Killing a Bear

This recording is from Willow Creek Church in Winter Springs, Florida where Dr. Pete Owenson is our senior pastor. Today's sermon is part 6 in the offensive Christianity series. This message is titled, Killing a Bear When Trials Threaten Your Life. It's taken from Genesis, chapter 50, verse 20. Now here's Pete with today's message. Father, we come into your presence today. All of us resonating with that song in a deep way, not understanding your plan. There have been so many times when we haven't. We just didn't know why you allowed that trial or that difficulty into our lives. We tried to make sense of it and we couldn't. For some of us we got angry and some of us we got bitter and moved away from you. And in time you brought us back to see that your heart is good. And that your power is for us. Father today we come to you in worship because we need to remember who you are and your totality, father, son and Holy Spirit. We need to be reminded that you are all powerful and we need to be reminded that you are all good. That you are all merciful, that you do rule in heaven and earth. You rule in our lives and that Lord God, we come today because we need to be reminded that what Jesus did on the cross connects into our everyday life. And so we come to you today Lord and we declare that you are too wise to be mistaken. Too good to be unkind. Lord help us to understand your heart at a deep level today as your people. That we could be freed up to serve you and to honor you, to glorify you, to enjoy you, to let the world know more about the God who is, the only God who is. And so we ask now as we look into your word that you teach us and make it apply, make it relevant Lord to our lives. Father before we do that, before we look into your word though we pray for those in this room who need you and there are many Lord. You know the needs of those who are undergoing trials that they can't even hardly talk about. David, Donna, Tom, Rosanna, Joe, Chuck, Harry, and Father others that are going through suffering and recovery and areas that are so painful. But you know all of us as you see this room, it's filled with broken hearts. And we pray that you would touch us today. Thank you. Thank you Lord God for giving us a place to study your word in such absolute freedom as we have here. For living in a country that gives us the ability to be free and know the truth. And Lord, we thank you on this memorial day for those soldiers that have gone before us and literally have fought and died for our freedoms politically and on an earthly level. We thank you that this weekend we can remember them and that we can be thankful for the reality that others have gone before us. We thank you for our soldiers who fight for us today, who fight against tyranny and terrorism Lord and that you would protect them and that you would make their sacrifices not be in vain as Jesus' sacrifice was not in vain. Help us to understand more of his power for us today as we pray these things and the strong name of our risen Savior Jesus. Well it's good to have you here today on this memorial weekend and if you have your Bibles take them and turn to Genesis at the very end as we continue our study and this thing we've been calling offensive Christianity. Not so that we can learn how to become more offensive as Christians, that's easy. What we're trying to do as we study through these key verses in the Bible is learn how we can stay in the game, how we can stay useful to Jesus, how we can stay with fresh hearts following Christ and not get kicked out because there's so many things that can take us out of the game. So many discouragements, so many trials and difficulties that can sort of make us become lukewarm for him that can kind of make us get angry at God and move away from God and looking around this room today I know that we're going to be dealing with a subject that is 100% applicable. I mean I know it, I know it, I don't know all of your stories though I have a list of my along that I pray for every week, I know that this is completely practical for us as we deal with the subjects of trials. Now catch this, if you and I don't learn how to deal with trials and get it from a biblical perspective, we'll be out of the game. We might be filling a pew or a seat or whatever in a church, we may be doing ministry but in essence our power will be taken away from us and so we've got to learn how to fight against trials and deal with them and today we're going to look at Joseph and Joseph's my favorite character from the book of Genesis. Adam is my least favorite character in the book of Genesis and there's all kinds of you know when I get home I'm going to find him, I'm going to find Adam as I know a bunch of us are if we all get there at the same time he's going to be surrounded and we're going to say something like Adam what were you thinking in the garden of Eden? Why did you let her do that? Why didn't you step in? Why didn't you even say anything? Crying out loud but we'll be perfect and we'll be holy at that point so we won't yell at him too much but I still want to know why he let her eat at the tree and why he did too. Adam's not my least favorite character in Genesis, Joseph's my favorite. In fact he's one of my favorite characters in all of the Bible because how he deals with real life and real trials. Joseph is in the hall of fame of faith in Hebrews chapter 11, he's in the hall of fame but he's just briefly mentioned he doesn't get much print at all but of the last 13 chapters in Genesis he gets all 12 of them. It's all about Joseph and so there's really a lot to say about Abraham, how many chapters in Genesis did Abraham get, trivia question? Oh I knew you wouldn't know. He got 15 chapters in Genesis, Jacob only 10, Moses 4 books, Joshua his own book, Samuel 2 books David, there's more written about David, written by David and about David than any other character in the Old Testament. But still Joseph I think is the most overlooked character in the Bible, particularly how he deals with trials and challenges and difficulties and our lives are filled with them and so that's why I want us to talk about what happens when life goes crazy and for some of you life is going crazy right now. Some of you are facing trials that are just pretty normal for everybody living in the suburb it's like the family whose daughter just got her driver's license and she just got privileges to drive the family cars so she went to a party and when she got back late the night before her parents were a little concerned but in the morning well her mom went out to get the paper came back with a frown on her face and about 1130 when her daughter stumbled out of bed she said precious what time did you come in last night. She said well not late not very late at all she said in that case I'm going to have to talk to the paper boy about putting the paper under the front tire of the car. It is a trial when your kids start driving but it's pretty typical and normal it's difficult being a father you know what a father is father is a man who has pictures in his wallet where money used to be. There are all kinds of typical trials James James one two says this consider it all joy my brothers when you encounter various trials I like that consider it all joy that's the hard thing to do isn't it consider it joy oh God thank you thank you for ruining my life as I am to find it consider all joy when you when you encounter James puts it in perspective you will encounter trials I will encounter trials it's only a matter of time they will be of different kinds various kinds various trials they're very different there's political just from living in a culture economic financial relational all kinds of trials we will face them across the board I like first Corinthians 10 13 I listen to this verse a lot it says no temptation or trial has taken you overtaken you but such as this common to man I like to know that I like to know that if I'm suffering you're suffering too. At least somebody in this church is going through what I'm going through I'm not the only one. But God is faithful who will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we are able good there's going to be an end to this trial he'll not be he'll not allow us to be tempted beyond what we're able but will with the temptation provide a way of escape so that we might be able to endure it I like that there's going to be a way there's going to be an out most trials do not last forever even if you want to do that. Even though they feel like they do almost all of them do I was reading in a hunting magazine recently and in the hunting magazine it talked about the two reasons for killing a grizzly I know you've been dying to know this there's only two reasons to kill a bear number one you want to you're a hunter number two you have to you're a park ranger and you found that there's a bear out there that is harming the populace so if you're not a hunter and you want to kill a bear. And you're a park ranger you have to kill a bear because if you don't kill the bear it's going to mess up somebody else's life you can't just move it because you're just relocating the problem you got to kill it trials are like grizzly bears that rise up on their hind legs and all of a sudden before you know what they're eight feet tall. Claws extended a bear cannot retract its claws they're razor sharp and they're and they're looking at you and they've got murder in their eye and they fixed on you they've cocked the cent and they want to take you down you don't kill the grizzly it'll kill you. And so we're going to learn it'll take you out of the game got to learn how to deal with trials because they're going to be there all the time and I want to tell you how Joseph. Joseph dealt with trials but here's the verse for you today for me today Genesis 50 20 Genesis 50 20 I'm going to give you the background on this but we really ought to say it together just to make sure that you didn't stay up too late and are falling asleep on me here it is. Genesis 50 20 and as for you ready and say it again and as for you you meant evil against me but God minute for good in order to bring about this present result to preserve many people alive. This is Joseph's ability to deal with trials but let me first give you a little bit of background for it or it won't make sense. I want to tell you about his childhood which was idyllic his young adulthood which was hellish and then I want to tell you about his mature adulthood which proved to lead to convergence his childhood was idyllic. I mean he was like being raised in the suburbs here in winter spring your kids don't you kids and there's some of you out there you don't know good you have it they don't do that your kids don't and they constantly want more don't they. I mean you keep giving them you say you know I've given you all this stuff can't you at least clean up your room. No unless unless you discipline them unless you teach them unless you force them there's not they're going to take and take and take what. Because that's just the way it is human nature is the take and Joseph had that kind of idyllic childhood. He was the 11th of 12 kids he was the favorite son of his father was he the favorite son of his father. You remember the story how did his father show that he was the favorite son remember the story. Yeah the father gave him a coat a coat of many colors that was like wearing a tuxedo every day in front of all his other brothers and every time he got up in the morning and every time he put that coat on he was saying to his older brothers dad liked me best. You're less than me I better than you Joseph grew up to be a very confident kid. He was he was well thought of he was well spoken of he was confident he was secure as dad loved him his dad spent a lot of time with him not a lot of time with the other brothers. And he was a little naive right like for instance always wearing the coat wouldn't you wouldn't you think that there are some days you ought to just not wear it. Because every time it's slapping your brothers in the face they were older and bigger and more powerful he never got it he was a little naive. And then when he had the dream remember the dream. The dream was that the 12 star you know the the stars bowed down to him and the sheaves of grain bowed down to him and he said family what do you think who is this speaking of. You know the guy was naive he was so because he had such a great child that he just didn't get it and they were checked at him they hated him his brothers hated him the story opens up he's 17 years of age. And and he begins to his dad says hey go check the brothers out see how they're doing bring back a report. Parents the worst thing you can do to your kids if you have more than one is to let them think that one of them is more important than the others. He's got his favoriteism kills kids as well as it kills the rest of them it kills the one upon whom you've bestowed favoritism but it kills the rest of them too. And their hearts were angry so when Joseph came up to check them out the fight you know with his little clipboard you'd almost imagine he's got this clipboard you have the flocks in a nice field check their water nearby check they're protecting from the walls check you know he's out there checking them out and they see him coming. So we're going to get this sucker such as brotherly love and he comes up to them and this begins his young adulthood when instead of killing him you can read the stories I'm not going to read 12 chapters today you leave. But they threw him they threw him into a pit and sold him in to slavery they would have killed him make no mistake about it except there was more money in selling him. They figured they'd never see him again so he began the hellishness of his young adulthood whereby he was sold in to slavery. Now having said that that he's entering into the young adulthood I'm going to tell you about that in a minute I want you to know that some of you are saying you've used hell improperly talking about anything in this life as though it could be as bad as hell and you're right I'm glad you pointed that out. Our trials no matter how bad they are and I say this somewhat with a broken heart as I look around and I see that the pain that you suffer and the difficulties that you're going through no suffering on earth is even this much like what hell is and Jesus talks about hell. In fact in Mark 947 he says if your eye causes you to stumble cast it out that's how bad hell is if it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than having two eyes to be cast into hell look at this where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. Charles Spurgeon said you shouldn't talk about hell unless you're about ready to weave I can't talk about it anymore at this stage in my life because I've got friends who still reject Christ. I figured I'd bring God would use me miraculously to bring him to Christ and he hasn't and they listen to my sermons every week but they're not interested in Jesus and these guys mean a lot to me. And hell is a very long time reserve for those who reject the forgiveness and the grace of the living God of the universe hell is for those who continue to stand and stiff neck rebellion against the God of the universe. Why do we do what we do why do we spend the thousands of dollars that we spend building buildings and sending missionaries and providing programs and why do we get here every week partly so that we can bring the gospel to people who are dying and will spend eternity separated from God. So I want you to know that I have a real clear sense in which as I use this phrase the hellishness of Joseph's young adulthood is nothing compared to hell really but Satan sometimes brings his hellishness into our lives in earth and it can be very difficult and that's why what you go through can be just so devastating. So incredibly painful in Joseph's young adulthood he was sold in a slavery and then he became the slave from the favored son were in all the best designer polo robes back then he comes from being the favored son to being a slave. He was bought on the open market potter for Ferro's bodyguard captain body said you okay now you're going to manage my household and when he looked at Joseph and gave him some stuff to do he realized I don't think he became the manager of the house right away I think he gave him some stuff to do and said this guy knows what he's doing manage this I can't even keep a check book. Joseph could and he got to managing the house Joseph was a good looking young guy Egyptian women were incredibly promiscuous potter for his wife comes on to Joseph Joseph runs not typical not typical now women run away from temptation men walk away slowly hoping that it will overtake them right. Joseph ran from it he ran from it and was put back in jail and the and the jailers finally saw he could manage that area too so he's running that he developed his gifts in the midst of the trials he developed his natural God given talents that's one way by the way that you deal with the trials you face you look at the God given trial God given talents. And you begin to develop them you can't fix everything so you go on doing what God has given you to do and you try to develop and at least you try to control what you can control but you can't control everything. Joseph tried to develop the natural gifts that God gave him and so he's running the jail and then he gets out because he interprets the dreams remember that if you haven't read this this is one of the most group 13 gripping chapters in Genesis read this this is great. He eventually interprets the Pharaoh's dream and the Pharaoh gets him out of prison and now he goes from running potter for his house from running the jail now he's running the country and he's the most second most powerful man in that part of the world that was his that was his that was his young adulthood years and years of trial and suffering in prison and being neglected and praying and having not having got it all. Answer the prayer how long God are you going to answer that for at the ends at the end of that he's the hero in a of Israel of Egypt because the famine came Joseph's big contribution was not interpreting a dream Joseph's big contribution was telling the Pharaoh that a famine was coming and you better prepare for it. And when he prepares for it when you prepare for it you always got this gift you deal with it like a good leader he delegates it and Joseph really saves Israel because by creating the bread basket of that ancient world there in Egypt he saves his family who come down and live in Egypt. He saves he saves Egypt as the power saves the Pharaoh member back in labor in Genesis 12 when I said that Abraham was was called by God he said I'm going to make you into a mighty nation where did that nation develop in Egypt. He used Joseph to fulfill the promise to Abraham to build the mighty nation so by the time of the Exodus and Moses there are about a million people coming out of Egypt Israelites God used Joseph's trials to build the nation to fulfill the promise. Did you catch that God used Joseph to fulfill the promise that he had made to Abraham. And that's why Joseph could make a statement like we have on on that verse in his adult mature adulthood what happened to Joseph the text of scripture is silent but the implication is is that for the rest of his adult life he served in that position as prime minister more than prime minister you know prime minister doesn't have dictatorial powers a prime minister stays there only as long as his power his party will let him stay in power. He is the second and come is the second dictator in Egypt and he spent the rest of his life it seems like utilizing his gifts and talents of leadership and administration and developing and protecting the people and all these growing Israelites down in the land of Goshen he uses convergence few people reach convergence. We're all of your talents and experiences kind of come together and you're not bothered by those things anymore that you really don't like to do you get to focus on your major gifts and talents seems like Joseph was there but he did it he got to convergence I believe because he dealt with the trial properly. He was kept in the game of serving God because he dealt with his trials you and I can become and it's almost a cliche but when it comes to the trials and the sufferings that we go through we can become better or we can become better we can be sideline and destroyed emotionally or we can be like Joseph having lives that are productive what did he do to deal with the bear that was right right rose up ahead of the trial. The trial of being separated from his family of thrown in prison of being totally out of control do you feel out of control some time happy is the Christian who understands that they never were in control they never will be in control but God their father is in control. Joseph did two things deal with the trial first of all he really knew his enemy he knew his enemy as for you you minute for evil here's the background of this verse that I want you to memorize this Jacob his father is dead now. This is so good Jacob's dead they lived a very long time back then and and Jacob you imagine having a pastor for a hundred years and finally finally died you know yeah 14 generations of people didn't know any other pastor but this one Jacob lived forever finally he died though and all of the boys 12 tribes of Israel they were all older guys now and now they thought they had the big thought on their head because boys understand revenge don't they. You who are raised with older brothers understand revenge and they're thinking dads dad's dad Joseph has been covering up his anger for all of these years we're trouble Joseph is the most powerful man besides Pharaoh in the world we're in trouble he's going to get us so they concocted this whole plan Jacob didn't say this but they came to Joseph at before verse 20 and they said dad said it's in the original text this way but that says Jacob but it's kind of like this you know what dad said before he died we were there all of us were you dad said forgive the rest of the brothers forgive us all dad said that we heard him and Joseph knows exactly what they're feeling only when you have absolute power having had absolute weakness can you understand the fear of the brothers and he understood he understood that's but first what he said to them is as for you you men evil against dealing with the trial he looked them right in the eye and he said you guys meant evil against me and I believe that it's very important for us as we deal with trials to do what Joseph did he speaks the truth he speaks the truth in love he looks at the brothers and he said you guys let's not candy coat this you really wanted to hurt me you really wanted me dead I think that helped him being able to say it to be honest with you men it's for evil you wanted me out of the picture when when when we deal with trials see and we need to understand that there are trials that come from different sources some trials come to us from events we live in a broken world some trials come to us by events cancer you get hit by another car you know there's done people born every day but they're but we're all we're all falling some events happen to you because of just stuff the economic change economies change earthquakes happen hurricanes happen events happen and were affected by those trials because we live in a broken world some events some trials come to us by people who really do want to hurt you like Joseph's brothers it's an evil world is a broken world there's some people that want to get you and why they want to get you I don't know you tick them off you out of business deal with them that went south they blame you maybe they shouldn't blame you but they do there are people that there are people that really do want to hurt you then there are people that hurt you and want to hurt you but they don't care particularly about you much you know they'll steal it'll break into your car steal your laptop but they don't they wouldn't a personal thing if it was my car they'd have broken in and stolen that they don't really care about you and it's important to understand that there are some very very evil people out there who will do you harm partly because they want to get at you and partly because they just they're angry themselves they're greeting themselves they're sexually addicted themselves they they they they they do all of these things they're not afraid to hurt others but they don't have a personal vendetta against you the personal vendetta is the most difficult aren't they? where david said that it was somebody close to him who was really trying to bring him down those hurt the most but any trials can hurt deeply deeply deep one enemy sometimes you can you can change your enemies into friends but there is one enemy you can never change into a friend as name is Satan and you will never ever ever persuade him to be your friend and Paul says that we're not ignorant of his schemes Peter says be a sober spirit beyond the alert your adversary the devil prowls about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour Satan fills some evil people who are out there to looking just looking to devour to destroy to hurt you we're so often surprised when people heard us why we should be surprised when we see good what joseph did that helped him in the midst of his trial was to name the enemy and we would do well to learn from that whether it be an event a person maybe God has even put a test in your life he's not your enemy but he will test you never bring evil to hurt you but to help you and develop you know your enemy number two believe in God's transformational power this is really how joseph did it joseph I think spent a lot of the years in prison a lot of the time in the no man's land of being left alone understanding that trying to figure it all out but he understood God had the ability to transform the trial into good only God has the ability to do it he believed in the sovereignty of God I'm glad for paramedics and we had paramedics show up at our house once when one of our kids had an asthma problem and but when they showed up they said what's the problem what's going on they came in from the outside to help us and I'm glad they did sometimes we tend to think God is a paramedic that when something goes wrong in our life we say God help and he shows up he says what's wrong what's going on here how can I know God's not a paramedic God is sovereign and that means as joseph understood that your whole background is known by God and some way all that he wants to do through you is connected to what happens to you and what he therefore wants to do in the rest of the world that takes a lot of faith that's what Joseph had he knew that God was sovereign and that his sufferings were not disconnected from what God was doing in the world God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result to bring to preserve many people alive God is not surprised at our suffering Joseph knew that his trial had a purpose for other people and this is precisely the point that we tend not to engage our trials we tend not to think how is God wrapping up my trial into his kingdom advancement to pursue his goals and when we don't do that we get angry and bitter and frustrated it's so difficult Stephen Arburn was asked why God uses pain in our lives said because he knows us he knows that most most people will not change until the pain of circumstances exceed the pain of change I mean do you want to change you want to grow up do you think Joseph wanted to become even more of a mature man than he was I doubt if in his young adulthood he said God whatever it takes you break me down to make you what you want me to be you ever said that I know people who have I did those I regretted those words so often because God says really because that's what I want to why did he save us number one he saved us for himself Rick Warren you know I can't get away from these words in the purpose driven life there is a people ask me he said what is the purpose of life and I respond in a nutshell life is preparation for eternity we're made to last forever and God wants us to be with him in heaven I may live 60 to a hundred years on earth but I'm going to spend trillions of years in eternity this is the warm up back the dress rehearsal God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity we were made by God for God and until you figure that out life isn't going to make sense God is like like you did with Joseph trying to shape our character because he wants us for eternity that's why he sent Jesus for you so he could have you for trillions eternity doesn't mean anything to me okay want you to know I struggle with that but trillions and trillions of years now that begins to speak to me you're kidding he wanted to hang around me yeah but not like I am he wanted to change me so he could hang around with somebody a little bit better Jesus died for me so that he could make it possible so he could continue to conform us to his image so that for eternity God would have all these cool kids hang around a large part of our trials are to develop our lives our souls are character for where we're going to spend the bulk of our existence and then like Joseph some of our trials are so that God would extend his kingdom through you to preserve many people alive I think the last thing I think of when it comes to a trial is God how can I help other people through this piece of hell that you've allowed into my life most of the time you did that I don't do it either I struggle with this and yet Joseph continues to speak to me because he says you didn't even say here God I want I want you to make life cool God meant this trial for good in order to bring about this present result to bring to preserve many people alive and I think that was Joseph's key in life as he realized this world was not just about how God could make him more comfortable but how God could conform him to his image and then transform his life into usefulness to other people and that may not help right now for some of you who are going through very difficult times but I have I have friends who were who were suffering through the loss of a child who are helping others today because of the loss of that child friends who were homosexuals who are helping others today who are homosexuals pastor friends who have lost their positions who are not helping other pastors who lost their positions I'm not hoping the elders would meet today for a review of my job but the only way that you and I can be unleashed is when we see the bigger plan of God to develop our hearts for eternity to use our suffering for the good of others because he can put together in a way that nobody else can you're suffering

in his plan if you don't know Jesus the only thing I can ask you and invite you too is to invite him into your life as Savior because only he can make sense out of it and we do invite you to embrace Christ so that you may have the resources to deal with the hell that sometimes is unleashed upon you if you are a Christian I encourage you to connect up in a community group we've gotten some for men on Wednesday nights and Thursday mornings women Thursday nights we've got them all throughout the week for couples connect up now before you feel the fury of hell and need support somebody said we live life forward but only understand it backward that may be true Joseph understood it we may not but we can still defeat the grizzlies know your enemy and believe in God's transformational power I'll take it to heart if you'll take it to heart I'll pray for you if you pray for me

father we're your children today and trials bring us to our knees trials shake us Lord out of the confidence of very productive jobs and a very secure femininity or masculinity Lord trials shake us you know that other make us into women and men like Joseph of character like him we could honor you no matter what happens so that for eternity Lord we enjoy you that way that we can't explain right now be with your children as they suffer we pray in your holy name

Willow Creek Church is associated with the Presbyterian Church in America our website is www.willowcreekchurch.org and our phone number is 407 699 82 11