Surrendering to God's Story

Great to see everybody this morning.

My name is Russ, and I'm one of the pastors here at Church at the Grove, and um excited to be with you this morning as we conclude our our series on uh the life of Joseph and um uh excited about um transitioning into the fall and and uh I know some of you are thrilled that school is back in session.

And so uh set said all the all the parents um who are who are ready uh for for that routine again, and uh all the teachers are excited for school to back in session, be back in session, and you said uh me, oh me, right?

And so uh excited about um today we we've got uh some special activities today for our children.

Uh this afternoon, Jonah will tell you uh they've got a big splash day um this afternoon, and then uh we've we've got uh a prayer walk uh that we would hope for you to be a part of um as we pray over um our teachers, we pray over our ed uh our our uh schools and all the educators, people that are involved in in um in our faculties, and and so we we we encourage you to be a part of that of that prayer walk.

And so um so I encourage you to let's let's pray.

Let's pray over our schools and let's pray over um our children, pray over our teachers, let's pray over um uh all the faculty, all the staff, all the custodians, all the support staff.

Let's just let's pray that God will work in a powerful way, and we'll see the Holy Spirit work in the lives of children this year.

Um so here's the question.

The question to kind of open up today is this is how far will you go and what sacrifice will you make to follow Jesus?

How far will you go and what sacrifice will you make to follow Jesus?

Let me ask it one more time.

How far will you go and what sacrifice will you make to follow Jesus?

This past Friday, the 20 uh the 29th summer Olympic Games kicked off in Paris.

Um and um and and and I that that I I don't necessarily care about that.

Um I don't know why.

Olympics is not what it used to be to me.

Um uh but but I will tell you a story about the Olympics that that means a lot to me.

Um uh uh it it reminded me of a story recently um uh that I had read about years ago, um a guy by the name of Eric Liddell.

Eric Liddell, some of you would be familiar with this story because of the movie called The Chariots of Fire.

And uh and if I'm correct, that movie was an Oscar winner.

Eric went on to school in Edinburgh where he completed, um he competed in a number of races.

He he was a an absolutely fantastic fast runner, very successful in 1923.

In 1923, he broke world records in the 100-meter race, guaranteeing him a spot in the 1924 Great Britain Olympic, uh to be on the Great Britain Olympic team.

This was not only an honor for Eric to represent his country, but also an opportunity to bring home the gold medal, which he had a good chance of winning, an excellent chance of winning.

However, weeks before the qualifying rounds, he learned that his race would be run on a Sunday.

Why is that a big deal?

What is Sunday?

What do we believe?

What do we what do we believe as believers?

What do we believe as Christians?

It's our Sabbath.

It's our Sabbath.

Um Eric wasn't just a great runner, but he was a devout follower of Jesus.

And and you might would think that he's an e he's extreme.

But but he was a devout follower of Jesus.

He had been born to missionary parents, um, and so he's he's he he's put in a unique position.

Would he disobey his convictions and run the race on Sunday, or would he drop out of the race and give up his spot on the team to win the 100-meter race?

Now, this might not be a religious, ethical dilemma for you, but it certainly was for Eric.

Even after much pushing by the Olympic Committee, Eric held his ground and said he would not run on the Sabbath, sacrificing his chance to win the gold medal in the hundred meters.

At the end of the day, Eric cared much more about pleasing the Lord with his life than about some type of temporary treasure that could be earned on this earth.

Now, the Apostle Paul says it this way in his letter to the church in Rome.

He says in Romans 12, 1 and 2, he says, Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.

This is your true worship.

Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.

And so, as followers of Jesus, listen to me, we are called to be living sacrifices, still alive in our physical bodies, but surrendered lives on the altar to be used for the Lord's glory and honor.

We are called we are called to be um to go against the grain.

We are not called to follow the leadership of this world.

We are called to live a different life from the from the lives that are around us, from the world that that goes on around us.

And so again, here's the question.

How far will you go and what sacrifice will you make to follow Jesus?

How far will you go and what sacrifice will you make to follow Jesus?

And so I was in a conversation this past week uh with a gentleman that goes to our church and and and and the topic, uh this topic came up, and and and he says this, he said, Russ, I I don't I don't feel like following Jesus has been a sacrifice at all.

He said, Man, I love Jesus.

It's not a sacrifice to follow Jesus.

Jesus is my Savior.

It is a joy to follow Jesus, it's not a sacrifice.

I don't I don't feel like it's the sacrifice to follow Jesus.

He he says, I I'm I'm I'm convicted that I haven't had to sacrifice all that much to follow Jesus.

And so Larry's dedicated his life to missions and to church planning and and and and and yet he is wrestling with this question uh just like you and I would.

Uh he's he's he's kind of wrestling with what what does it mean to sacrifice?

What does it mean to follow Jesus?

What am I willing to sacrifice to follow Jesus?

And so, how far will I go and what sacrifices will you make?

How far will we go and what sacrifices will we make to follow Jesus?

And so so that's what I want us to wrestle with this morning.

That's what I want to wrestle with this morning.

So let me just pray for us.

Father, would you speak to us and would you um give us clarity on what it means to sacrifice and to follow Jesus and Lord, be willing to do what it takes to offer up our lives as a living sacrifice.

It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

And so we're we're in our final uh day of our summer series, Joseph.

It's been a it's been a great, challenging series.

It's been a challenge for me.

I hope it's been for you.

Um if you've missed the previous weeks, please go back.

You can I know you can watch a lot of them online.

You certainly can listen to them online and just to kind of catch you up.

Let's let's do just a recap.

We try to do a recap each week.

Joseph was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers.

Joseph is the youngest son of uh Jacob.

Actually, he's the second youngest son to Jacob, and and and he's got all of these brothers.

He's got several brothers, um, and and then he's got a uh a full-blown brother, full brother, full-blooded brother named Benjamin.

Many of the other brothers are half-brothers, and so um they didn't like him.

They didn't like Joseph because he had told these dreams uh about how they would bow down to him.

And so they don't like him, and they decide that as he walks into the wilderness, his dad sends him on an errand to go take his brother um some food and and and run an errand for his brothers, and and they see him coming from a distance, and they decide they're they're they're trying to decide, are we going to uh are we gonna kill him or are we gonna um what what are we gonna do?

Because we we this this he is he is absolutely um uh completely betrayed us.

I mean, he you know they're they're they're talking about how how um uh uh they they don't love Joseph, they they don't like him, they've got it out for him, and so they're they're having this conversation.

Are we going to kill him?

Um uh uh or or might we sell him into slavery?

And so uh most of the brothers won't want to kill him, and they want to take his his beautiful coat that his father had given him, and they want to dip it in blood.

They want to kill an animal, dip it in blood, and and then they want to um send the coat back, and they want to tell their dad that their son has been mauled by a wild animal, and um and and he's dead.

And so now Reuben steps in.

Reuben is is a brother.

Reuben steps in and says, let's don't, let's don't kill him.

Let's don't kill him.

Let's let's simply sell him into slavery.

And and here comes an Ishmaelite caravan, and and they're heading to Egypt, and and and they sell him into slavery, into that Ishmaelite caravan.

And so from there on it's a roller coaster ride of ups and downs for Joseph.

He finally, he finally finds himself in Egypt.

Eventually, he he becomes the second in command to the nation of Egypt, Pharaoh's right-hand man.

He is put in charge of the food distribution.

Now, there's a famine taking place.

There's a famine in all of that part of the world.

There's a famine, there's a lack of food, um, lack of uh of water, and so there's a famine in the land.

And so what Joseph has done, Joseph has put Egypt in a position, because of his strong leadership, he has put Egypt in a position where they will have enough food stored up over time to survive the famine.

Now, here's what else he's done.

He's put the nation of Egypt in position not only to provide for the nation of Egypt, but to provide for all of the nations who need food, who are who are struggling and suffering in this famine.

And so it's right here that he meets his long-lost brothers again.

Joseph doesn't respond in retribution.

He doesn't respond, but he rather shows forgiveness to his brothers.

He invites them to return home to get his father and bring him down to Egypt.

And so this is where the story picks up this morning.

The brothers returned to Canaan to deliver the good news that Joseph is alive.

He is indeed alive, and that there was a place for them to dwell in Egypt.

Joseph is alive, and he and they go home and they tell Dad, Dad, there is a place for us to reside in Egypt, to stay in Egypt.

And so the brothers are given new clothes, they're given provisions for the journey and chariots to ride in.

Can you imagine the brothers arriving home and their father Jacob sees them with all these possessions pulling up in prestige?

They had left their left poor, they had left poor with no food, fighting for survival, and now they roll up with this massive caravan.

They deliver the news to Jacob and let him know that Joseph is alive.

He is shocked, and he wants to go see him before he dies.

That's that's that's Jacob's dying wish.

I want to see my son before he dies.

So they pack up everything and they head down to Egypt.

Versus uh chapter um 46, verse 1.

Genesis 46, verse 1.

Genesis 46:1

Israel set out with all that he had and came to Beersheba.

And he offered sacrifices to the God of his father, Isaac.

Israel is another name for Jacob.

That word Jacob, Israel, they they it literally means to wrestle with God.

That's what that word Jacob means.

That's what that's what the word Israel means, to wrestle with God.

And so Jacob becomes Israel.

Jacob becomes Israel.

And so uh they begin their trip down to Egypt, but they first stop at Bathsheba.

Besheba has a historical significance for Jacob and his family.

His grandfather Abraham had lived there and dug a well there.

His dad Isaac had lived there as well.

This was a place where Jacob would have grown and spent his childhood.

Both his father and grandfather sought the Lord here in this town, but Beersheba also is significant because it was known as the southernmost town of Canaan.

This city sat on the border of the land that was promised to Abraham.

This is significant.

We can't fly past it.

The book of Genesis points to this promise given to Abraham.

God made a covenant with Abraham that he would use Abraham as his descendants to make a great nation, provide them with the land, with the land of Canaan, known as the Promised Land.

This is the Abrahamic covenant, a great nation in a great land.

And so through miraculous circumstances, God has been faithful to his promise so far.

He had promised, he had provided Abraham with an heir, which was Isaac.

Even at a very old age, I can imagine that Jacob grew up with his dad and his granddad telling stories of the faithfulness of God and how the Lord had promised to make their family into a great nation with a great land.

But now Jacob stands on the border of the land that God has promised to his family and he pauses.

He pauses.

I know that his old age, 130 years old, is probably about the age of Jacob now.

He desperately wanted to see Joseph, the son that he believed to be dead.

But he also didn't want to step out of the promises of God.

How, listen, how far will you go and what sacrifices will you make to follow God?

Jacob comes to the city, he pauses, he stops the caravan and makes a sacrifice and an offering to the Lord.

What type of offering?

What type of offering did he make?

A sin offering to cleanse his family of any sins, a thanksgiving offering, the joy of knowing that his son was dead, but he's now alive, or to inquire of the Lord's way.

While all of these offerings could have been made, I believe that Jacob wanted to know the Lord's way.

The man who wrestled with God is now coming to the Lord again to understand his ways.

When we don't know the way, when we are afraid of the unknown, what are we to do?

We're to pray.

What do we do?

We ask of his way.

We ask of his way.

What is it, God?

What is the direction you want us to take?

What is the way you want us to go?

What is the pathway for us to go?

We must seek the Lord.

The promise is found in James.

James 4, 8.

Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.

And this is exactly what happens.

Genesis 46, 2 through 4.

He says, That night God spoke to Israel in a vision.

Jacob, Jacob, he said.

And Jacob replied, Here I am.

God said, I am God and the God of your father.

Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there.

I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you back.

Joseph will close your eyes when you die.

And so God comes and confronts Jacob's fear.

Typically, the only time someone says, do not be afraid, is when someone is what?

Afraid.

God meets Jacob in his fear.

God meets Jacob in his fear.

And he reassures him that he's with you.

And that he reassures him that he will be with you.

And my my wife says that I am set in my ways.

She says, I am a man who has found routine and I enjoy routine.

I I I like I I kind of I mean she she she laughs at me because I I kind of go I have I'm an old man.

And I and I have my routines.

I have, you know, I have my morning routines, I have my midday routines, and I have my nighttime routines, and and and and you know, it's hard to move me out of my routines.

And she she laughs at me because she says I'm an old man set in my ways.

And so I see that some of you are are are the same.

Um there are certain personalities that have an easier time embracing change than other personalities, but but change is rarely easy.

I'm I'm I'm not wired like this.

Here's what I've learned about myself.

I'm I'm really great with change as long as I am in charge.

But the moment that I'm not in control, I push back against change.

I feel like this is more true in my life the older I get.

It becomes easier to get set in my ways.

And so uh imagine how Jacob would have felt at 130 years old.

He is old.

He is old.

He is tired.

He's been through a lot in his time here on earth.

And so it would be really easy to stay content and complacent with what pretty much the way things are.

I believe one of the biggest deterrents in us following Jesus and surrendering to him is the resistance to change.

I believe the biggest deterrent possibly to following Jesus and to experiencing life with him and surrendering to him is resistance to change.

We're scared.

We're scared that if we really, if we really follow Jesus with our lives, that he would ask us to do something that we really don't want to do, or he'll ask us to give up something that we really don't want to give up.

Fear of the unknown.

The fear of the unknown.

Intimidated by what might be.

Anytime the Lord is pushing us out of our comfort zone, there will not just be the fear of change, but there'll also be the fear of the unknown.

We look forward and we start to imagine all the possible things that might happen.

Our thoughts spiral.

We can start thinking that if we leave, that if if we leave what we've always, and we start thinking that if we leave what we have always known, that we are afraid of what will happen.

We're scared.

He was a lowly shepherd whose family was just trying to survive the famine.

His grandfather had been to Egypt before and it didn't turn out great for him.

His dad had been warned by God not to go to Egypt during another famine.

Egypt was a pagan land with many technological advancements.

Jacob might have felt intimidated by what he would experience.

When the Lord calls us out of our comfort zones, there will always be the fear of unknown.

There will always be the fear of the unknown.

I was recently talking with a group of guys about the biggest things that prevent them from stepping out in faith and leading others.

Most common hang up.

What if I don't know how to respond when people ask me a question?

What do I say?

How am I going to respond?

Fear the unknown.

We limit ourselves in how the Lord can use us because of the fear of the unknown.

God had already given Jacob, Jacob's forefathers, a promise in Genesis.

Genesis 15, 13 through 14.

It says, then the Lord said to Abram, Know this for certain, your offspring will be resident aliens for 400 years in a land that does not belong to them, and will be enslaved and oppressed.

However, I will judge the nation they serve, and afterward they will go out with many possessions.

So there's a promise given to Jacob's grandfather that his offspring would find themselves in a pagan land, Egypt, for 400 years, enslaved and oppressed.

Jacob is most likely aware that this has been promised by the Lord that he might have connected the dots here.

If he lives, his great-grandchildren's great-grandchildren's lives and his great-grandchildren's lives will be spent in a foreign land, enslaved and oppressed.

This is not a situation that you want to put your descendants in.

Sometimes the Lord calls us to do things that we know will have no immediate positive effect on our lives.

It could be giving up a substance that we've been addicted to.

It's knowing that the next several weeks, months, years are going to be hard fighting past withdrawal and temptations.

It could be giving up an ungodly relationship, knowing that it is going to bring about heartache and pain.

It could be as simple as having to have a hard conversation with someone, knowing that they are not likely going to receive it well at all.

While things might be hard in the short term, there's always a blessing on the other side of obedience.

There's always blessing on the other side of obedience.

So we don't know how to fear.

We don't allow fear to overtake our obedience to Christ.

The fear of change, the fear of the unknown, the fear of what is shown shouldn't deter us from living in obedience to following Jesus with our lives.

I love what Timothy, what Paul says to Timothy, 2 Timothy 1, 7.

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but one of power, love, and sound judgment.

The spirit inside of us is greater than the spirit of fear.

We can't allow fear to prevent us from following God's plans for our lives.

God's blessing is found on the other side of obedience.

Listen to me.

God's blessing is found on the other side of obedience.

Genesis 46, 3 and 4.

God says, I am God, the God of your father.

Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there.

I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you back.

Joseph will close your eyes when you die.

Jacob might have had fear, but the promise was greater than the fear.

God shows up and assures Jacob that he is still going to be faithful to his promise in light of this move.

God promises.

No.

Sometimes God's hand at work is most fruitful when we are the wilderness, when we are in the wilderness and in a foreign land.

He says, I will go down with you.

This is the only promise that is needed when we step out into new territory.

We don't want to go anywhere without the Lord.

I will bring you back, says the Lord.

This isn't the end.

Joseph will close your eyes.

You will see your son again and enjoy a special reunion with him.

So Jacob leaves what he's known for decades and decades and set out into something new, something unknown.

Verse 5, Jacob left Beersheba.

The sons of Israel's sons of Israel took their father Jacob in the wagons of Pharaoh.

In the wagons Pharaoh had sent to carry him, along with their descendants and their wives.

They also took their cattle and possessions they had acquired in the land of Canaan.

Then Jacob and all his offspring came with him to Egypt.

His sons and grandsons, his daughters and granddaughters.

Indeed, all his offspring, he brought with them to Egypt.

It is not just Jacob and his sons, but it's all their wives and families.

This is a big traveling caravan.

Seventy of them in all.

Some of you, some of you, I won't point.

And so uh that that was very well done though.

Thank you.

Um it m listen, this large family coming into Egypt, it must have been a sight.

This family that tends to that tends the livestock and would have been looked down upon by the nation of Egypt.

So they they are they are given the land of Goshen.

Goshen is the northeast part of the Nile Delta that had approximately 900 square miles of land that was that was um that was uh fruitful and and it was perfect for cattle.

Again, God's provision and God's faithfulness is true.

And then the reunion that we've longed to see.

Here's the reunion we've longed to see.

Verse 28.

Now Jacob had sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph to prepare for his arrival at Goshen.

When they came to the land of Goshen, Joseph hitched the horses to his chariot, went up to Goshen to meet his father Israel.

Joseph presented himself to him, threw his arms around him, and wept for a long time.

Then Israel said to Joseph, I'm ready to die now because I have seen your face, and you are still alive.

So here's the question that we started with.

It's a question I want to ask again.

How far will you go?

And what sacrifices will you make to follow God?

How far will you go and what sacrifices will you make to obey Jesus?

The story of Joseph and his family shows us that God is at work behind the scenes.

He is working behind the scenes.

Even when we don't understand.

When we can't trace his hand, we can trust his heart.

But the story also shows us that God wants to use people in the story he is writing that are surrendered and submitted to him.

Joseph saved the nation of Egypt from extinction by managing the famine.

Jacob surrendered everything to travel to a new land, even in his old age.

And how did God use how did God use them?

For 400 years, Jacob's descendants dwelt in the foreign land and they multiplied.

They multiplied.

They went from a family of 70 to a nation of about a million people.

The Egyptians turned on the Israelites, put them under harsh labor.

But once again, God was faithful to hear the cries of his people, and he sent a deliverer, Moses, to rescue his people.

A miraculous story of salvation and redemption that points to the ultimate story of salvation and redemption.

Jesus.

Jesus.

Jesus.

God heard the cries of his people and sent a Savior, the Son of God, to live the perfect life and to die the death that we deserve to die so that we might be able to be saved from the power of sin and death.

See, God is in the business of using men and women who sacrifice everything to him.

God is in the business of using men and women who sacrificed everything for him.

And so here's what I want us to do today.

I want us to turn our attention to the Holy Spirit this morning and listen for his voice in how we should obey.

The Lord is calling you to be a part of a grander story.

God is calling you into deeper waters.

He wants to use you more than you could ever imagine.

Where does the Lord want to use you?

Where is he calling you deeper?

What fears are preventing you from moving forward?

Is it change?

Is it change?

We don't like change, do we?

Change scares us.

And as Paul said, God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and a sound mind.

And so I want us to take a moment and I want us to bow our heads.

And I want us to do battle with fear.

Will you bow your heads with me?

Bow your heads with me.

Father, we come against fear in the name of Jesus.

God, sometimes we are afraid because of the fear of change.

We are afraid because of the unknown factors that come with surrendering our lives to Jesus.

And so I come against the spirit of fear in the name of Jesus.

I come inviting the power of the Holy Spirit to work to bring us to a place where we are obedient to bring us to a place where we know that blessing is on the other side of obedience.

And so, Father, I pray for that person who is gripped by fear, fear, fear to give their heart and their life to the Lord.

I pray for that person to surrender, surrender their fear to the Lord.

I pray for that person to put their faith in Jesus.

I pray for repentance and belief.

And Father, I thank you for the example and the forerunners that Moses became for us, that he became our deliverer as a forerunner to Jesus.

And so, Father, we ask that you would work.

We ask that you would speak.

We ask that you would you would um God call us to a deeper level of faith.

A level that will absolutely overcome fear.

Father, we love you.

We praise you.

We ask that you would work.

If you never put your faith in Jesus, today's the day.

If you are gripped by fear, my prayer is that you will be set free.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.

Father, we love you.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.