led to them moving. Along the way, his father got scared because Uncle Esau apparently didn’t feel much better about him than his Grandpa Laban (Genesis 30:25-33:20).
- Joseph wasn’t quite sure if his dad had lost his mind one day because he came across the river limping saying he wrestled with God all night and told everyone his name had been changed from Jacob to Israel (Genesis 32:24-32; 35:9-15). Was dad for real or had the stress finally gotten to him?
- His sister Dinah’s rape and his brothers’ brutal retribution against the whole village (Genesis 34). Plus, the fact that one of his brothers slept with one of dad’s wives (Genesis 35:22).
- Heartbreakingly, Joseph lost his mom when she died giving birth to his little brother Benjamin (Genesis 35:16-20).
The legacy event of Joseph’s childhood was at the age of 17. It was caused by a mixture of his father’s favoritism, his brother’s hatred and jealousy of him, his own boastful and prideful ways, and a divine dose of providential circumstance. Joseph was a 17-year-old spoiled brat, his father’s favored child to his favored and deceased wife. Insanely jealous of Joseph’s favored position and blindly enraged by his boastful dreams, the older brothers plotted to kill Joseph; to throw him into a pit to be left for dead. But at the last minute they pulled him from the pit to sell him into slavery to a passing caravan of Ishmaelites headed through the fertile crescent to Egypt (Genesis 37:26-28). As the brothers go back and lie to their father about their little braggart of a brother, the Ishmaelites “sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, Pharaoh’s officer, the captain of the bodyguard” (Genesis 37:36).
In that one decision of his older brothers, Joseph becomes a powerless victim of vicious circumstances! He is thrown in the pit. He is emptied of his status as favored son to become a feeble slave, but it is what happens next that has caused his story to be told for nearly four-thousand years. Joseph’s legacy was shaped not by the horror of his childhood and his brothers’ bitter choices, but by his own choice of how he would respond to his circumstances. The first pit most of us must work through is an imperfect upbringing – our family of origin and childhood experiences. Even the patriarchs of our faith were all messed up and so were their families.
We aren’t perfect people, nor do we have perfect families. Let’s be honest, there is no such thing on this side of Heaven. The church needs to come to grips with this reality, and instead of having impossible expectations of one another, what we need is to love with truth and grace as we imperfectly live with one another, trying to tell a better story of God’s work in our lives. The Bible is filled with flawed people and flawed families on purpose, so that we realize it is only by the power of God’s grace, the Spirit cultivating the soil of our lives and planting the good seed of God’s Word, that we can be transformed into fruit-bearing people that reflect Jesus Christ.
Do you need permission to get off the treadmill of performance, or to give up the anxiety of perfectionism? Learning to live strong in God’s Grace is the answer for you and your family, for us and our church, for our communities and nation! God loves you so much He gave His one and only Son so that your story would be transformed to tell His story!
Never forget that each of us has a daily decision to make; it’s a choice: to choose better or to become bitter! When life has thrown you harsh circumstances, what do you do? How do you handle the pits of childhood trauma and dysfunctional family systems? Just because you came from a broken family doesn’t mean you must be broken. Just because we have had traumatic experiences doesn’t mean we need to live like victims. Many people feel held back by an experience that happened in the early years of life, whether something that happened in our families or by someone who hurt, betrayed, and/or abandoned us.
The early years of our lives do have the power to shape us, but they don’t have the power to stop us from living the promised abundant life of Jesus Christ (John 10:10). That is why we must take the next action step of a hardworking farmer – there is a process of maturation that we must walk in. Your circumstances don’t shape you; your decisions in your circumstances do!
STEP #3 OF THE FARMER’S STRATEGY: CARE FOR THE MATURING PLANT
If having bad childhood experiences and a broken family of origin wasn’t enough, Joseph was rescued from the first pit only to be thrown into the second: difficult and disappointing adult life experiences. After being bought by Potiphar at the age of 17, Joseph becomes the all-star slave in Potiphar’s household, given charge over everything in Potiphar’s house except one thing, Potiphar’s wife. She was a cougar, but Joseph would not compromise, not even for momentary pleasures. When solicited, Joseph asked of Potiphar’s wife, “How then could I do this great evil and sin against God?” (Genesis 39:9).
Potiphar’s wife lied about Joseph and Potiphar threw his young slave into prison to rot. Another pit! Another betrayal of his trust! Another abandonment by someone Joseph served with his whole heart! He finds himself as a powerless victim of injustice again! Did Joseph choose better or become bitter? In the pit of prison, Joseph stayed close to God and was transformed into the all-star prisoner, as Genesis 39:21-23 states:
But the Lord was with Joseph and extended kindness to him, and gave him favor in the sight of the chief jailer. The chief jailer committed to Joseph’s charge all the prisoners who were in the jail; so that whatever was done there, he was responsible for it. The chief jailer did not supervise anything under Joseph’s charge because the Lord was with him; and whatever he did, the Lord made to prosper.
Joseph makes me think of a diamond. Formed under years of pressure and showcased behind a black velvet backdrop to bring out its brilliance and beauty. Neither the years of pressure nor the darkness of the backstory is beautiful, but the diamond is priceless. “Simply put, diamond formation occurs when carbon deposits deep within the earth (approximately 90 to 125 miles below the surface) are subject to high temperature and pressure.”[1] Everyone wants to shine like a diamond, but no one wants to go through the process of becoming one!
Each of us has a daily decision to make; it’s a choice: to choose better or to become bitter! Your decisions while in the pits of hard adult circumstances shape you by forming your character and determining the direction of your life. Is there a situation in your life that is not going the way you planned? What is the circumstance you would change right now if you had the power to do so? What would you push fast forward on if you could? Maybe, just maybe, God cares more about your character than your circumstances, and in fact, is using your circumstances to shape your character. How can you choose better in your life so that you can reap a harvest or praise, bearing the good fruit of your relationship with Jesus Christ? That brings us to our final action step.
STEP #4 OF THE FARMER’S STRATEGY: REAP A HARVEST OF PRAISE
You may find yourself in a pit, but that is where God does some of His best work to press you, shape you, prepare you to be showcased. God has a plan for your life and the pits you have experienced, are experiencing, and will experience, may be exactly what are necessary to prepare you for the palace that is ever before you. God wants to glorify His name through your life!
Earlier in his life, before his brothers abused him and betrayed his trust, we saw in Joseph a special connection with God through dreams (Genesis 37:5-11). His lack of maturity as a 17-year-old caused him to share his dreams without discretion or humility, but now that he has been put in the pressure cooker of life experience for a long enough period, this diamond in the rough was being shaped with the precision of a master gemcutter. This is a life-long process!
Then in Genesis 40, Joseph was given the ability to help two prisoners by interpreting their dreams and his interpretations proved correct. He asked them to remember him and to put in a good word for him, but “the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him” (Genesis 40:23). Forgotten in the pit again! Two whole years of being in the prison until one day, at the age of 30, after fourteen years of pressure cooking, something happens. Joseph had learned in the pits that spiritual gifts, leadership capacity, and physical charisma were not about him; his characteristics and giftings were all from God. The gifts of God are to be used for God by loving and serving other people. Joseph learned all this before we get to the climax of the story. These lessons were not words in a book study or classroom instruction, but experiences forged into his soul. Joseph was shaped like a diamond, then excavated from the depths of the pit, and then cut by a master gemcutter to be displayed on the backdrop of black velvet. Let’s watch him shine!
In a dramatic turn of events that only the Master Storyteller could orchestrate in the life of one of His faithful servants, Joseph goes from a condemned slave to a celebrated prime minister in the blink of an eye. Genesis 41 captures the pivotal moment. Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, has been given a dream that no one in the land could interpret, but the king’s cupbearer remembers that Joseph could accurately interpret dreams. After being discarded in the pit, Joseph now stands before the most powerful man on earth. A condemned slave, sold by his own brothers who wanted him dead, forgotten by all but God Himself, stands before Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. When Pharaoh asks Joseph if he can interpret his dream, what does Joseph say, “It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer” (Genesis 41:16). [emphasis added]
That is the climax of the story: At a moment when Joseph should have begged for mercy and told Pharaoh he was an innocent man sold into slavery by his brothers, falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife, thrown into prison and forgotten about, what did Joseph do? He declared his faith in God: “My God, in whom I trust, can do anything!” Joseph put his whole trust in God and gave God glory! He chose faith when everyone would expect begging and bitterness!
God transforms Joseph’s character so that he can be a part of His plan to save many and shine His glory to the nations – to reap a harvest of praise! For the rest of the story, Joseph shines to God’s glory and the entire world sees and recognizes God in Joseph as many lives are saved through his leadership. It begins with the pronouncement of Pharaoh in Genesis 41:38-41:
Then Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find a man like this, in whom is a divine spirit?” So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has informed you of all this, there is no one so discerning and wise as you are. You shall be over my house, and according to your command all my people shall do homage; only in the throne I will be greater than you.” Pharaoh said to Joseph, “See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.”
From this moment in Genesis 41 until the last recorded moment of Joseph’s life in Genesis 50 we see that Joseph is the real deal – he is a priceless diamond on display! In his old age, Joseph didn’t abuse his position of power for selfish ambition or vain conceit; rather, he chose to bless his family when they were dependent on his favor and forgiveness. He saw that the pit experiences and the palace experience weren’t about him at all. Joseph learned through it all that his life was about God being able to use every part of his story to tell His story of salvation! Joseph made this clear in his last recorded words from Genesis 50:19-21:
But Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in God’s place? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive. So therefore, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your little ones.” So he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.
For all time, Joseph’s story points to the importance of putting our faith in God through the pit and palace experiences of life – the ups and the downs! Along the way, Joseph had many off ramps to become who God made him to be. By God’s grace, in each crossroad moment, in each circumstance, in each forgotten moment in the pits of his life, Joseph had the choice: better or bitter! The difference between Joseph and others is found in a single word: Faith! Joseph seized the moment, trusted God and didn’t take the off ramp of bitterness. God placed Joseph into the palace because God knew he could trust Joseph with the power and authority. It was in fact his faith through the pit experiences that formed and shaped him for this great responsibility in the place, which was also the ultimate test of His character! God still does this today for those who will trust Him with their whole hearts and choose to get better.