The Lord's Work (Corbin Weiss, 12/03/22)

All righty, so as has been mentioned, I'm studying math and computer science at Southern.

And second year now, I'm kind of enjoying the mental challenge, all the coursework sometimes

gets a little frustrating sometimes.

But I have to say, if there's one thing that bugs me the most about my school, especially

going into the field of computer science eventually, it's that it's often hard to see how it relates

to my Christianity.

And I don't know about you all, but it's a common thing that I face where I've got my

faith and my acts of faith, going to church on Sabbath, my devotions in the morning, kind

of in one side of my life.

And then in the other side, I have all this stuff that I have to do as a living human,

like make a living, have to eat, go buy groceries, do the laundry, do endless dishes, all that

stuff.

So I often wonder what significance is in all the things that I have to do on the earth.

First Corinthians talks about the work that we do, right?

And so I can see the value in being a pastor, being a physician, being a nurse, those are

very clear, the way that there are ministries.

But in terms of daily life, in terms of bringing kids to school and stuff, it just becomes

kind of a grind and a drag sometimes.

And it's not clear what meaning it has eternally.

So I found this verse, First Corinthians 1558.

It says, abound in the work of the Lord, for in the Lord your work is not in vain.

And the idea that I want to share with you today is that when I work in the Lord, when

we work in the Lord, our work has eternal meaning.

So to share this idea of what it means to work in the Lord, I want to look at the story

of Joseph.

It's a really good book, Patriarchs and Prophets, highly recommend.

We all kind of know how the story of Joseph starts, right?

He's the favorite of 12 sons.

Jacob is his father.

And these 11 other sons get a little bit jealous of Joseph.

You were sharing, was it you?

Sharing in children's story about Jennifer.

Okay.

But anyways, talking about having a really bad day, when you, everything's going wrong.

You've, I mean, for Joseph, his bad day was worse than any that we'll experience, hopefully.

Not only had his coat of many colors been broken and torn up, he was sold into slavery

and we find him with the slave drivers on the way to Egypt.

And I think this is a, it's a good place to start in the story because Ellen White describes

a key part of Joseph's character right here, which is that Joseph believed that the God

of his fathers would be his God.

He then and there gave himself fully to the Lord and prayed that the keeper of Israel

would be with him in the land of his exile.

So you can imagine he's behind this caravan of camels.

He's got his hands tied, you know, kind of walking along and it, you know, at first he's

like totally in despair about his life as a slave.

And then he, as he comes to grips with himself, he realizes that he's going to have any hope

it's going to be in his God and having his God with him.

So I, I know I often have a hard time relating with the story of Joseph because I've never

been in slavery.

I've never, I've never even been to Egypt.

Like that's the closest thing I could do.

And, but I think there's a, there's kind of a spiritual teaching in Joseph's story as

well.

Because you know, I, I may not be a physical slave, but as a human, I'm born into a world

of slavery and bondage to sin and death.

Right?

I may not like Joseph ever work in the palace of the king.

I may never be thrown into prison.

Hopefully not.

But I, I do have a relationship with the king of the universe.

Right?

And I do have opportunities to, to help others as Joseph did.

You know, I may not be handing out food during a famine.

Right?

But as a Christian, we all have access to the bread of life and we're called to hand

that out to a world and famine.

So as we go through the story of Joseph, let's think about these like spiritual, the spiritual

significance for each of us because all of us have some similarity with Joseph.

So let's go back, go back to this, this thought here.

Joseph gave himself fully to the Lord and prayed that the keeper of Israel would be

with him in the land of exile.

So I think this is the key point.

If you, if you hear nothing else this morning, that Joseph asked God to be with him.

This was kind of the, the keystone of everything that he did after, after this while he was

in Egypt.

He gave himself to the Lord and he asked God to be with him in everything that he did.

So let's, let's see how that works out.

He goes to Potiphar's house, right?

Potiphar, rather Potiphar buys him as a slave.

He starts out, you know, probably doing, doing dishes or I don't know, making, making bricks

that may have been later on in Egypt.

But menial stuff, right?

He's like, there's no way that this is, this is going to improve for me.

Like going from being the, the favored son of Jacob to being a slave in Egypt is about

the worst thing that could happen to him.

But rather than giving up in despair, he chooses to do those two things.

Give him, give himself to the Lord and ask God to be with him.

And what that does is it gives God a way to, to work through him.

And so God blesses his work.

He, let's see, in Potiphar's house, Joseph gains, gains success for Potiphar.

Potiphar puts him in charge of everything he has, right?

So that Potiphar only thinks about the food on his plate.

That's, that's how they say it.

I don't, I don't know how that works.

That'd be, it'd be kind of fun.

Just think about what you're eating.

Be like, hey Joseph, I would like a, I'd like a special K-loaf today.

He's like, all right, I got you.

But what it, what it says, what it says about Joseph is that he attributed his success to

the favor of God and even his idolatrous master accepted this as the secret of his unparalleled

prosperity.

So he doesn't conceal that God is working through him.

I think in, in my life as a student, it's easy to be so focused on my work and my studies

that I lose sight of God and the reason why I'm doing all this.

I think, you know, if, if you're a parent, it's easy to get so caught up in bringing,

bringing kids hither and yon to practices and to school and doing, doing laundry and

dishes.

I know my mom did a lot of that.

And then, you know, you just completely forget the, the reason for all of this and the purpose

behind your work, which is to, you know, be, be, be lights in this world to deliver, to

deliver God's, God's grace to our world and family.

Right?

If you're, you know, a grandparent or something, it's easy to forget that, you know, you, you

still have an influence on the world and on your grandkids, on your kids, through your

prayers, your ministry.

You, you, you did a mission trip to Kenya, right?

A few, few years ago and there was a, through, through Facebook.

Oh my goodness.

Okay.

Okay.

Wow.

See, it's, it's incredible the effects that we can have on others' lives if we're willing

to kind of do, do the, do the thing that Joseph did and give, give our lives to God and let

him work through us.

So continuing on with Joseph.

Is he successful in Potiphar's household?

Then there's a problem that comes up.

Potiphar's wife takes a liking to Joseph and says, not okay.

So Joseph says, no, I will not commit this sin against my God.

It's interesting that Joseph does not say, I will not commit this sin against my master,

but says I will, I will not commit this sin against my God because it tells me that Joseph's

focus was once again, more on his God than on his work.

I don't know that there are times when we are tempted to kind of cut corners on some

decisions or to not be totally, totally faithful with, you know, when, when, I don't know,

often when my mom asked me to do something, I'm not working yet, but when mom asked me

to do something, I'll like kind of do it slightly wrong, but she can't tell, right?

When a teacher asks me to do some homework, you know, if one of my classmates has the

answer, I'll be like, yeah, I'm not doing 20 minutes of math.

Just tell me what it is, right?

And it's, it's, it's things like these, which tell me that I am often doing my work for

the, for the work itself, not, not for God's glory.

And so Joseph, again, kept this integrity and this relationship with God so that he

was working for God.

Potiphar's wife falsely accuses Joseph.

He gets thrown into prison, they're in the dungeon.

It says his real character shines out.

This is, this is kind of cool because I don't know, if I were in prison, I wouldn't really,

kind of the last thing on my mind would be to have God's character shine out through

me.

You know, I'd, I'd most likely fall into despair, start figuring out how to, how to, you know,

navigate the social structures of the prison and become one of the, I don't know.

It's the, the, the thing that stands out is that he trusted his case with God.

So another illustration of Joseph day by day receiving God's character into his life and

it shines out in the prison.

Then through, you know, the straight sequence of events, there's a, there are, there's a

baker and a, the cup bearer to the king who have dreams.

Joseph interprets their dreams.

The cup bearer goes to, returns to the station as the cup bearer to the king.

Three years go by and then Joseph is still in prison, right?

But then the king has a dream and the cup bearer remembers that Joseph interpreted his

dream.

He's like, Hey, you should talk to this, you should talk to this guy in prison.

He's like really good at this stuff.

And eventually the king consents and he says, okay, we'll, we'll call him up.

And Joseph interprets the king's dream.

And what he, what he says is it is not in me to interpret the dream, but God will give

Pharaoh an answer of peace.

So Joseph had a choice at this point, um, a choice that he had had all along in his

life, whether he was going to focus on, uh, on the opportunity for, uh, success and honor

to himself or to give the honor to God.

And he chose to give the honor to God.

And as a result, um, Pharaoh, you know, accepted his interpretation.

Uh, Joseph suggested a solution to the coming famine and was put in charge of executing

it.

So now Joseph is the highest in the kingdom.

Second only to Pharaoh.

So there's a, there's a great, a great paragraph here at the, at the end of this section of

Joseph's life, um, which I think summarizes well the lessons for us from the stories of

Joseph.

It says in constant reliance upon God, he faithfully discharged the duties of his position.

So I'm not in Joseph's position.

I am just a student at Southern, um, not the, the, the favored child of the chosen family

through which the Messiah is going to come.

Right.

But again, uh, he faithfully discharged the duties of his position, whatever his position

was.

So when, when Joseph was the, you know, a slave at the, at the bottom of Potiphar's

household, and then when he was at the very top of Potiphar's household, he had the same

character, the same, uh, trust in God working for his glory.

Um, and this gave his work meaning.

Uh, then when he was again, the, the bottom of the, of the jail, right.

Just, you know, probably rats running over his bed, who knows, but, um, he, he had the

same character, the same trust in God.

Then he was at the top of the jail and then at the very top of the kingdom.

So he's, he's got the full spectrum of, uh, of positions in society.

Right.

And at every place he's able to work for God and to live for God's glory because remember

what it says at the beginning, he gave himself fully to the Lord and prayed that the keeper

of Israel might be with him.

So I, I think this is an encouragement for me.

You know, I, I'm not Joseph at all, but if Joseph through the entire spectrum of human

experience possible, right.

The lowest of the lows to the, you know, second in command in the most powerful country in

the world, if every place there, he could live for God's glory and his work had meaning

and significance, even when he was at the, at the very bottom in, in prison, then there's

hope for me that my work can have significance.

Each, each of us has a work to do and the significance does not come from, you know,

recognition in the world.

It doesn't come from how well we're paid or our social status.

It comes from giving, giving ourselves to God and receiving God's presence in everything

we do.

There's a, there's a story I have about this in my experience.

It's just, just a little, a little glimpse, I think of the, of the potential that God

has for, for working in each of us.

I work for a, I work for a lady in my town.

Her name is Eleni.

She's, she's a like classic grandma.

She's got, I don't know, two, three kids, like six grandkids or something.

And she lives by herself.

Her husband has died.

And so I go over often and do gardening for her and we'll, we'll talk about her grandkids

and talk about her, all her flowers and then I'll ask about her recent trip to Greece where

she went to, you know, her hometown, saw the rest of her family.

And there was a time this summer when she was like, Corbin, why, why are you so nice?

And I'm like, well, I really have to say it's because I'm a Christian.

It's, it's because God has been nice to me and I can be nice to others.

And so just, just little, little things like that.

It's, I think it's a mistake to think that just because something I'm doing is not strictly

sacred, just because I'm not actively on a mission trip or, you know, doing canvassing,

just because I'm not actively teaching Sabbath school doesn't mean that my work is significant,

right?

The significance of my work comes from giving it to God and letting him use it and reveal

himself through it.

From this story of Joseph, it says, through Joseph, the attention of the King and the

great men of Egypt was directed to the true God.

And though they adhered to their idolatry, they learned to respect the principles revealed

in the life and character of the worshiper of Jehovah.

This is a little hard for me because what this is saying is that I may never be a part

of someone's conversion.

Joseph never converted anyone in Egypt, right?

He was simply faithful where he was and God worked through that.

But it says the Egyptians learned to respect the principles revealed in Joseph's life.

So even if there are no new members to the Adventist church because of your witness,

because of your work, even if you can't see the results of what you're doing, you can

know that if it's done in the Lord, it has meaning.

And you may only see that significance when we get to heaven.

And that's what we have to look forward to, that one day we'll be there and we'll get

to see the people who were affected through us.

But that begins now, when I day by day give myself to God and receive God's character.

So that's our calling and that's the hope we have in whatever position we have in life,

that our meaning is from God and that no matter what we do, it can have meaning if we submit

it to God and receive his character in all that we do.

Let's pray.

Dear Lord, thank you for this story of Joseph.

Thank you for everyone here.

I ask that you will be with each of us through this week.

Show us how to receive your character and how to work faithfully for you that you may

shine through all that we do.

Our work, everything that we undertake, may be done in your strength and may have an eternal

significance because you are with us.

Amen.