CHOOSING FORGIVENESS

(INTRO) JUSTICE: GIVE THEM WHAT THEY DESERVE

[1]WELCOME: Good morning everyone! If you’re new with us this morning on campus or just now joining us online, my name’s Nic Cook. Thanks for choosing to worship with us today. If you’re new with us here on campus, please let us know you’re here by filling out the connection card. If you’re new with us online, hit that like button or say hi in the chat section. We’re finishing off our teaching SERIES: called PEAKS AND VALLEYS based on the life of a man named Joseph. The story of Joseph starts out with a young 17-year-old man who is arrogant, self-centered, and headed for repeating the cycle of sins that his family has modeled for him. He then ends up being betrayed, beaten, and sold into slavery. He ends up overseeing a wealthy estate, then falsely accused, and tossed into a prison cell. However, as bad as things seem, God has been with him the entire time, and Joseph ends up running the prison. Last week we see that Joseph finally gets out of the prison and ends up as second in command of all Egypt. This roller coaster ride of a life has taken 13 years. Through the peaks and valleys, God has taken this sinful broken young man, and been transforming him into someone who serves and loves like Jesus. He’s learned to be humble and steadfast. And as we come to a close, Joseph’s story comes to a climax. It’s the moment in the story where we expect…[2]

· THE BAD GUYS GET WHAT THEY DESERVE: This attitude is deeply engrained in our minds. It permeates every action movie. There’s Hans Gruber, the bad guy from Die Hard falling to his death after terrorizing the good guy the entire movie. There’s Scar getting ripped apart by his own army of hyenas after being spared by Simba. We cheer when Draco Malfoy gets punched in the nose by Hermione. The movies just give us fake characters that fulfill a deep sense of wanting to punish those who hurt others. However, in our own personal lives, we don’t drop people from buildings, or even punch them in the nose. We’re more civilized today. We cancel people. We cut them off. We harbor grudges and hope bad things happen to them. [3]An example of this is a woman who was a successful communications director for match.com and vimeo in 2013 got on a plane from New York to South Africa. She only had 170 twitter followers, but she tweeted some things about a German guy needing deodorant, British people having bad teeth, and a pretty awful racist tweet about Africa and Aids. She went to sleep on the plane and when she got off, her last tweet had gone viral and was the number 1 tweet worldwide. There was an outrage as 10s of thousands of people tweeted hateful things, called for her to get fired, and threatened her life, or at least waited on their social media feeds just to see her get punished. As she got off the plane, and she had been fired, couldn’t find a place to stay, and her life would never be the same. Now, I’m not condoning her behavior. What I do want to propose is that we as human beings tend to destroy each other in the name of “justice”. We’re quick to point out peoples flaws and want to see them punished. And as we’ll see in a moment, God’s ways are usually very different from ours. And he wants us to show the world a very different approach to dealing with others. What might the world look like if we responded to the failures of others the way does. So, let’s open up our bibles to [4] [Gen. 42:1-10, 50:15-21] [5-12]

(TEACH/APP) GOD’S: SEAT, PERSPECTIVE, BLESSING (God)

BACKGROUND: Last week we stopped with talking about Joseph being elevated to the highest place of power in Egypt, just below Pharoah. And we saw that he faithfully serves God and sets out following the plans that God had revealed. During the first seven years of service, the crops grow like crazy and he helps build silos, and collect a portion of the food for the coming seven years of famine. Then when the famine came and the crops failed, there was food in Egypt. However, the famine didn’t just affect Egypt, it affected the whole region, including Canaan where Josephs family was. They were in danger of starving, so Joseph’s father Jacob sent his brothers to Egypt to buy food. We’re not going to cover everything that happened, but I would encourage you to go back and read chapters 42-50 on your own. When Joseph’s brothers get to Egypt, they end up standing before Joseph himself. They don’t recognize him because he doesn’t have a beard, he’s dressed like an Egyptian. And they never could have dreamed that their little brother would run Egypt. Yet here they are bowing down before him. Sound familiar? Remember there was a dream about his brothers bundles of wheat bowing down to his bundle of wheat? Here it is! But Joseph knows that God’s plan has not come to completion because the second dream included his Father and Mother bowing before him.

Joseph does not punish them, but he does put them through a series of tests. If you read the story, it may seem like Joseph is punishing them, but the truth is, the tests he puts his brothers through are miniscule in comparison to what they did to him. We also see that Joseph takes no joy in seeing his brothers squirm, worry, and deal with their guilt. Many times, he ends up crying because he loves them and can’t reveal himself to them yet. He needs to know if they have changed, or if they are the same violent, selfish, ambitious men who sold him all those years ago. Are they the kinds of men who would abandon and trade another brother or two for food or better position in their families. The answer to that is, kind of. On the one hand we see them start to wrestle with guilt about what they’ve done to Joseph. On the other hand, they do leave one of their brothers alone as a slave and don’t come back to Egypt until after the food they had bought ran out. However, Joseph ends up revealing himself to his brothers and his entire family comes to Egypt. Josephs father Jacob comes to Egypt, bows before his son Joseph, and the whole family settles in Egypt. But Josephs brothers aren’t convinced that everything is okay. In [50:15-18] Basically, they say, before Dad died, he said be nice to us! Which is funny, because we don’t actually see him say that anywhere. But Joseph’s response is amazing. He says three things, first he says…[13]

· I REFUSE TO TAKE GOD’S SEAT: [Gen 50:19] “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God?” He says there is only one God, and I’m not him. There is only one true judge capable of administering justice perfectly. Did Joseph have every right to be upset and angry and want justice? Absolutely. [14]

o The problem with human justice is that it often leads to REPETITION & ESCALATION instead of REDEMPTION. It’s like in the movie “The Princess Bride”. “My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” You killed, so I kill. An eye for an eye. Ghandi, once famously said “an eye for an eye, leaves the whole world blind.” You hurt me, I hurt you, eventually everyone is hurt and blaming everyone around them. It escalates. You hurt me, so I’m really gonna hurt you. And finally, after enough hurt happens, we begin to kill. We kill their reputation. We kill them by refusing to associate with them and pretend like they don’t exist. And if we could get away with it, we think I wish there was a way to just make them go away. Jesus knew this. At one point, one of his disciples asked him, “How many times do I need to forgive my brother or sister who sins against me?” What’s the cutoff line Jesus? When do I get to retaliate? When do I get to cut them off? Other Rabbis say 3 times, so what about 7. That seems like the kind of thing you’d say. Double it and add 1 for good measure just to be extra full of grace. And Jesus says, how about 490! And we go, okay, I’m at about 28 so I’ll just keep track to make sure. Just kidding. Mostly. Then Jesus tells a story about a man who had been forgiven of a debt that would have taken 200,000 years to repay. Instead of being thrown in jail for the rest of his life, the King allowed him to go free and his debt to be forgiven. He had a new start. That man then turns around and confronts someone who owes him about a 3 months’ worth of money and beats him and throws him in jail. Jesus basically says, you are all the first guy, and God lavishly and unbelievably forgave you of an unrepayable debt. Don’t turn around and treat others differently than God treated you. So, Joseph, says I’m not going to take God’s place. If you deserve justice, I’m going to leave that up to him. [15]One of Jesus’ disciples named Paul said it this way “17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.” [Rom. 12:17-19] Be a person of peace in a world of revenge. Secondly Joseph says…[16]

· I CHOOSE TO LOOK AT THINGS FROM GOD’S PERSPECTIVE: “20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” [Gen. 50:20] At this point, this isn’t wishful thinking. Joseph can actually look around and see how God was able to take the sinful things that had been done to him and use them to feed and save an entire region of people from starvation. If we look at just the story of Joseph we see that somehow GOD’S PLANS CAN’T BE STOPPED REGARDLESS OF HUMAN SINFULNESS AND FAILURE. But let’s go back a little further. Let’s look at Josephs dad, Jacob. Jacob sinned against his brother and stole his financial place in the family and ended up having to run away from everything he knew. But then he ended up meeting his wife Rachel. He was sinfully tricked into marrying Rachels sister Leah. Jacob ends up having his first son named Judah with Rachel. He ends up having his next to the last son with Rachel named Joseph. Judah sins badly. But we also see in [17][Gen. 49:10] Judah is called a Lion. Someone who will be the lion of Judah will come from his family line and will be a king and the nations will obey him. And God used the sinful actions of him and his brothers to make sure that Joseph came to Egypt so that the family of God would not die out during a famine. We are called to look at the truth that Joseph declared and claim it as our own. No matter how much these guys messed up, God brought about his plan through them for thousands of years to come. WHAT APPEARS TO BE DONE TO US OUT OF EVIL WILL IN THE END BE USED BY GOD TO BRING ABOUT GOOD. WE MAY NOT ALWAYS SEE IT, BUT GOD DOES. UNDERSCORE [18]That also means, any mistake or sin you make, is not going to destroy God’s plan for you! Too many times we think, if I make the wrong choice, I’m going to miss out on God’s plan for my life. Oh, that decision I made back in my teens, twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, sixties, made it impossible for God to use me. God only has one plan for me, and I must be careful not to mess it up. And if that were the case, we’d all be in big trouble, because we’ve all already sinned and made poor choices. But God in his goodness, can see and anticipate our choices, and still make his plans for us and this world work. YOU CAN’T MESS UP GOD’S PLANS AND NEITHER CAN ANYONE ELSE. AMEN! Take a deep breath and sit with that for a moment. Thank you, Jesus. Now lastly, Joseph has refused to take God’s seat of judgement and punish his brothers, and he looks at the pain they’ve caused him and seen how God has used it, but he also says…[19]

· I WILL NOT JUST FORGIVE BUT SHARE GOD’S BLESSINGS THOSE WHO HURT ME: 21 So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” [Gen 50:21] It’s amazing enough that Joseph forgave his brothers for what they had done to him. But here is a telltale of someone who has been radically changed by love. People who have experienced the amazing abundant forgiveness and blessing of God want others to experience the amazing abundant forgiveness and blessing of God for themselves. FORGIVENESS IS JUST THE STARTING LINE. Reconciling relationships is good, but it’s not enough. God wants to see human relationships restored and flourishing.

(JC) WHERE’S JESUS? (JC)

Look at the life of Jesus! Jesus had every reason to want to see the bad guys get what they deserve. The Father, He, and the Spirit, had all created a masterpiece of beauty and goodness, and given it to us and we smashed it. We said, we don’t want or need you. We’ll take it from here. And we broke ourselves, we broke each other, and we broke this world he created. And Jesus didn’t want to leave us in our mess, so he left heaven and become one of us. And we killed him. We betrayed him and nailed him to a cross and left him for dead. And instead of giving us what we deserve, he took our place and our punishment. What we meant for evil, God used for good. The ultimate evil used for the ultimate good. By his sacrifice we are forgiven. But Jesus came to do more than just forgive. He came to reconcile us. To make our relationship with God and each other better than they were before. Not only that, but Jesus blessed us above and beyond simple forgiveness. He was pulled from the pit of death and elevated to the highest heavens. [20]And he didn’t just reconcile us, but he abundantly blessed us. He gave us his holy Spirit to live inside of us. He gave us the ability to live lives full of forgiveness, love, joy, peace. He has made us part of his family the church and given us thousands upon thousands of brothers and sisters. He has given us gifts that can change others lives and change the world by bringing his kingdom here on earth. He has given us an eternal inheritance, the promise of a place in an unending joy and satisfaction in the new heaven and new earth. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ! [Eph. 1:3] Pray! Lord Jesus, may we be a people who have experienced your abundant forgiveness and goodness, and seek to share God’s abundant forgiveness and goodness with others.