Believing in the I AM (slide 1)
5th Sunday • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 4 viewsThere is no need to worry about yesterday or tomorrow if I AM is leading you today.
Notes
Transcript
Joke
Joke
A farmer was milking his cow. He was just starting to get a good rhythm when a bug flew into the barn and started circling his head. Suddenly, the bug flew into the cow’s ear. The farmer didn’t think much about it, until the bug squirted out into his bucket. You see, it went in one ear and out the udder.
Open
Open
I heard an interesting proposal. You get 1 million dollars right now, or you can go back in time and fix every mistake or problem you have ever had. It is an interesting dilemma. If you are like me the list of problems and mistakes is quite lengthy. What would you do?
After giving it some thought I have no problem saying I would be a millionaire. I wouldn’t change my mistakes and problems. Don’t get me wrong there would be plenty that I could change. But every good and bad thing that happened to me in my life God put there to get me to the exact place that I am in today.
Humanity including believers get caught up in holding on to their past, and worrying about their future.
There isn’t anything wrong with remembering the past. There isn’t anything wrong with dreaming about the future. The difference is remembering the past and dreaming or planning future is not letting the past and future dictate our present.
I used the name I AM instead of God for this sermon. I did it with a purpose. For those who might not know, in Exodus 3:14 God is talking to Moses and when Moses asks who to tell the people sent him to save them this was God’s response…. (SLIDE 2)
Exodus 3:14 (ESV)
God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ”
I AM is a present name. Every time it is used by God as His name it fills a need
I am the Bread of Life: John 6:35, 41, 48, 51
I am the Light of the World: John 8:12
I am the Door of the Sheep: John 10:7, 9
I am the Good Shepherd: John 10:11, 14
I am the Resurrection and the Life: John 11:25
I am the Way, the Truth and the Life: John 14:6 and….
I am the True Vine: John 15:1, 5
While it’s true that God always was, that God always will be God wanted us to know as we will see today, that I AM is with us in our present. (SLIDE 3)
I AM & Joseph
I AM & Joseph
It would be real easy just to talk about Joseph this morning. Joseph as we will se was a man of amazing moral character. Joseph is a great example for us to follow in the Bible but I AM was there with Joseph’s every move. Every step. You can’t have Joseph’s story without putting the I AM at the center of it.
Joseph
Abraham’s Great grandson
Favorite of Jacob
Joseph get’s sold into slavery at 17
Sold to Potipher -Captain of the Guard
Accused of Rape and thrown in Prison
In jail for a while until the baker and the wine taster
The Pharaoh has bad dreams
Joseph promoted (30 years old)
The brothers
Accused of spying thrown in jail. Prove your not let’s see the brother (Joseph’s actual brother.)
They felt they were being punished for Joseph’s death.
Joseph fed them, gave them back their money and kept one brother as collateral.
The family runs out of food and they have no choice but to take Benjamin and go back
Joseph said he believed them, fed them, and gave them more food and sent them on their way home
Joseph framed Benjamin.
The punishment slavery.
They admit what they did to Joseph. Showing true remorse.
Joseph endured a lot to get to the place where he could do what God needed him to do. Slavery, accusations, prison, facing the men who you called brothers, it was tough. Our journey’s through this life aren’t always sunny days and ice cream cones. What believers need to remember is that the… (SLIDE 4)
I AM’s plan isn’t always easy
I AM’s plan isn’t always easy
At this point in our story the gig is up so to speak. Joseph knows that the brothers are truly remorseful for what they did to him 13 years ago. At this point they have tortured themselves more than Joseph ever could so it is time for them to see the big reveal and to see how powerful their God really is. Look with me at Genesis 45.
Then Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him. He cried, “Make everyone go out from me.” So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. And he wept aloud, so that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it. And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still alive?” But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed at his presence.
So Joseph said to his brothers, “Come near to me, please.” And they came near. And he said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; do not tarry. You shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children’s children, and your flocks, your herds, and all that you have. There I will provide for you, for there are yet five years of famine to come, so that you and your household, and all that you have, do not come to poverty.’ And now your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see, that it is my mouth that speaks to you. You must tell my father of all my honor in Egypt, and of all that you have seen. Hurry and bring my father down here.” Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, and Benjamin wept upon his neck.
The brothers freaked out!!! We are toast!! Right out of en episode of Dallas.
The word distressed here in verse 5 is bahal - the panic that seizes a person when surprised by obvious doom. The brothers must have been freaking out!! We know that they thought all the bad that was happening was because of their treatment of Joseph. They had no idea!!
They always thought they were going to pay because of their guilt. They had no clue what Joseph had gone through to this point or how God got him here. They just thought they were responsible. And they never truly got it. As soon as Jacob died they thought it was over and Joseph had to reassure them.
His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.” But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
I am a younger brother. My brother and I have had some epic fights. I have wanted to get some revenge at times. At other times I got that revenge. With that being said of all the mean things my brother and I did to each other, none of them compared to what Joseph’s brothers did to him not even close! However….
Joseph didn’t wallow in the past or worry about the future, Joseph focused on the God that was there with him every step of the way. The I AM.
Joseph was able to see the bigger picture. Joseph knew that grace, love, and forgiveness, and the power of God got Joseph to where he was at. Not anything that Joseph or his brothers did. Every step in Joseph’s life was a God thing not anything else.
Joseph needed his brothers to understand that they were nothing more than the tool that God used to make God’s plan come to fruition through Joseph. They felt guilt (which they should have). Don’t forget, Joseph went through 13 years of hell on earth for doing nothing. Even though this was a task meant for bad God took the evil that the brothers planned for Joseph and turned it into something beautiful!
Joseph showed his brothers forgiveness even though of all the people that had wronged Joseph (except maybe Potipher’s wife) they deserved forgiveness the least! Joseph had to be in step with the I AM in order to do this. We have problems forgiving McDonalds for forgetting the extra pickles.
Because he went through that he was not only able to save the people of Egypt and the surrounding areas, he was able to save and preserve his family as well.
God promised Abraham that his line would live on. Joseph’s action was God fulfilling that promise still. That is why Joseph said in
And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors.
God NEVER breaks a promise.
The next thing that is important for us to remember is….. (SLIDE 5)
I AM’s plan for you ALWAYS has I AM at the center of it
I AM’s plan for you ALWAYS has I AM at the center of it
If you are one of God’s chosen, you have God with you always! That means that this journey that He has you on has Him smack dab in the middle of it. Even when we don’t know He is there!
God has this. Joseph went through more than many of us could bear, yet he made it. Why…..he realized he was never alone. I AM guided his steps. Held his hand. I AM took Joseph were I AM needed him.
Joseph was a man of good Godly character. Every decision he made he did so with God at the center of it.
(SLIDE 6)
“A strong faith leads to a good attitude. When those two essentials are in place, troubles become challenges to face not reasons to quit.” - Charles Swindoll
When things aren’t going our way we want to take our ball and go home. Not Joseph. Joseph took all the bad that happened to him and used it for the glory of I AM.
We can look at Joseph’s life and see that Joseph’s journey to get this point was guided and directed by the I AM.
In slavery….. (SLIDE 7)
Genesis 39:2 (ESV)
The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master.
In jail….. (SLIDE 8)
Genesis 39:21 (ESV)
But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.
Genesis 39:23 (ESV)
The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph’s charge, because the Lord was with him. And whatever he did, the Lord made it succeed.
In standing before Pharaoh (SLIDE 9)
Genesis 41:16 (ESV)
Joseph answered Pharaoh, “It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.”
Genesis 41:28–32 (ESV)
It is as I told Pharaoh; God has shown to Pharaoh what he is about to do. There will come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt, but after them there will arise seven years of famine, and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt. The famine will consume the land, and the plenty will be unknown in the land by reason of the famine that will follow, for it will be very severe. And the doubling of Pharaoh’s dream means that the thing is fixed by God, and God will shortly bring it about.
Joseph realized something very important. (SLIDE 10)
Proverbs 19:21 (ESV)
Many are the plans in the mind of a man,
but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.
None of this was a mistake. None of this was an accident.
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Close
If Joseph couldn’t see past the hurt that was done to him in the past he would have given up. If Joseph couldn’t see any future because of his circumstances he would have given up.
Joseph focused on the God that had been with him in the past. The God that would be with him and his family in the future. The I AM who walked with Joseph every second of every day. That is what helped Joseph on his journey. That is what helped Joseph save all of Egypt as well as save his family.
Helen Mallicoat wrote a poem of sorts called I AM. (Pastor Jeremiah)
I was regretting the past and fearing the future. Suddenly my Lord was speaking: “My name is “I am.” He paused. I waited. He continued, “When you live in the past with its mistakes and regrets, it is hard. I am not there. My name is not I WAS. When you live in the future, with its problems and fears, it is hard. I am not there. My name is not I WILL BE. When you live in this moment, it is not hard. I am here. My name is I AM.” - Helen Mallicoat
(SLIDE 11) I saw another meme. The title said Christians actually reading their future from God. The man read it with pain and confusion on his face. Why, Why, Why, and finally on that last page he saw it…..oh thats why. As we walk our daily walk. Dealing with everything that comes our way. Writing the story of our life, we need to remember what got us here. We need to dream about where we can go. But, ee need to focus on the I AM. We need to trust that our path set before us is perfect. Let the tools be tools, not excuses. Thank God for the good as well as the bad.
