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I’m going to invite you to Genesis chapter 47 is where we’re at together today in Genesis chapter 47 with a message. I didn’t intend to necessarily be that timely, but if you’ve watched the news in the last 24 hours, you know this is probably a more significant title over some things that have transpired in our country in the last little bit. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, I want to live in that hole with you. Whatever world you’re a part of, welcome me to that with you. But today we’re going to talk about how to be a healthy leader in difficult days. How can we be a healthy leader in difficult days? And I want to just say a couple things about this title as we get ready to get started. And one is, um, there’s there’s really not a secret to being a healthy leader in difficult days, because a healthy leader should be a healthy leader regardless of what the day brings. Um, now, it may be that when you go through difficult days, it helps refine your focus and what it should look like and being a healthy leader. Right. But, but my hope for all of us is that our walk with Jesus is so deep that no matter what the day will be, whether it’s easy, difficult, good, bad, whatever, that you just drip the sweetness of Jesus in your life no matter what. Now, for some of us, sometimes it takes some shaking and waking up for us to recognize what in the world am I doing and how? How can I align my life with Christ? Maybe a difficult day it takes for us to to recognize there’s more to life than what we’ve been doing, and we see our need for the Lord.
But sometimes when it comes to our our level of commitment, if it just simply takes a difficult day for us to realize, man, I need to live for Jesus. Sometimes that response can be purely emotional, and we see the challenges and we can get serious for a minute, but that seriousness may not endure. And what God calls us to is something more than just simply circumstantial leadership. But God desires for you to be a healthy leader no matter what, and especially in difficult days. Now, when I when I use the phrase healthy leaders, some of us may look at that and be like, well, you know, I hope to be that one day, but I’m not ready for leadership now or I’m not there yet. I’m not a leader. But I think it’s important for you to know, as a follower of Jesus, that God calls you to be ministers of him and to live on mission, which means all of God’s people are leaders. For him, it’s just a matter of what you’re leading people to. Right? Is your leadership really healthy or not? And when it comes to the idea of leadership, I think the most important thing to recognize what leadership is, is, is not about having a title.
You know, there are plenty of leaders in this world that have titles and nobody follows them. And just because you have a title doesn’t make you a leader. Leadership is about influence and how you use your influence for for the glory of the Lord or really the glory of yourself. And so what God certainly calls us to do as his people is to be healthy leaders, no matter the days. But we want to be specifically particular in difficult days, because we recognize that there is a definite need for the Lord. And if you’ve paid attention to our country at all, you realize, man, our country is not getting better. And so therefore, it’s important for God’s people to really understand what this means. And Genesis chapter 47 is one of those chapters that that helps us walk in light of this, um, particularly dealing with the life of Joseph, which is where we’ve been now, I want you to know that when theologians, commentators, commentators come to this chapter, there’s actually some division over what they think is happening in this chapter. And it really starts in verse 13, that some people think that that Joseph is making some people say that Joseph’s making godly decisions for the well-being of Egypt and his family. Other people think he’s actually taking ungodly steps.
And verse 13 is really where that dividing line comes between theologians and and commentaries on where that falls. And if you want to know where I fall on this, I don’t think Joseph is taking ungodly steps at all. Rather, I think he’s found a way to honor the Lord and bless the people where he is. He’s demonstrating healthy leadership in a difficult time. And one of the reasons I think that Joseph is doing this is that he’s he’s set the precedent for who he is as an individual before the Lord. And we’ve seen this as we’ve read his story. If you remember, in Genesis chapter 39, Joseph is propositioned by a woman to, uh, tempted by a woman to follow ungodly steps. And rather than follow that, he chooses to walk with integrity in this world. And she goes on to accuse him of something that he didn’t do. And it cost him to the point that he’s thrown in prison. So in the midst of temptation, he honors God, and when it costs him, he honors God. And when you get to Genesis chapter 40, when he’s in prison, he’s still honors God. In Genesis chapter 41, he’s taken out of prison to interpret a dream for Pharaoh. And when he interprets the dream for Pharaoh, he tells Pharaoh, God’s given you a dream that says, there’s going to be seven years of plenty, seven years of famine. And in verse 33 of chapter 41, he tells Pharaoh the kind of individual he needs to look for in order to lead Egypt through this time, and he tells him, find someone that is wise and discerning.
Find someone that’s not going to take advantage of people in the time of plenty. Find someone that’s got the wisdom to lead people in the time of famine. That’s the kind of individual he tells Pharaoh to seek. Pharaoh looks around and realizes that person is Joseph, and he appoints Joseph to lead. During that time, and not only do we see him in godly leadership when he has plenty, but we see him as a godly leader when he has little. It didn’t matter the circumstance for Joseph. He knew who he was before the Lord, and he honored God whether he was in good days or difficult days. And you see this, uh, finally in Genesis 45, when his family comes to Egypt during the famine to get food. If you remember Joseph’s story, he was sold into slavery over 20 years prior because his brothers were jealous of him. His family had no idea what happened to him. His brothers come to Egypt because there’s a famine in their land, and they know Egypt has food. Joseph recognizes them immediately, but doesn’t reveal himself right away. He wants to find out what kind of men they’ve become. But. But Joseph, rather than retaliate to his brothers with with vengeance, with wrath being the second in command of Egypt, he had the position and authority to do it.
But rather than that what he offers is grace and forgiveness. So for Joseph, it wasn’t about what what was happening around him that determined the kind of man he was. He already knew who he was because he knew who he was before the Lord. So. So for us, as we look at this chapter, we’re going to talk about how how can we be a healthy leader in difficult days. And there’s two questions we’re going to answer. What are we to do and how are we to do it? What are we to do and how are we to do it? And when it comes to what are we to do? I want to lay a theological foundation for us that’s repeated throughout all of Scripture. It reminds us of who God calls us to be and then really how God calls us to respond. But but point number one in your notes is this what what are we to do? We are to carry our my personal responsibility. We are to carry our personal responsibility. And you see this repeated throughout Scripture. Um, and here’s what I think is very essential for us to know as God’s people. Because if you don’t hear this in light of the gospel, what you’re going to come to understand is just religious do gooder attitude, right? This is not it’s important to understand that our our response as believers, it flows out of our relationship with God.
It’s not to get God to love us that we do good things. It’s because God loves us that we respond in love in return. And here’s what I mean. Religious people will live their lives thinking, oh, oh no, God’s mad at me. I better do something nice so that he owes me, right? I better come to church on Sunday so God can be happy with me. And that way I can have my Monday to Saturday and come back to church on Sunday again. I better follow those rules, you know? So I don’t want to tick got off or make God mad. And you know, when I tip the scales of good versus evil, I’ve done more good than bad. So God has to embrace me. It’s constantly making God serve, serve you. It’s making God bow down to you because you, in that sort of mentality, you think God owes you by the religious performance of your life from from a Christian worldview. Here’s what we recognize. God owes me nothing but his wrath. God doesn’t didn’t have to do anything for me that the as a sinner, God is completely just and judging me. But here’s what’s incredible God pursued me in my sin, in my ugliest state, in the in the worst of me as a human being, God demonstrates his love towards me. That’s Romans five eight.
Jesus gave his life for me when he didn’t owe me anything. No one’s ever loved me like that. But because of God’s love, I now have freedom in Christ, forgiveness in him through the cross. And I have a relationship with the Lord. And when someone does something generously to you, human nature is we want to just do something in response, give a gift back, or just extend our love or thanks, whatever we can do to show our appreciation for that. And that’s the Christian life. We don’t do something because we have to. We do something because we want to. It’s an outflow of who we are because we’ve found our identity in the Lord. We were created to know him and to walk with him. And so the outflow of our life is to honor him. And and throughout Scripture you see this reciprocated in second Thessalonians three. It says, for even when we were with you, we would give you this command. So Paul is writing this letter. He’s saying, I’m not with you right now, but it doesn’t matter if I was with you or not. I’m telling you this, if anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. Meaning the natural consequence of not doing stuff. A lazy person is starve, right? Like that’s. This this is what he’s saying is that you were made to reflect God’s glory in this world. The reality is, as a human being, you’re going to reflect something with your life.
You’re going to honor something with your life. It’s a matter of what you worship. That’s what’s going to determine what you honor. If it’s yourself, you’re going to see this world for your purpose and treat people like tools to honor you because it’s just about you. But when you realize you were created for more than yourself, you were created for God’s glory and what God has done for you in this world, that he’s given his life for you. Not only did he create you to know him, he’s recreated you at the cross. Now you have this opportunity to live for his glory. And so when God made when God made us as human beings in the Garden of Eden, he he told us in Genesis chapter one verse 26 to 28 he said, And God made you in the image of God, male and female, he created you. And in verse 28 he said, be fruitful, multiply and subdue. Well, God is saying is, look, Adam and Eve, I created this Garden of Eden, and I want you to take this garden and I want you to multiply it throughout the world. I want wherever you go, to be blessed, because you’ve been blessed by the presence of God in your life. And so Adam and Eve saw the beauty of the garden, and they were commissioned and called out of the garden to be a blessing to this world wherever they go.
But that wasn’t God’s intention just for Adam and Eve. That was God’s intention for all of us. That wherever we would go in this world, that the world would be a better place because we have found who we are in the Lord. And now we have the opportunity to take what God has given us and bless others, because we’ve been blessed in him. And so for all of us, there’s we carry a personal responsibility. In fact, first Timothy five says it like this. But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. Now, this person has no idea who they are because God has made them for a reason and that is first to know him. And as they know him through that relationship with him, live for his glory in this world. To understand there is purpose for which they have been created, that you’re going to honor something, you’re going to do something in this world. Why not make it something that matters? Something, something that counts? We all have a responsibility to carry. In fact, there’s a book by a man named Henry Cloud called boundaries, and Henry Cloud talks about these two points that I’m going to I’m giving you to start the sermon. But he says it like this. He starts off when it comes to boundaries. He says it’s important for everyone to understand we all have a backpack to carry in life because we all have a responsibility, and you’re not made to carry someone else’s backpack for them.
In fact, it’s hurtful to them because they never they never learn what it means to reflect God in this world because they won’t carry their own responsibility. And the older you get, the more you get in that backpack, the more responsibility that you have. But it starts off young parents with children helping your children understand what it means to be responsible. And that’s important to do because one day they’re going to become adults. And when they don’t learn to carry their own responsibility, guess who’s going to be carrying it? It’s going to start with mom and dad. And so it’s important for you to, to learn how to to help them mature and develop so, so, so natural consequences become a way to do that. For example, your kids have homework and maybe one day you might have get in a call as a, as a parent where your kid calls you from school. Mom, dad, I forgot my homework. Can you bring my homework? And you can say, well, I’m glad you were responsible enough to to do your homework, but you also need to be responsible enough to know when it’s supposed to be turned in. So therefore, whatever the consequence of that natural consequence is teach you next time.
Remember your homework, right? Or or you can choose to carry their backpack. But but it’s important as parents to learn to think about how am I helping my child develop and carrying their own responsibility? Because as they get older, they’re going to have more responsibility in life. And the more responsibility that you have, the greater blessing you can be or the greater destruction that you can present. But we all have a backpack to to carry in this world. Now that’s important to think about. What does it mean in light of my relationship with the Lord and being set free to carry this backpack in this world? Now, if you lean completely on this and that alone, can I just tell you ultimately you will become a person that still that lacks compassion. You might carry your backpack, which is wonderful, but but there’s also a place to understand in life, sometimes people can’t always carry what’s placed on them. And so point number two is this to help others. To help others. Um, in in Henry Cloud’s book, uh, boundaries, which is a great book for understanding, um, I don’t have power to click for understanding the responsibilities were to carry as people in this world. Uh, he bases it off Galatians chapter six, verse two. He says, bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. And so he’s helping us think through. He’s saying, look, we’ve all got this backpack to carry responsibility, and it’s our privilege to reflect God in this world.
It’s a gift that God has given you a place to to reflect his goodness in this world as Jesus has loved you. And that backpack is your opportunity to show your love back to him and how you want to honor God with your life. But then there are some times in life where we have these burdens that are so great that we can’t carry them. In fact, we need help. So there are times where you go through life where you have these boulders that left to yourself, it will crush you. But this is where God’s community come, can come alongside and help one another carry these boulders temporarily till we get to that place again, where we’re just back to our backpacks. And so learning how to to help each other becomes important. Proverbs 1917 says this whosoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed. So God is saying like this, that when you help the poor, while you may be helping someone and struggling, you’re not just helping that person struggling, you’re also honoring the Lord. And the reason you’re honoring the Lord is that God made people in his image. And one of the most beautiful ways you can show your love for the Lord is seen in how you help other people, how you help them carry that that boulder in their life.
Now, for us as North Americans or just United States people, here’s here’s what I think is important for us to think about when we talk about poverty. Our mind tends to go to things of monetary value, like money that you have, the place that you might live, the food that you have to eat, which is a part of that. But but here’s what’s also important is to recognize that there there is more to poverty than just monetary struggle. When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, poverty was impacted them immediately. And it was it was more than monetary value. In fact, in the book, when helping hurts, they write it like this. They say, if we reduce human beings to being simply physical, as Western thought is prone to do, our poverty alleviation efforts will tend to focus on material solutions. But if we remember that humans are spiritual, social, psychological and physical beings, our poverty alleviation efforts will be more holistic in their design and execution. North American audiences tend to emphasize a lack of material things such as such as food, money, clean water, medicine, housing, etc. however, impoverished communities typically talk in terms of shame, inferiority, powerlessness, humiliation, fear, hopelessness, depression, social isolation, and voicelessness. So what he’s saying is the effects of sin didn’t just produce, you know, a lack of monetary wealth. The effects of sin holistically impacted us in ways. When we talk about poverty as Americans, we oftentimes don’t even think about so.
So when God has called you to help people carry burdens in this world, it’s not about just throwing money at something and saying, I hope that works out. But to understand people can be impacted in multiple, multifaceted ways. And sometimes poverty might monetary poverty might just be a reflection of something deeper that’s going on in their life that led to that position. But until it’s addressed, throwing money at something is not going to be a solution at all. In fact, that helping can hurt. It’s going to continue to reproduce the cycle. And so coming along one another and understanding man impacted all of us in this room and all of us in some aspect, walk in that poverty. But to understand how the the gospel impacts our life and transforms us in Jesus to help us understand what it means to walk in the freedom of Christ. And Mother Teresa, who, you know, dealt with with poverty in the East. You know, people would often come to her and talk about, you know, the poor that she served monetarily. And she would often remark back, you know, the people in the West are more poor than the people of the East. And she would say, you know, the struggles of the West are more severe. She would she would talk about the idea of loneliness and feeling unloved and no relationship with God. She said.
That type of a human being is is going through far worse than just simply not having enough food on the plate. And when you think about what it means to be impoverished and the place that God has you in this world to make a gospel difference in people when they struggle, that that is what God calls you to. Now, it may be an alleviation of of struggle, of monetary struggle of, of, you know, not having enough food on the table, but to understand psychologically, there’s more that happens in the human heart when they go through that, like, why did I get here? And why does no one care? And how can someone come alongside and encourage me? You feel isolated and lonely, and sometimes when people are in that sort of situation, when when human suffering happens, I find the tendency of people is that it makes them uncomfortable. And rather than run to it, they run away from it. And it may be you may not have the physical means to help someone, but being a friend in times of struggle, it gives, it helps someone be humanized and what they’ve gone through. I recently went through a book written by a young lady who was a part of the Larry Nassar story. If you know, that’s the the guy that took advantage of gymnasts, some 200 and some females and she she talked about one particular church that encouraged her. She it was it was actually her church that she was raised in as a young lady.
And she said they came to her and they said, um, you know, this this has to be impacting you as your story comes out. Because it was exposed to the world. They said, how do you want us to articulate this to the church that’s praying for you? So they wanted to be guarded for her well-being. And then they said to her, how how has this impacted your children, your relationship as a mother to your children? And what about your marriage? And how can we encourage your marriage and the struggle of sin that someone else had done to her was impacting her family as she was walking through this? And so when we think about what it means to not only carry on backpack, but also help someone during a time of a boulder, what does it look like for God’s people to do that? To understand God has given you a platform of influence and as you see, struggles in this world, those are gospel opportunities for you to take. I need to move on quicker. Let me let me get the next question. How how are we to do it then? How are we to do it? Point number one, under the next question, be a servant leader compelled by godly conviction. Be a servant leader compelled by godly conviction. And it’s not enough just to say servant leader, but you need to identify what your leadership is under, right? And that is certainly under Christ.
We need that that conviction of who we are in the gospel to understand the difference God calls me to make in this world and therefore become a servant leader. Take that opportunity to make the difference in the book of Genesis chapter 47. You see this with, with, with Joseph. Joseph takes his brothers before Pharaoh, and the way he chooses to describe the family, chooses to describe himself to Pharaoh is very interesting. In Genesis 47, verse four, it says, they said to Pharaoh, we have come to sojourn in this land, for there is no pasture for for your servant’s flocks. And for the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. And now please let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen. Now I got to tell you, if I’m just thinking about me and all I’m interested is me and my glory. Um. When I come to the land of Egypt and I just left the land of famine, I can tell you I would be saying like this I am coming knowing my brother is second in command for the biggest house on the highest hill, with everything. Right? Whatever you want to give, give it right. Because I am not going back there. That is, that is not a good place, right? But rather than rather than say that he describes himself as a sojourner and essentially saying, we’re nomad here, this is just temporary, that we know that we don’t ultimately belong here because our hope is somewhere else, and their hope is wrapped in the promises of God.
So they’re identifying who they are in the story based on who God is by by communicating to Pharaoh. Um, we’re here, but this is just a temporary place for us that we know God has a different plan for our life, and they choose to use this word sojourner for a particular reason. And for us, that word was introduced to us all the way back in Genesis 15. In Genesis 15, this is where God came before Abraham and gave the Abrahamic covenant. And if you remember in that story when God made this covenant to Abraham, he didn’t base it on anything Abraham did. God said, I’m giving you this covenant completely on who I am. I am going to bless you, and through you I will bless all people, groups, all nations. But but the way he as he gives this promise to Abraham, the way he describes the future of Abraham’s people, is this know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for 400 years. So he’s saying to Abraham, he doesn’t tell Abraham when this is going to happen to his lineage, but he tells Abraham that this will happen to your lineage.
But when they get to that land, here’s what’s important they remind themselves that they’re just sojourners. This is temporary. And by identifying themselves this way, they’re they’re resting themselves. And the greater promises of what’s to come in the Lord. They realize they serve someone greater. And so therefore, wherever they’re at in these moments, they they want to bless the people, but they recognize their greater identity in God. They have this deep conviction as they rest as servant leaders. In fact, you see the idea of them being servants through verse one to verse six, when it when they describe themselves before Pharaoh. Look at this. Joseph went in and told Pharaoh, my father and my brothers, with their flocks and herds, and all that they possess, have come from the land of Canaan. They are now in the land of Goshen. And from among his brothers he took five men and presented them to Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said to his brothers, what is your occupation? And they said to Pharaoh, your servants are shepherds, as our fathers were. They said to, to Pharaoh, we have come to sojourn in the land, for there is no pasture for your servant’s flocks. For the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. And now please let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen. Verse five. Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, your father, your brothers have come to you. Verse six, the land of Egypt is before you settle your father and your brothers in the best of the land.
Let them settle in the land of Goshen. And if you know any able men among them, put them in charge of my livestock. When they come into this land, rather than take any position, they take the position of a servant. And and not just any servant. When you read the very last verse of chapter 46, it tells you that shepherds were an abomination to the Egyptians. They took the lowest of the servant positions because they weren’t looking to impress people with who they were. They were looking to use their life for God’s glory, knowing that where they were was just temporary. And through that, we’re going to to to bless the people. And so in this story, they take this, this, this position of a servant leader or a shepherd. Many of us, we think about the idea of servant leadership. We think in terms of of leadership we don’t like often the word servant attached to it. And Jesus talked about this in Matthew chapter 20, verse 25 and on he says, you know, leaders of the world, they like to climb the ladder and basically boss people around. They like to use their power over people. But rather, what God calls us to do is to be shepherds of people to to rather than leverage our position by our authority to to use it for our purposes, to treat people like tools, to bless us.
We know who we are in the Lord, and we’ve been blessed in him, and therefore we can bless others. We serve them rather than this, uh, lording over people as the Gentiles will do, he says, or the world will do. God calls us to come beneath people, to serve them, to become who God has called them to be in him. And Jesus modeled this better than anybody. In fact, he used that word shepherd to connect himself to the type of leadership he brought into this world. When you think about what a what a shepherd is, a shepherd doesn’t stand behind the sheep and drive them and beat them forward. A shepherd gets out in front of them and guides them and leads them. Where to go. And when the Bible designs or talks about leadership for us, it it’s that picture in first Peter five of of a shepherd that you care about the well-being of the sheep, so much so that you defend them, you go before them, and you set the example for what it means to follow after the Lord. You know, it’s been said, all that you need for evil to prevail is for godly people to do nothing. But man, God has you in a place to make a difference in this world. And it’s seen by as you find your identity in him and you leverage that to bless others because of what God has done for you as you’re shaped in that godly conviction before Christ, to the point that even see in verse seven, when, when, when Joseph’s dad is brought before Pharaoh, look what he does, it says.
Then Joseph brought in Jacob his father, and stood him before Pharaoh and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. Verse ten, it says the same thing Jacob blessed Pharaoh. And it’s saying, the family isn’t there just to get what they want. So they stay alive, but they’re there for the flourishing of people that wherever they go, the blessing of God could be made known to the people groups that they serve. It’s, it’s it’s for us. It’s it’s being servant leaders with with godly conviction. Even when first Peter or when Peter wrote with the letter, first Peter, look at what he says here. And reflection. I think of Abraham all the way back from Genesis 15. He says to the church, beloved, I urge you as sojourners, as exiles, to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul. I think Peter very much has in mind the blessing of Abraham being made known through the people of God, that you too would realize that this is not your home, but God has given you a platform to use your influence to make a difference in this world for his glory to the benefit of others, and that you would seize that opportunity with with godly conviction as servant leaders for his Kingdom.
So he goes on, keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. Which brings me to point number two in your notes, which is this maintain Maintain godly character. Maintain godly character. It’s one thing to come to this place to recognize, you know, I’ve got a godly conviction. But over time, what what tends to happen for us is that our convictions can wane. Our mission drifts, our vision fades, our convictions wane. And we’ve got to remind ourselves every day of the importance of who you are because of what Christ has done in you. God has you in a place to to make a difference, and it’s a matter of what your life is given over to, as to what kind of difference you’re going to make. And so every day, for us as God’s people, it’s so important we wake up and say, God, thank you for the gift of today. And my life as a living sacrifice is given over to you. God, use my life for your glory in this world to maintain that that godly character that God has called you to in this world. And I think the only way we’re able to to do this as God’s people is, is really through through understanding what biblical love is about, because we’ve seen that love made known in Christ.
And if you don’t understand what biblical love is about, when you have a position in this world of any sort of leadership, a position of any sort of influence, you will use it to abuse and destroy rather than bless and serve. Our motivation has to be love in order for it to be pure. A love for God and a love for others. And so we’re called in that then to to maintain godly character. And you see this contrasted between between really Jacob’s life and Joseph’s life. And in verse eight and on because it says, And Pharaoh said to Jacob, how many are the days of the years of your life? And Jacob said to Pharaoh, the days of the years of my sojourning are 130 years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers and the days of their sojourning. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from the presence of Pharaoh. Here’s what Jacob’s saying. Different than than Joseph. Joseph’s life is is transparent. Joseph’s life is accountable. And Joseph knows before Pharaoh and the Lord. He’s just he’s an open book because he has nothing to be afraid of, nothing to be ashamed of. He’s walked that kind of life. Jacob? Not so much. He tells you that in verse nine he says, few are my days and evil they’ve been.
And so what he’s saying is, look, he hasn’t lived as long as his his father, grandfather, those before him and his days haven’t always been great because he lives with some regrets. Early in his life he was that deceiver. And then with Joseph. The reason Joseph was sold into slavery is because he showed favor to his son above all the other brothers, and his other brothers hated him because of that. And so Joseph has some regrets in his life. Now, let me just tell you, the beauty of the cross of Christ is that Jesus wants your guilt and shame, and God wants your guilt and shame. He doesn’t want you to carry that because he carried it for you on the cross. So you every day you’re a new creation in Christ. The past is done away. You get to walk in that new life. But we want to. We don’t want to walk with regrets in this world. We want to walk for the purpose for which we were created in Christ. To to live our life to its fullest, with, with no regrets. Starting right now. It’s always when, if you’re willing to lay your life before the Lord and saying, God, my life is not my own. You made me for your purposes in this world. God help me to fulfill that. Number three equip others to succeed. Equip others to succeed. You know when you talk about success, God has called us to be people that multiply in this world.
Genesis 128 be fruitful and multiply. God. God wants to reproduce through you what he produces in you. God. God wants you to be fruitful and multiply, to take that Garden of Eden and see it flourish throughout this world. And the reason God reminds us of that is because as creatures, you will produce something, but what you’re going to produce is determined by what you find your value in as a human being, what you ultimately worship you. It’s impossible not to worship something you will look to, something to give you worth, value and meaning. But the hope is that you find it in the Lord, and therefore you reproduce through you what it is that God desires. So when you think about when you think about equipping others for success, it’s important for us to define what is success. Because in a worldly system, people might say it like this. Well, it’s, uh, it’s when you get a certain title and you make a certain amount of money and you have a certain amount of power, then you’re successful. But can I tell you when you get to heaven or if you get to heaven, Jesus is not going to say to you, um, what was your title in life? And let me see your bank account. Oh, it’s big enough. I’ll let you in. I guess God doesn’t care about that. God measures success in a different way and the way that God defined it for us.
Really, the most concise definition, I think, is in John 15 verse five, Jesus says it like this abide in me and I in you, and you will bear much fruit. Your success is based on your abiding in Christ. It’s not the fruit you produce. You can’t produce that fruit. Christ produces that fruit through you. Abide in me and I in you, and you will produce much fruit. God’s calling in your world is to abide in him, and as your life is given over to him, Jesus produces that fruit through you. Another way of thinking about abiding is this idea of faithfulness, that your life would be given over to the Lord faithfully. Now, when it comes to to Jacob, this is where the debate is. I’m going to give you a summary of this because I’m out of time. But with Jacob they read verse 13 and on, and he thinks some people think that he’s just depleting all of Egypt of the resources because he just wants to take advantage of them. Right? So they they first bring all their money for food in verse 13 and then verse 14, all the money’s gone. And then they bring all, all their livestock in verse 17, and now all their livestock is gone. And finally in verse 18 and 19, they, they say to, to Jacob, everything’s gone but our land and ourselves just buy our land now and buy us the slaves, and and we’ll just serve you.
And so they literally offer everything. But but what you see in the life of Jacob is that he reconfigures the whole system of Egypt. So everyone succeeds, because if if all the people die, there is no Egypt left. And here’s what it says Joseph said to his people, behold, I have this day brought you, brought you and your land for Pharaoh. Now here’s seed for you, and you shall sow the land. And at the harvest you shall give a fifth to Pharaoh, and 4/5 shall be your own. As for seed, for the field, and as for food, for yourselves and your household, and as food for your little ones. And they said, you have saved our lives. May it please, my Lord. We will be your servants to servants to Pharaoh. Let me just summarize this real quick. Joseph realizes they have a backpack to carry, and there’s a boulder on their shoulder. And Joseph is saying to them, look, I’m going to we we bought everything from you. There’s nothing left. But I want you to succeed. I want you to be able to carry your backpack. So I’m going to give you seed for your land. And I want you to harvest your land. And Pharaoh is only going to tax you based on what you make. In fact, he’s he’s inserting a 20% flat tax, which I got to say, if that was ever offered to me.
Right. Like, if you think about how much your taxes people today, if the government ever says 20% flat tax, you don’t have to ask me wherever I need to vote, whatever I need to do. Yes. Okay. That is, I will just take that right now, that deal, whatever it is. But but Joseph has reconfigured the nation to say, look, um, based on what you make, you can give back to Egypt. Egypt was already paying. They were already paying taxes. I mean, if there’s a government, there’s taxes. But he’s figured out a way to tax the people in proportion to what they make so that they can have an opportunity to flourish. You get to keep 80% will only take 20%. Joseph could have said 90 hours tins yours, but rather than that he let them keep 80% and 20% went back to Egypt. He thought of a way to meaningfully help them carry their backpack as he helped them lift the boulder. Guys, the same thing God calls us to in this world today. God has you in a place to make a difference, to help people discover who they are in this world so they can walk with their backpack to glorify God, to see the flourishing not only in their own life, but in the lives of people around them. And at the same time, you have the privilege to come alongside people when they’re struggling to help them carry that boulder, to represent how the gospel ministers to us in that brokenness, to see the goodness of who he is.
Uh, one figure that I think did this well in history, and this will be my last example, I’ll be done is a lady by the name of Charlotte Moon. She’s actually from Charlottesville, Virginia, which was made popular a few years ago. If you know anything about Charlottesville. Charlotte Moon was adverse to Christianity until 18 years old, and she gave her life to Christ. She went on to become a missionary in China. And and she served the people beautifully there. In fact, she she walked with such a godly conviction as a servant leader that she said this. She said, if I had a thousand lives, I would give them all for the women of China. I mean, she used her life to serve those ladies. She only took furlough from China. 40 years of ministering in China. She took furlough I think, three times in her life, but just faithfully served to the point that one day there was a great famine in China in 1912. And Charlotte literally gave everything that she had to those ladies so that they could survive. She gave all of her food and all of her resources, all of her wealth. She died penniless, in fact, in 1912, she had given so much to to these women that she started to starve.
And she got down to 50 pounds, and they put her on a boat and sent her back to America, because she was dying of starvation. And before the boat got to the first place, it was going to dock in Japan, she passed away from starvation. She literally gave everything for the people that she loved. I remember when I read her story as a student in college, I paused right there in that moment, and I shut my book and I just said, God, give me a heart for people like that. I want to live my life somewhere in this world for your glory, that people can can see it. I want to give everything that I am for your goodness in this world. Little did I ever think God would bring me to Utah, but this was it. God, I want to go down swinging for the fences here and you learn as you walk with the Lord at that particular time. I’m 19 years old and and a student thinking about missions, but but you also learn that it becomes a particular group of people, a church. And not just that, my own family. God, you’re calling to me in this world as this place, this church, my family. God, may I be faithful to be that kind of leader that you call me to be.