“Joseph Was Thankful” – Genesis 50:15-21

A little boy was asked by his father to say grace at the table.  While the rest of the family waited, the little boy eyed every dish of food his mother had prepared.  After the examination, he bowed his head and honestly prayed, “Lord, I don’t like the looks of it, but I thank you for it and I’ll eat it anyway.  Amen.”

Have you ever felt like that?  You know you should be thankful but it’s not really what you want and yet you make the choice to be thankful anyway.  That little boy was being pretty mature.  His mother may not have appreciated it but I believe God did.  Thankfulness is a sign of maturity.  Babies are not thankful to their mothers for changing their diapers and giving them food and a warm bed.  But nobody expects that from a baby.  But as we mature, expectations change.

Because of the holiday Thanksgiving, November is a natural month to talk about being thankful.  Now, some of you may hear that and think that a whole 3-sermon series is not really necessary since we are all thankful.  I mean, we talked about it just this morning.  Everybody is thankful to some degree or another, right?

And maybe that’s true but at the same time, I believe it is time well spent to see what true thankfulness looks like and how it manifests itself in our lives.  Webster defines it as “grateful and appreciative”.  That’s it.  But I am afraid that there is more to it than that, at least from God’s perspective.  Maybe it is just the depth of your gratitude that is the difference.

If you came to me and said, “Pastor, here are the keys to that new yellow Corvette ZR1 convertible you have always wanted. I hope you like the leather seats and engine upgrade. We just wanted to show you how much we love and appreciate you.” And if I grabbed the keys and walked off toward the car and said, “Thanks” over my shoulder, how would you feel?  I mean, I met the qualification for being thankful at least according to Webster.  But you would tell everybody about what an ungrateful and unappreciative pastor you have!

At Christmas time people can be so sensitive.  Have you ever opened a present and not shown quite enough gratitude? “I’ll just take it back if you don’t like it.  Don’t worry about it.  I picked it out just for you knowing how much you like sweaters with pictures of squids on them but I’ll take it back and stand in line for 2 hours and just bring you the money so you can go waste it on something stupid.  Don’t worry about me.”  Good grief.

At the same time, nobody wants you to drum up or manufacture or fake your gratitude, especially God.  He wants you to feel and show true thankfulness and we do that by wrapping our brains around what all He has given and the price that He paid.  That changes everything about our attitude of gratitude when we realize that.  But over the next 3 weeks, I want us to see what thankfulness looks like when it truly manifests itself in our lives.

Let’s do that today by looking at an interesting and unique character from the Old Testament in Genesis chapter 50, verses 15-21.  Joseph may not be the person in the Bible that most people think about when they think of characters who are grateful and appreciative.  Joseph may be the person you think about when you think of people who have gotten a raw deal from God.

You know the story of Joseph.  As a young man he was sold into slavery by his brothers.  He spent years and years in jail for crimes he didn’t commit.  He had everything taken away from him on more than one occasion.  He was forgotten, abandoned, lied about and yet while we know that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, there is no record in the Bible of Joseph ever doing anything worse than being a little arrogant as a youngster.  And yet, Joseph was thankful.  Let’s see it in Genesis 50:15-21.

¹⁵ When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?” ¹⁶ So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Your father left these instructions before he died: ¹⁷ ‘This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.’ Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father.” When their message came to him, Joseph wept.¹⁸ His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. “We are your slaves,” they said.¹⁹ But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? ²⁰ You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. ²¹ So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.


I want you to look at verse 20 once again.  That is a sentence that can only be said by a mature person who is thankful.  He is not saying it didn’t happen or that it didn’t hurt.  He is not saying that there was a misunderstanding nor is he saying it was his fault.  He is not pretending to accept part of the blame to make them feel better.  Joseph says it like it is.  “You wanted to harm me…”


So, now he has stated the facts.  The next thing that comes out of his mouth is the important stuff.  Whatever he says next will show how he feels and what is about to happen to his family.  He has all the right to finish that phrase with a death sentence or a hanging or at least a punch in the face and we would know that Joseph had not forgiven nor was he thankful for how it turned out.


Instead we see that Joseph was a forgiving person, which is in itself a sign of thankfulness, but he also sees the big picture and that makes Joseph very thankful.  “But God intended it for good…”

If I were to ask you this morning if you are a thankful person, I am quite sure that almost everybody would say yes.  And as we discussed earlier, depth of thankfulness becomes an issue.  But for some others, timing is the issue.  I was thankful yesterday because such and such happened but not so much today.  I will be thankful tomorrow when it rains but today I wouldn’t say I’m as thankful. 


Looking at the life of Joseph in Genesis 50, we can see that thankfulness has nothing to do with timing.  In fact, in this passage, we see that Joseph has his brothers right where he wants them if he wanted to get revenge.  He remembers what happened.  They remember what happened.  Nobody has forgotten.  It is interesting what they tell Joseph.  I don’t believe for a minute that their father left them instructions telling them to tell Joseph to forgive them.  That was just the brothers feeling guilty and trying to save their necks.


And I believe that Joseph sees this too and that is why he wept in verse 17.  You see, for Joseph, thankfulness is not dependent on the past.  For Joseph, the past was a harsh memory.  Nothing could completely erase those years of imprisonment.  Nothing could change the fact that his brothers had hated him so bad they wanted to kill him.  But Joseph was thankful even in spite of his past and he proved it by not holding the events of the past over their heads.


Joseph was thankful for what God had done and it did not depend on his own difficulties in the past. 

Also, I want you to see that Joseph’s thankfulness is not changed by the present.  In the present situation, Joseph has some options and I can see some pretty unpleasant alternatives for his brothers if Joseph had not been mindful of what God had done.  At this point, Joseph is in the driver’s seat.  He has all the power and the resources to make the lives of his brothers worse than his ever was.


If you had asked Joseph 2 weeks ago if he was thankful, I’m sure he would have honestly said yes but now the proof comes out.  Now in the present, Joseph might have said, “Well, I was thankful but now I’m ready for revenge.  It’s my time now boys!  Bow down before me now and I’ll chop off your heads!”  But we see that Joseph’s thankfulness is not changed by the present.  His thankfulness supersedes his right and ability to be mad and vengeful.


His thankfulness is not dependent on the past nor changed by the present but it is mindful of the future.  He tells his brothers to not be afraid.  “I will provide for you and your children.”  Joseph understands that God has been at work his whole life.  It was not in the way that Joseph had expected and he certainly would not have chosen this path but it is obvious that God has allowed all of the heartache, loneliness and pain so that he would someday be able to provide for his family and so Joseph now does his part to show his thankfulness to God by being mindful of the future of his family.


Now I want us to see how thankfulness manifests itself in our lives.  You can talk about it.  You can say you are thankful.  You can encourage others to be thankful.  You can write long, fascinating books on why and how to be thankful but until it shows up in your life, until it bears bold and bountiful fruit, you are just wasting your breath.


In the life of Joseph, we see 3 ways that thankfulness manifests itself.  The first way is not mentioned with words here in this passage.  Joseph doesn’t say it out loud.  He doesn’t have to.  It is obvious to the brothers and it is obvious to us that Joseph has forgiven his brothers. When we are truly thankful, it will manifest itself in forgiveness.


I wish I had time to do this subject justice but suffice to say that forgiveness, true forgiveness is difficult.  It doesn’t come easy, we all know that.  It is not our default setting.  But it will show up when we see the big picture.  When we see that God has allowed everything in our lives to happen to make us into who we are supposed to be then we can start to truly forgive people.  Repeat.  He allowed Joseph to be sold, made a slave, slandered, forgotten, and abused to bring him to this point in his life where he can save the lives of his family.  And in doing so, God, not Joseph, gets the glory.


That’s how God works in our lives.  It is probably not going to be how we would have done it but His ways are higher than our ways and in the end, we see it was for our benefit.  That makes you thankful and that will manifest itself in forgiveness.


We also see that in the life of Joseph, thankfulness manifests itself verbally.  Joseph could have stopped with the first part of verse 20 and just said, “You intended to harm me!”  But he continued with, ”…but God intended it for good…”.  He voiced his appreciation for what had happened in his life.


We are very thankful for the veterans in our country and we are grateful all year around.  But today is one of the days when we actually voice our appreciation for what they have done.  If you never tell someone you love them or appreciate them, it’s hard to believe that you really do.  If you never tell your wife that you love her but you feel it in your heart, is that enough?  Probably not.


It’s the same way with God.  When you are thankful for what He has done, it will manifest itself verbally.  And lastly, thankfulness will manifest itself in our lives when all of this comes together and our thankfulness is not diminished by timing, it has been shown in our lives as forgiveness and we verbally express it.  But ultimately, it will manifest itself toward God.


Like Joseph, most of us have had difficulties in this life.  Job said, “Man born of woman is of few days and full of trouble.”  But, also like Joseph, we have a lot to be thankful for.  God knows the trouble you have seen.  Over and over again through Genesis it says this sentence: And God was with Joseph.  God was with him in the well.  He was with him in slavery, in prison, when it was lonely and when it was painful.


God allowed all of that to happen to make him into the man he was supposed to be but to the very end it says God was with him.  And while Joseph was unique in lots of ways, this isn’t one of them.  God promises to be with us in everything we go through; the good times and the bad.  And like Joseph, that should make us thankful to Him.

“Leaving Friends” – Acts 20:22-24

I want to ask you an important question.  Don’t respond out loud.  I just want you to think about it. How do you want to be remembered after you are gone?  Do you want to be known as the funny guy or the hard-worker?  Do you want your grandkids and great-grandkids to remember you as the grandmother who was generous or a good listener?  Maybe they will remember you as a good cook or as having a great mustache.  Hopefully, they remember granddad and not grandma as the one with the good facial hair.

Like it or not, death comes to all of us and we are not guaranteed another breath so if we think right now about our legacy, hopefully we will focus on being the way that we want to be remembered.  To tell you the truth, any of us will be doing good if we are remembered much at all in as few as 100 years and unless you are very extraordinary, they will sum up your life in one sentence.  How do you want that sentence to read? 

This is a manuscript that my cousin produced after years of studying our family history.  Evidently, it’s a big deal to be able to trace your family history to the Mayflower and he was able to do that.  There is something like 13 generations between me, my cousins and dear old Granddaddy Brewster who sailed over on the Mayflower and each one is cited, documented, proven and their whole lives summed up in no more than a paragraph.  Some are extraordinary and some are less than that with a few being quite the scoundrels of the day.  How would you like to have your legacy be the fact that you were the one who cussed out the judge as he was sentencing you?

But some of them don’t say much of anything, just when they were born and died and who they married and the names of their kids.  That’s all we know about a lot of these people.  They lived 40-60-80 years and then they died.  But these people really lived.  They had joy and pain and laughter and tears, boredom and excitement just like you.  Now they are gone and all we have to remember them is one paragraph or maybe just one sentence.  How do you want yours to read?

We are continuing our look at the life of the Apostle Paul in Acts chapter 20 where we see him leaving some friends for the last time.  Paul had spent about three years in Ephesus, starting a church there and seeing that church grow and mature and he had made some dear friends but God had called him to be an evangelist and a missionary and not a pastor so Paul is telling them that he is moving on and they will never see him again.

In this passage, I believe as much as any other passage, Paul reveals who he really is and how he wants to be remembered and is, in fact, how we remember him and if you could only use one word to describe Paul, I think that word would be “radical”.  Paul was radical and this passage is radical.  Paul was different.  He was changed by God’s grace and he wanted everyone to be changed.  He wanted everyone to be different.  He wanted everyone to have a life-changing relationship with the risen Savior, Jesus, like he did and it did not matter what he had to do, where he had to go or what he had to endure.  He was going to tell people about Jesus.

In this passage, we are going to see why Paul did what he did, how he did what he did and then what is was exactly that he did.  So, let’s turn to Acts chapter 20, verses 22-24 and remember that he is talking to his dear friends that he is about to leave.  His boat is waiting on him to sail off.  He will never see them again as far as he knows so he leaves them with these last words.

“And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. ²³ I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. ²⁴ However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.”

Have you ever done anything that you knew there was a good chance that it was going to hurt you somehow?  Have you ever done anything dangerous where you were pretty sure pain was about to be involved?  Men, how many of you remember telling your wife you loved her for the very first time?  The two of you have been dating for a while now and there you are on the couch at her mother’s place or maybe the front seat of your car in front of her house and you are sitting there talking.  You are looking at her with those googly eyes and you are just smitten.  You can’t imagine life without her and you want her to know it but you’re not sure if this is the right time.

You want to tell her but every time you start to say those three little words, your brain kicks in, right?  “Don’t do it!  Whatever you do, don’t say that.  What if she doesn’t say it back?  What if you say you love her and she says she really likes you too?  Don’t say it!”  But you can’t help it.  You have to say it or you will blow up.  Do you remember feeling that way?  You were compelled to say it.  You couldn’t help it.  You knew it was dangerous but you did it anyway and (hopefully) it paid off and you two lived happily ever after.  Paul is saying here that he, too, is compelled.  He’s not stupid.  He knows it’s going to be dangerous if he goes back to Jerusalem.  In fact, it is going to be dangerous for him to preach the Gospel almost anywhere but he does it anyway.

Jeremiah (20:9) said that he had a fire in his bones and he couldn’t keep it in.  That fire was the word of the Lord and he had to let it out or he would burn up.  In this passage, Paul says he is compelled by the Spirit.  That word “compelled” means to be dragged away as if in chains.  Have you ever been compelled by the Holy Spirit to do anything?  Has there ever been a time that something came to mind that you needed to do and you knew that you wouldn’t be able to sleep if you didn’t do it?

Years ago, I was at Schlitterbahn Water park with my family.  We were waiting in line to get something to eat and there was a group of men there in front of us who were making it obvious to everyone that they were homosexuals.  They were loud and proud and making a scene as they stood in line right in front of me and just as clearly as I could hear them, I heard the Lord tell me, “Just say hello.”

I tried to drown that voice out.  I tried thinking about something else but nothing worked.  “Just say hello.”  So, because I couldn’t make the voice in my head go away…I walked off.  I walked away…and I have regretted it ever since.  I don’t know why God wanted me to say hello.  It was probably just to see if I would be obedient in some small way.  Maybe it was so that 20 years later I could stand here and tell you how miserable it is to be compelled to do something and be disobedient. 

But Paul was obedient even though he knew that he would face prison and hardships of every kind.  He was compelled to do it.  He couldn’t help it.  He couldn’t be disobedient to his Savoir and Lord.  He was compelled.  That’s why he did what he did.  Now let’s see how he did what he did.  Look at verse 24.  I consider my life worth nothing to me.  Now that sounds pretty radical, doesn’t it?  In fact, that sounds crazy.  How can a person consider their life worth nothing?  I’ll tell you how.  Or, actually, I will let Paul tell you from something he wrote in Galatians 2:20.  Turn there.

Galatians 2:20 says, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”  Paul said his life was worth nothing to him because his life was Christ’s and whatever Christ wanted to happen in his life was going to happen and why not?  The Bible says in several places that our life is a mist, a breath, a vapor or a puff of smoke.

*match*  Did you see that smoke?  Not enough to even set off a smoke alarm.  Do you remember what it looked like?  Was it black?  Grey?  White?  You don’t even remember and it just happened.  That is our life.  At best, it is remembered with a paragraph or maybe forgotten entirely.  But when Christ lives in us, we live for eternity.

Thinking of the fullness and duration of this wonderful life, W. B. Hinson, a great preacher of a past generation, spoke from his own experience just before he died. He said, "I remember a year ago when a doctor told me, 'You have an illness from which you won't recover.' I walked out to where I live 5 miles from Portland, Oregon, and I looked across at that mountain that I love. I looked at the river in which I rejoice, and I looked at the stately trees that are always God's own poetry to my soul. Then in the evening I looked up into the great sky where God was lighting His lamps, and I said, ' I may not see you many more times, but Mountain, I shall be alive when you are gone; and River, I shall be alive when you cease running toward the sea; and Stars, I shall be alive when you have fallen from your sockets in the great down pulling of the material universe!' "  (sermonillustrations.com)

Paul knew he would live on in eternity and he had that mindset at all times and so he lived his life as if it were already eternity; as if it was actually the life of Christ.  “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”  That is how he did what he did.  Now, lastly, let’s see exactly what it is that he did.  Look at the rest of verse 24.  if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me…

Then see what the task was.  What was it that God had told him to do?  Was it to be an evangelist?  Did God call him to be a missionary?  Did he send him to the seminary for training?  Was his task to write most of the New Testament?  No.  He says his task – the one thing God had called him to do – was the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.  There is an infinite number of ways to tell people the Good News.  There are any number of ways to witness to somebody and to bring them to have a life-changing relationship with Jesus but the very best way is just to tell them about God’s grace in your own life.  What has it meant to you?  When you have good news, don’t you want to share it?

Somebody tell me right now in one sentence what God’s grace means to you.  I know I’m a sinner and I know I have displeased God and there is nothing I can do to be good enough to get into Heaven.  There is nothing I can do to deserve God’s forgiveness.  I don’t deserve peace.  I couldn’t find joy in the difficult times on my own, no matter how hard I tried but I can have peace and joy in this life.  I can have forgiveness of my sin and I can spend eternity in Heaven as a child of the one true King and a co-heir with Jesus to every good thing Heaven has because – and only because – of what Jesus did.

Jesus was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life and was crucified for all my sin and for all of yours.  Then He rose again after three days and lives today and I will see Him with my own eyes one day very soon.  And if that’s not good news then I don’t know what is.  Come today and let me tell you more about it!