Sermon Notes & Videos
2021-12-17 | Genesis 47-50 | Card Carrying Member Since 1745 BC
Sometimes it’s hard to appreciate what really took place when all it is to you is words on a page. Think about history for a moment. Pick any historical narrative, and then consider how you view that memory. You likely see it in your mind as a still picture. Maybe you see it as a short video clip; that would be minimally closer to reality. But, have you ever tried to place yourself inside those scenes? Have you ever tried to live out “a day in the life” of the real person who actually endured what you experience as a photograph or a movie?
I’ve actually done that. I’ve tried to imagine myself as a soldier during the American Civil War. I’ve pictured myself frozen in my tent at night, with soaking wet boots, no way to keep warm, hardly a fragment of food, and desperately missing my loved ones. I’ve contemplated the real possibility of dying the next day, or worse yet, becoming mutilated and having to die in slow motion, while laying twisted and broken on a mucky and icy battlefield, as my life slowly slipped away, afraid, in agony, and maybe with some regrets. And what I just described is a single day in what could have lasted four years for many real soldiers. Just one dark night, of 1,488 dark nights, is all I’ve imagined. Has this gruesome painting become visceral enough for you, real enough?
Now, try reading the Bible the same way, imagining being there in real time. For a moment, stop painting pictures of characters on a page and, instead, see yourself as the one who had to endure Joseph’s 13 years of pain and sorrows, or his father’s agony of loss for 22 years. Have you ever tried to imagine yourself being there and what it would really take to persevere for so many years? Or, do you rather stay hyper-focused on your own little world of immediate needs?
Let’s practice. The Bible describes these years in just one sentence. You can dismiss it as quickly as it takes to read, or you can contemplate all the years this sentence represents. “Joseph saw Ephraim’s children to the third generation.” One verse…three generations. You can assume it was all sunshine and rainbows and move on, or you can further investigate Ephraim’s life and witness what it took for Joseph to see those three generations. Reality check! Ephraim’s first three sons, Shuthelah, Ezer and Elead were all murdered. Yes, “Joseph saw Ephraim’s children to the third generation,” but first he witnessed the horror of his grandsons being murdered. It’s so much more than one verse.
My admonition to you today is to stop focusing on yourself for a day, and try imagining what that was like for Joseph and Ephraim. And then go one step further and feel all their pain while still proclaiming “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
2021-12-10 | Genesis 44-47 | I Am Joseph
It’s all beginning to make sense. That’s what happens when you finally see the big picture, what Yahweh had planned all along. At times it was just a complete mess; you could see nothing good in the series of disasters that had become your life. But, all of a sudden it all comes into focus. God brought you through this place, to this place, for just such a time as this. Now what?
This is when extreme humility must prevail; and more than humility—absolute meekness. You get to face all the naysayers, everyone who inspired you to give up, those who were bent on helping you curse God for your struggles. You might even come face-to-face with the culprits who were complicit in the whole debacle. They were instrumental in your demise. Now what?
This is the moment in time in which Christ-likeness must abound. “Forgive them Father, they didn’t know… Hey, don’t worry, it wasn’t your fault… This was God’s plan all along… And it all happened just so I could help you!” Can you imagine such graciousness, such meekness? You have all the power at your fingertips to make them pay; you have every opportunity to shout from the rooftops, “It’s all your fault; I hate you; I told you so!” But instead, you weep and you take hold of those who harmed you in your arms and say, “I love you; I’m here to help you; I’m here to provide for you; don’t worry about the past for even a moment; it’s all God and I wouldn’t change a thing.” “I am Joseph.”
2020-12-03 | Genesis 41-44 | New Wineskins II
It would seem that in creation mankind was clothed only in the skin on his body and in that form he reflected the glory of God. Something happened when sin came into the world. Man looked upon the glory of his own body, and instead of seeing the glory of God, he became afraid and attempted to cover what he now saw as “nakedness.” What took place next has great prophetic significance. God saw man’s new sense of embarrassment over his original glory and accommodated him by causing him to be covered with a “new skin”, an animal skin, a certain downgrade.
This downgrade would now plague mankind into the future and does not seem to have a complete resolution until the revealing of the sons of God, at which time “creation is restored.” Our ultimate hope is to be clothed with a restored heavenly image, so we shall not be found naked, like Adam.
The theme of being clothed in either sin and shame or glory and righteousness, is something that is well-defined in the life of Joseph. And this too is the exact choice you must make. “Do I remain clothed in sin and shame, or do I allow myself to be sanctified from glory to glory?” This, as I often say, depends on one thing only; will you take on your new identity in Christ, in other words, become a new creation, or do you insist on returning to the old you? It’s the choice every Christian must make.
And, taking on your new identity, or putting on a new skin that reflects God’s glory, is something that our Savior taught us in a short parable: He said it like this; “No one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” It’s time to put on your new wineskin!
2021-11-26 | Genesis 37-40 | How Do You Eat an Elephant?
Do you ever feel discouraged? Of course you do. How often is it because you are certain that God has made certain promises to you, and yet there is one disappointment after another? The twists and turns of the unexpected can get pretty exhausting, don’t you agree?
I’ll let you in on a little secret, one hiding in plain sight. Yahweh’s delay is not Yahweh’s denial. The Scriptures are filled with God’s promises and we could fill a book with how many times the journey towards those promises goes sideways. Wait a minute, we already have the book that is filled with those stories.
But seriously, you could probably fill a book with your own stories. And what I want to share with you today is how to be encouraged, even in the midst of what seems like a complete denial of God’s promises. Just think about Joseph; he had a few really incredible prophetic dreams in which he was promised a powerful role in leadership, however, on his journey he was stripped naked, sold into slavery, accused of rape, thrown into prison, and seemingly forgotten. And consider Tamar, Judah’s daughter-in-law, as she was promised three successive husbands from the sons of Judah, yet she remained childless.
Well, Joseph ultimately landed in command of the most powerful nation in the world, and Tamar gave birth to a son from whose line came the Messiah. No, God’s delays are definitely not His denial. They are just part of a much bigger plan. Think of if this way: How do you eat an elephant? Answer: One bite at a time!
2021-11–19 | Genesis 32-36 | Zeal or Zeal
It can get really confusing at times. A righteous anger rises up inside of you, or is it? It feels right; it must be right. Surely Yahweh will punish this heinous act. Surely He hates unrighteousness. I can read it in the Bible.
Just look at what He told Saul to do! “I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel…go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them.” And just read how He blessed Phinehas for ramming a spear through a Moabite harlot and her Israelite boyfriend; “Phinehas has turned back My wrath from Israel…because he was zealous with My zeal; …Behold, I give to him My covenant of peace; and it shall be to him and his descendants…because he was zealous for his God.”
And yet, when Simeon and Levi jumped into action and killed Shechem, his father Hamor, and all the males of the city because Shechem raped their sister Dinah, their father Jacob was infuriated. He later calls them “self-willed instruments of cruelty” and removes a blessing from them.
So, how do you know if you are being a Phinehas or a Simeon? Paul had the answer; “…being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.” Phinehas must have been acting in obedience, Simeon and Levi, not so much.
What motivated their behaviors? Phinehas was zealous for God, and made atonement for the children of Israel. In other words, his actions ended unrighteousness and saved lives. Jacob’s sons, on the other hand, killed many, plundered the city, took all the wealth, and enslaved wives and children. Their motivation was carnal and atoned for nothing. What is motivating your zeal these days and how do you know?
2021-11-12 | Genesis 28-32 | Behavioral Patterns
What’s your problem? You know, everyone has at least one. We’ve all witnessed or endured something significant. I would not have to press too hard for you to remember at least one serious event or circumstance that was so impactful that it is now lodged in your brain. It’s stuck in your mind as if it is actually engraved in your memory.
As you search your memories, and consider both sides of those meaningful events, whether you were the perpetrator or the victim, I am confident you will find several. And what you will notice, as much as you’d like to ignore it, and as painful as it might be to contemplate, the cycle of those traumas have repeated over and over again. I am sure this has made you wonder; “How can this keep happening?”
Well, the answer is rather simple…it boils down to our Behavioral Patterns. Whether you like it or not, we have all inherited corrupted DNA, just like Jacob. Let me be clear, this is not an excuse, especially for the Believer! Let’s just call it a reason, not an excuse. The Bible encourages us; “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Wouldn’t getting rid of those Behavioral Patterns be included in “all things”? The answer is a resounding YES!!
The Biblical account of Jacob’s journey, after he was asked to depart in search of a wife, points us to several Behavioral Patterns. We must, must recognize them; and even more critical, we must forbid ourselves from repeating them!