"Examples of Faith – Joseph: God's Grace is Bigger Than Your Story"
Hebrews 11:22 & Genesis 37:1-11
- This message was preached by Youth & Outreach Director, Hunter Newton, on November 12, 2023.
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Audio Transcript
And also Pastor Robert pray for him and Mary. They’re doing well. They’re in Florida right now. And he said that their rental car was supposed to be like a Hyundai Elantra and they got upgraded to a Dodge Charger. So they’re having just fine time.
This morning they’re at a marriage retreat for the Forest Lakes District of the fca. All senior pastors and wives are gathering down in fort this week, so pray that they would be encouraged and enriched. This time this morning, we’re going to be camping out in Hebrews. We’re going to be spending a little time in Hebrews 11 as we’re making our way through our examples of faith. Then we’ll be spending most of our time in Genesis 37.
So if you want, you can start turning your Bibles there now will be in Hebrews 11:22 first. And then we’ll go to Genesis 37:1,11. And I’ll just invite you to listen to me as you’re turning. And so just to kind of set the scene, there once was a young moisture farmer who lived on this planet. And he drank blue milk and he had an aunt and uncle.
Those were his only family that he had left. And he had great dreams to be this incredible fighter pilot for a galaxy far, far away. And he had these great dreams. But then all of a sudden, like, his aunt and uncle died in what was meant to look like an accident. And these robots show up.
One of them can even speak like 6 million languages, something crazy like that. And this old guy named Ben shows up. He’s like, sometimes you can call me Obi Wan. I don’t know. And he’s like, I’m going to lead you.
And then all the one thing leads to another, and this young moisture farmer is leading this ragtag group of misfits against this evil galaxy. And if you haven’t figured it out, we’re talking about Luke Skywalker in Star Wars. Why, though, in the world would I share that? What in the world does that have to do with the story this morning? It’s kind of to help us set the scene because we’re going to be spending three weeks looking at the life of Joseph, somebody who had some pretty terrible things happen to him.
Luke Skywalker’s life has this bleakness to it, and of course, it’s not a real thing. But as we’re looking at Joseph, we’re looking at this week his life before slavery, his life during jail or during slavery, and his life after slavery. And in Luke Skywalker’s story. I share that two reasons. One, because Star wars is awesome.
And two, despite a messed up story, God can or good can still come out of it. And of course, Star wars is as fake as it gets. But in our really real reality and the one that we are living in right now, our great God, the God of Abraham, Moses, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, is very much at work. And so our big points, our big idea today, you think of it as kind of a table. That is the main point, is that God’s grace is bigger than our story.
It’s bigger than your story, however you want to say it. That’s our main point. That’s what we’re presenting. That’s the overarching idea. And our three supporting points, if you think about it, is three table legs, three supporting points, so that God’s people are chosen, God’s people often face opposition, and that God’s people will be redeemed.
So God’s grace is bigger than my story, your story. And we’ll dive into Hebrews 11:22, and then we’ll, we’ll go ahead to Genesis 37 together. Hebrews 11:32 says, sorry, 11:22. By faith, Joseph, as he was nearing the end of his life, mentioned the exodus of the Israelites and gave instructions concerning his bones. And if you turn with me to Genesis 37, 1:11, it says, and Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.
These are the family records of Jacob. At 17 years of age, Joseph tended sheep with his brothers. The young man was working with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought a bad report about them to their father. Now Israel, that’s another, just an idiom that’s synonymous for Jacob. Now Israel loved Joseph more than his other sons, because Joseph was a son born to him in his old age, and he made a robe of many colors for him.
When his sons saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not bring themselves speak peaceably to him. And Joseph had a dream. When he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. He said to them, listen to this dream I had. There we were binding sheaves of grain in the field.
Suddenly my sheaf stood up, and your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf. Are you really going to reign over us? His brothers asked him, Are you really going to rule us? So they hated him even more because of his dream and what he had said. Then he had another dream and told it to his brothers.
Look, he said, I had another dream, and this time the sun, moon, and 11 stars were bowing down to me. He told his father and his brothers, and his father rebuked him. What kind of dream is this that you’ve had? He said, am I and your mother and your brothers really going to come and bow down to the ground before you? His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.
So ends the reading this morning. So God’s grace is bigger than your story. Our three points again. God’s people are chosen. God’s people often face opposition.
And God’s people will be redeemed. Let’s just look at that first one. We’ll be camping here in verses 1 through 7. I’ll admit there’s a bunch of different ways you could probably break up this passage. A few different cool themes you can point out and notice.
This just makes the most sense. And we’re just going to march through this together, 1 through 11, just verse by verse as we tackle it this morning. So right off the bat, we’re introduced to Joseph. Probably plenty of us are familiar with Joseph. He’s one of our famous Sunday school stories.
And maybe you’re thinking immediately, yep, yeah, he had the goat or he had the coat of many colors. And eventually, like when his brothers made it look like he was dead and that whole story, and there’s a picture of me in a Sunday school coat wearing that somewhere. But he. That’s how we’re probably most familiar with Joseph. And we don’t necessarily think about the other implications of his life.
We know that he never did anything wrong. He. He’s also his dad’s favorite. So I guess that’s something that he and I have in common.
But from the very start, it’s clear that Joseph is set apart. It’s very clear because through Jacob, God chooses Joseph. He’s the favored one. And this might hurt our 21st century American sensibilities. This might just immediately set off radars or red flags.
Like, that’s not fair. That’s not right. How could he have a favorite? Parents aren’t supposed to do that. That’s not okay.
In what sort of sense is that Is that suitable? Why would God let that be in his Bible? And I get it. I have the same thoughts as you as I read the text. That doesn’t seem to make sense.
But Jacob’s life, if you know it through Genesis, is never one of the greatest example. Yet he ends up in the hall of Faith.
Why Would Jacob choose one of his sons to be the favorite? Well, the text says. Says it’s because of his old age. That’s when he had Joseph. But I also think it’s connected to the fact that this is how the Lord tends to pick his people.
The Lord tends to choose his people. All throughout the Scriptures, we see God picking different torchbearers, different people that carry on his plan and his path of redemption. Israelites were God’s chosen people first, right? And then we. We think of their lack of faith, and there’s so many times where we just wish they could get it together.
But then if we’re reading the scriptures humbly, we’re like, wow, I really wish I could get my act together. Or you think of one that stands out the most to me is Rahab. You want to talk about the least likely of people for God to pick, Rahab’s got to be towards the top of the list. If we just read down in Hebrews 11:31, it says by faith, Rahab the prostitute welcomed the spies in peace and didn’t perish with those who disobeyed. In Hebrews 11, we call oftentimes the hall of Faith, these exemplary people of the faith.
And it says that she’s a prostitute. And the writer of Hebrews is not writing that she’s a prostitute here because the readers would have forgotten that. They would have surely known as soon as you said the name Rahab, they would have known that. They would have instantly thought of who she was. And he’s not writing it here because that’s her primary identity anymore.
I believe he’s writing that there because he wants to draw emphasis to it, saying Rahab the prostitute can be used by God, one of the most unlikely people possible. You want to talk about somebody who would be in the Old Testament, ceremonially unclean. It would have been not a good thing for a lot of people to be near her. At least they so would have thought.
The writer of Hebrews includes it in here to emphatically declare to the reader that once again, God can, will, should and does save and use even the most unlikely of people. The disciples are a great example of this too, aren’t they? If you’ve watched the show the Chosen, you probably noticed some of that tension playing out on the screen. Just the two examples that come to mind right away. You have Peter on one hand, kind of this rebel, and he never wants to pay his taxes.
And Matthew has basically betrayed his people and being a tax collector and gouging his people and so Peter wants to pay no taxes, even though he’s not supposed to do that. And Matthew wants him to pay all of his taxes. And even then, some. Like, he’s got this lavish house. And we see this case play out on the screen, these two totally different men who were absolute basket cases.
Like, sometimes, if we’re being honest, we’re reading the Scriptures like God. Are you that one yet, like God did with Joseph, Jesus did with them. He chose his people. He chose every one of his disciples. And I’m not sure how familiar you are with how rabbis did things, but it is similar to how, like, colleges or seminaries go ahead and they take applicants, you apply to go there.
And I’m guessing they probably didn’t check ACT scores or any of that kind of stuff, but you still had to apply to be a student of theirs. But Jesus flips that on its head. And he chooses his disciples. He chooses those students who are going to follow and walk with Him. Nobody did that, but Jesus did.
And he looked at them in their individual circumstances, not because there was anything great going for them, but he says, I want that one and that one to be a part of the greatest redemptive history that the world has ever known, the only one that actually matters.
But before you get all worked up and you’re like, well, God chooses his people. That’s not right. That’s not fair. How is that any better? To be clear, nobody’s chosen.
And they go kicking and screaming into heaven. Nobody’s like, I really don’t want to follow God. It’s a really real choice. It’s a really real choice that God chooses us, but we get to choose him too. And we see the emphasis through throughout the Scriptures of needing to remain faithful to God’s word and follow Yahweh, they still had to choose to follow Him.
And if you’ve trusted in Christ, you know how great of a choice that was and still is.
Ephesians 1:4:6 says, for he chose us in him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in love before Him. He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he lavished on us in the Beloved One, where in the Old Testament, God declares this to be true of Israel too. In Deuteronomy 7:6, it says that, for you are a holy people to the Lord your God, the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth, and we see time and time again God choosing his people, remaining faithful to his people, but they need to still keep choosing Him. I don’t want us to get worked up about the semantics, but I want us to see that for the kid who was picked last at recess, the most average B minus student throughout all of school, the upper level management employee at Lodi Cannon company, the farmer who runs a thousand acres, the firefighter, the whoever needs to know and be comforted by the fact that God looked at all the peoples of all time and he said, I want you.
The God of the universe looked at the world. Not only did he create us, but he said, I want you. I’ve been listening a lot to an Australian worship band. They’re called City of Light. They’re just marvelous.
And they have one song that gets me every time. It’s called Jesus, Strong and Kind. And they just have some of the simplest lyrics. I’m not going to sing them because nobody wants that, but I’m going to. But I’m going to read them for us this morning.
And it’s a good chunk of a stanza, but the last little bit gets me every single time. Jesus said that if I thirst I should come to him no one else can satisfy I should come to Him Jesus said if I am weak I should come to him no one else can be my strength I should come to him for the Lord is good and faithful he will keep us day and night we can always run to Jesus Jesus, strong and kind Jesus said that if I fear I should come to him no one else can be my shield I should come to him for the Lord is good and faithful he will keep us day and night we can always run to Jesus Jesus, strong and kind Jesus said, if I am lost he will come to me. And he showed me on that cross that he will come to me.
He will come to us. He will choose us. He will not run out on us. He will not forget us. He comes to us.
He wants us. He desires us. He wanted Joseph then and he wants us now. And Jesus says in John 16:33, and I actually prefer the way the English Standard Version says it instead of our Pew Bibles. He says in John 16:33, I have said these things to you that in me you may have peace in the world, you will have tribulation.
But take heart, I have overcome the world. I love that phrase. Take heart, take comfort, be encouraged. He says, I have overcome the world’s brothers and Sisters, take heart. The God of creation has chosen us and he wants us.
And he will see us fast until the end. Take heart. He wants us today, tomorrow, forever. He chooses us. But he also is with us through opposition.
So we turn our attention to verses 8 and 9 here. There are a lot of things you can think about in verses 8 and 9. We might be tempted to think that Joseph is just merely being arrogant. We might be tempted to think if we’re reading and we’re being honest, like, I maybe would relate to what his brothers are saying there. Like, what is this guy talking about?
Even his dad, who’s seen God do some incredible things, he’s like, what? What do you mean? I’m gonna bow down to you. That doesn’t make any sense. And so I think it would be a mistake to read that as if Joseph was being arrogant.
I think it would be really important to keep in mind that he’s simply doing what God has called him to do. If the Lord has given you a vision or a dream and aligns clearly with Scripture, and in this case it seems to be prophetic, I would tell somebody about that, wouldn’t you? Like, you have to filter to make sure it stands and tests against God’s word. Because we can’t just be claiming to have visions all the time. But if it stands and sounds like what God has called us to, then we should be excited about that.
And Joseph is doing exactly what he’d be called to do. He’s getting a vision, a dream, something from the Lord. But his brothers and dad clearly don’t see it. Because we can just picture them, can’t we? Like having this conversation off to the side.
They’re probably like, there goes Dad’s favorite again. There goes the guy who thinks he’s quite literally a gift from the Lord. What an arrogant jerk. Or if we just go down in verse 18 of chapter 37, they said, There goes, oh, look, here comes that dream expert.
It seems, though, that Joseph is doing exactly what he’s supposed to be doing for the purpose of God’s glory. But God’s people shouldn’t be surprised when opposition. When these things come against them, we shouldn’t be. Jesus warns his disciples countless times over. That’s a fun exercise sometimes.
Just read. How many times has he warned us in the Scriptures that Jesus gives direct, like, hey, this is coming for you. Or how many times does Paul do it? Or Peter does too? In 1 Peter 6 or 1 6, 7, he writes, you rejoice in this.
Even though now for a Short time if necessary. You suffer grief in various trials. So the proven character of your faith, more valuable than gold, which, though perishable, is refined by fire, may result in praise, glory and honor, the revelation of Jesus Christ. Friends, I’m not saying this to bum us out, but suffering and hardship and persecution are just going to come for us. It’s a part of the Christian faith.
It’s a part of. It’s not what we look forward to, but we get to be refined like fire. Peter says, in fact, our Chinese brothers and sisters pray for us. They say, I wish, I pray, Lord, that you would bring persecution and hardship to the American church so that their faith will be refined, so they would be strengthened by it.
They pray that for us. Joseph is experiencing that firsthand. He’s doing exactly what he’s supposed to be doing. But he’s facing opposition. We shouldn’t be surprised.
We know that we don’t face things that are just flesh and blood, but we face opposition that is not flesh and blood. We face the opposition of evil itself, of our flesh that still lives in us, that has not been totally redeemed yet, that has not been made new. We face Satan and his demons working against us like crazy. And it’s not quite the same. But you’d have to think similar to the story of when Mary gets word that she’s supposed to give birth to Jesus and.
And we don’t know the ins and outs of what all Joseph exactly knew. But you want to think about another example of somebody doing exactly what God has called her to do and it says that Joseph was maybe going to divorce her. Again, we don’t know all the ins and outs. And Joseph receives it humbly, but God intervenes. Or maybe you’re thinking about somebody who’s hurt you or a family member, someone from your small group, somebody who’s sitting in the pews today.
A classmate, co worker. When we’re trying to help them. Because even when believers are doing exactly what they’re supposed to be doing, it’s not going to always go exactly how it’s supposed to or how we think it’s supposed to. The results are never, ever promised to feel good. We love Romans 8:28.
It’s beautiful. We put on coffee cups, put it on the fronts of our Bibles. It’s really comforting. It’s a really sweet promise. Let me just read it.
Because it says we know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. Yes, and amen. That is Good news. All things work out for my good. But the problem is, a lot of times I think that my good definition of good should match up with God’s.
And it should, but they don’t always. And so sometimes I’m elevated or think that I’m elevated, that my good should always trump what God thinks is good for me. That’s not right at all, is it? When our definition doesn’t line up with God’s, we need to submit and line up to. And we should be continually praying, God, would you give me a new heart and mind and help those things to line up together.
Romans 8:28 is a beautiful example because it’s a right and beautiful promise. It’s just that God’s definition of plans for good often don’t feel or look quite the same as our plans or thoughts about good. And even when it does not feel good, or when it feels downright terrible or we’ve made a mess ourselves, they’re not a surprise to God. He’s not sitting there wringing our hands, saying like, well, you know, Matt didn’t get the chance to share the gospel with somebody weak. I don’t know what I’m going to do.
Or that small group’s kind of got some division going on, or somebody’s going through this or that. God’s like, he’s not sitting there, like, I don’t know how to handle this. He’s not surprised. The infinite all good creator Yahweh knows these things and cares for us. And most importantly, you know, as the middle of these things are going on, he sees us, he knows us, he understands even more than we do exactly how hard it is to go through what we are going through.
It’s hard for us, but it’s, it’s also so hard for him. You know how hard it is if you’re a parent to watch your kid go through something that’s incredibly difficult. It’s almost more difficult. You’d rather have that happen to you. He sees and knows our pain and even when it’s self inflicted.
So we fight these powers of the enemy, but also we’re a lot of times fighting ourselves. We’re fighting the sin that still lives in us. We’re a new creation, but there’s still flesh left over. Over in Hosea 11, 8, 9, we read, this is God talking. How can I give you up, Ephraim?
How can I surrender you, Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboim? I have had a change of heart. My compassion is stirred.
I will not vent the full fury of my anger. I will not turn back to destroy Ephraim, for I am God and not man, the Holy One among you. I will not come enraged when God’s people, Israel, are not doing what they’re supposed to be doing. He says, I still cannot come to destroy you. He says, my compassion is stirred in me.
Hebrews tells us that we have a great high priest who’s able to empathize. Of course it’s Jesus, but. But also, please, we’re gonna face these oppositions, but please don’t try to go through it alone. Like, you need to have this personal relationship with Jesus. We need that.
That’s our most vital relationship on this earth. But please don’t try to say, it’s just Jesus and me. Just Jesus and me and podcasts. Like, I can do this online. I can only do online.
Like, I mean, of course there’s circumstances where online is totally okay. And we saw that during COVID And if you have health stuff, I’m just exploring explaining myself a little bit too much here. That’s okay. But we. But we’re like, I just can.
I’m just Jesus and me and my Bible and that whole thing, like, I don’t need anybody else. I can do this. And that’s really dumb. That’s really dumb. Because we see all throughout the scriptures, God’s people need each other.
In the New Testament alone, there’s the phrase one another 91 times. 91 times. God is trying to get our attention. He’s trying to sell us. We need one another.
We cannot do this Christian life alone, nor should we try to. We should never try to do that, because we need people in our lives doing life, helping us run the race. And I want you to know that Lake Wisconsin is a safe place to do that, to be vulnerable, to find your people who are walking with Jesus, and you say, this is my junk. Like, this is the darkest parts of me. And you don’t do that with everybody.
Like, when somebody asks you how you’re doing at the coffee table, probably not the time, but you still should find your two to three people and then get in a small group, get worshiping here on Sundays and delight in what God is doing. But find your people to walk through hard seasons, but also great seasons. Romans 12 says, Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. We should not and will not try to walk through opposition alone. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran pastor who was in Germany during the Time of the Nazis.
And he said just so beautifully about Christian community. He says, in the presence of a psychiatrist, I can only be a sick man. In the presence of a Christian brother, I can dare to be a sick. Whether it’s confessing sin, sharing a struggle, celebrating a win, whatever it is, we need Christian community to run through these things with, because God’s grace is bigger than our story. And God can meet us with his grace through some incredible brothers and sisters in Christ.
That’s why we gather, that’s why we’re here together, to be encouraged, to build one another up, and also to spur one other on in the faith. This was true for them then, and it’s true for us now. And he knows God knows that we’ll face this opposition.
Admittedly, this has been one of the harder ministry seasons in my life, and God has been really faithful and kind, but there’s still been things that have just been incredibly difficult. And right in the sermon, I was feeling, honestly, very defeated. But if you’ve taught God’s word or if you just studied it in depth at all, you know, a lot of times he has to help you see what you’re trying to show somebody else. And this point just smacked me right in the face. Like, why should I be surprised?
I’m teaching God’s word. Satan hates that. Why should I be surprised? God sees it and he knows it. And he’s been so incredibly faithful and kind.
I shouldn’t be surprised. And neither should we when things happen, because God’s people often face opposition. But God’s people, though, will be redeemed as we make our way to verses 10 and 11. I should have thrown in verse nine in there, too. Like, maybe you’re kind of reading that and you’re saying, where’s the redemption?
Like, I know he’s just the youth guy. He’s, like, kind of finished with seminary, but not really. Maybe we’ll just let him swing and miss on this one. Like, that’s okay. Maybe that’s you sitting in the pew right now.
But I used to think that too, until I saw in Revelation 12, just turn there with me. It’s just such a beautiful. Such a beautiful connection. We get to see Revelation 12, 1:6.
A great sign appeared in heaven. A woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and a crown of 12 stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in labor and agony as she was about to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven. There was a great fiery red dragon on having.
Sorry, fiery red Dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on its heads were seven crowns. Its tail swept away a third of the stars in heaven and hurled them to the earth. And the dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she did give birth, it might devour her child. She gave birth to a son, a male, who was going to rule all nations with an iron rod. Her child was caught up to God and to his throne.
The woman fled into the wilderness, where she had a place prepared by God to be nourished there for 12, 60 days. Let’s just read verse one again. It says, a great sign appeared in heaven. A woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and a crown of 12 stars on her head. That should sound familiar because that’s Joseph’s second dream.
And so we see this beautiful connection from one end of God’s word to the very other end. We see that the connection that a Hebrew reader would make almost instantaneously, immediately connections should be familiar. This is talking about Joseph’s dream. Dr. Paige Patterson used to be the president of the Southern Baptist Convention. He also writes in the New American Commentary on Revelation.
He writes, what can be asked, given the fact that many of John’s readers would be Jewish? What identification would a Jewish individual immediately make with the radiant woman clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, and a crown of 12 stars on her head? For any Jewish reader, this would call to mind the dream of Joseph recorded in Genesis 37, a dream that failed to endear Joseph to his 11 brothers, the second of Joseph’s two dreams recorded in Genesis 37, 9. So the sun, moon and 11 stars bowing down to Joseph and the similarity of the two visions be brought to any Jewish mind, especially given the propensity of John to be influenced by the Old Testament. The Messiah is to be realized as one of the promises to Abraham.
He makes that promise in Genesis 12. He says, I will bless the world through you. The Messiah will be born to the offspring of Abraham. He will be a Jewish Messiah. The only effective and appropriate identification of the radiant woman, then, is to see her as the ethnic offspring of Abraham, the Jewish people.
This accounts for the fact that many scholars have claimed that the radiant woman is representative of the Jewish nation which gives birth to the Messiah. End quote. There. Joseph’s dream here is pointing to the Messiah. And so when we read and look at that, it just seems kind of bleak.
It says, well, they. His father yelled at him, actually. He said, what are you doing? You’re speaking nonsense. Here, kid.
But there’s a beautiful picture of redemption. It’s a beautiful pointing to Jesus. It’s a beautiful. It’s really sweet when we see these things in the Old Testament and if we’re careful to look, they happen over and over again. And this pointing to Jesus.
And Jesus was going to come from the family line of Abraham, actually the family line of Joseph’s brother Judah. And while Joseph probably didn’t realize the full extent of his dream, like he probably didn’t, he maybe did. I’m going to say that he probably didn’t know everything that his dream meant. God did. God knew exactly what he was doing.
And God was promising to his people then that someday they’ll be redeemed. He’s saying, I have not forgot about you. I’ve not forgotten. I’ve not abandoned you. I won’t leave you.
He’s saying, someday all will bow to His Son. Someday all people will be redeemed if they know Christ. And for us on this side of eternity, we know he’s talking about Jesus here. Jesus has already come. He chose us.
He lived for us, he died for us. And he victoriously rose again for us. And he’s going to come back someday. And in the same way that we look forward to Jesus returning is the same way they would have looked forward to his first coming.
We await this Messiah’s any moment return in the most unlikely of circumstances. God is saying through Joseph that He was going to make a way for his people. And if your kid came to you and said they had a dream, I think Jacob’s reaction is kind of understandable there. Like, what do you mean? I’m going to bow down to you.
What’s beautiful though is that, is that redemption, God’s redemption especially is so much bigger than our story, so much bigger than our understanding, so much bigger than what we could possibly have come up with on our own. And so we see this red thread, maybe you’ve heard this illustration before, this red thread that runs throughout all the scriptures of God’s plan of redemption. God promises as soon as the fall happens, as soon as Adam and Eve create this cosmic flow fraction as soon as Adam and Eve make distance between an ever holy, all loving, all great, almighty, just totally sinless God. God’s promising Genesis 3 that he’s going to make a way for them to be redeemed. And we see that happen there.
We see this happen in Genesis 37. We see this just story running throughout this redemptive arc, running throughout all of the scriptures, culminating in the totally God, totally man joy Jesus, who is the redeemer, who is the promised Jewish Messiah, and he accomplishes victory over sin and death and Satan on the cross and in his resurrection. And he accomplishes that, and it culminates there, but it’s going to culminate even more fully when he returns and makes the new heavens and the new earth. This runs throughout all of God’s word. And he’s promising time and time and time and time.
300 times in fact, before even Jesus comes to the earth. I will bring a Messiah, he says. I will bring a Messiah. I will redeem my people. And for those of us who have known and trusted Christ, we have a personal relationship with Him.
We know this is a great and tremendous hope because he has not forgotten us and has not abandoned us. No matter how we feel sometimes, and it’s really easy to feel that way. He has not abandoned us. Spurgeon said that he who counts the stars and calls them by their names is in no danger of forgetting his own children. He knows your case as thoroughly as if you were the only creature he ever made or the only saint he ever loved.
Brothers and sisters, he cannot forget us. And he’s absolutely bent on redeeming us. He’s absolutely bent on buying us back. He’s absolutely bent on making a way for us to be with him forever and ever.
Because his grace is bigger than our story. Romans 6 says that where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more. Where sin just kept going and going. Since the there’s grace to cover all of that. There’s grace to cover everything.
Because we cannot out sin the cross of Jesus Christ. No matter how much of a mess of our lives we’ve made, we can’t out sin it. If we come back to him in genuine and honest repentance, if we have real, genuine relationship with him, we cannot out sin his grace and mercy. To think that we can out sin is to diminish how, how big and how incredibly vast, wide and deep and beautiful God’s grace is. We cannot out sin the cross of Jesus Christ.
And if we know Jesus, we need to take heart in that. It’s not a sin free pass, but God’s grace covers it. If we know Jesus, we can take heart and that God will redeem us. God will care for us to the end. But a challenge and practical point of application, we take heart in it.
We should be comforted by the fact that God will redeem us. But also we should be wondering, where have I failed to believe that God has chosen me. Or maybe as we’re looking at God’s opposition, or where are we failing to believe that God’s grace is bigger than our circumstance? Where are we looking at that? Because everybody has at least one part of their life that they struggle to believe that.
A part where our theology doesn’t match up with our heart belief. A part of our life where we’re thinking, yes, I believe that on paper, but I’m really struggling to trust God with this. And for me, lately, an area I’ve struggled to believe that God’s grace is capable and able to cover my sin. In our finances, we are doing totally fine. We are not broke by any sorts of means.
We’re on the Dave Ramsey train, drinking all of the Kool Aid on it and just trying to tackle debt after debt after debt, and we’re doing that. But I have struggled to trust that God can take care of me in that I spent way too much time researching side hustles and all these sorts of things. I have struggled to believe that God will take care of my finances. And again, it’s not because we’re broke. We’re doing just fine.
But I have struggled to believe I have sinned and not trusting that God’s grace can cover that area of our lives.
God’s grace can meet me there.
But what’s that been for you? What’s that been for us? That’s a question. We should walk out of here. God, I’m struggling to believe you with this.
And so that’s a practical point for believers. But if you don’t know Jesus or if you’re maybe on the fence or you just like, come because makes your spouse kind of happy, or you really believe that the donuts, you just love those in between services. Or maybe you’re thinking that you don’t need this grace or that God doesn’t care for you in the middle of it, or that you don’t know Christ, or that there’s no way that God could ever want you. Let me promise you that none of those things, none of those things are true. There’s nothing that we need more than the grace of God ever.
We need God’s grace more than we need the breath in our lungs. We need God’s grace more than the lunch we’re going to have at Lucy’s after. We need God’s grace more than anything we could possibly imagine. We need to know and be made right with God. So be made right with him because of the finished work of Jesus.
And let me Invite you to accept that because this is reality. I think it’s really tempting to think about spiritual things as out there sort of ideas, but this is reality. Like we live in a spiritual world that God rules and reigns over. And this is what is happening. And what’s really sweet about that is that his grace is bigger than my story, than yours and everyone’s.
And so there’s two fundamentally groups of people in the room right now, those who know Jesus and those who don’t. And so as we look at these things, as we wrestle through these things, as we try to take something away today, let me just go ahead and lead us in a word of prayer for those two groups of people and just in general blessing as we enter our time. So I’m invite the worship band back up, let me just go ahead and take these things to the Lord in prayer right now. God, we love you and we thank you and you are wonderfully mighty and holy. Holy and beautiful.
And for the Christian in the room, help them to take heart to knowing that you care for them, that they are chosen, that when opposition comes to you, you are not surprised that you will redeem them. But more importantly that you can cover their biggest struggle, their biggest problem, even when it’s self inflicted. God, help us to drink deeply and enjoy your grace and help us to confess to you and to brothers and sisters, areas of our life that we don’t believe that and that we’ve been made right with you in it. Help us to enjoy your gospel and drink it down deep. Just as we would love to see so many people in this room do, but also for those who in the room who don’t know Christ.
We pray that you would draw them to yourself, that you would help them see for the first time how beautiful and wonderful your mercy and your grace is and the need to be made right with you. We know in your word that you say that those who confess confess with a mouth. We also need to believe with the heart. The confessing result in the mouth. Sorry, confessing with the mouth results in righteousness, but believing in the heart results in salvation.
And God, you are so kind to do that for us. We pray that you draw them, that they would tell somebody and that we will be able to minister to to both people who do know Jesus and people who don’t know Jesus. We thank you for the chance to worship you and delight in the God that you are. Oh how sweet and merciful you are to us. Father, it’s in the beautiful and strong name of Jesus that I pray.
Amen.