Grace World Outreach Church
Sunday Morning
Sculpted By Grace
When God Puts His Hand On You
Lessons From The Life of Jospeh
ESV Gen 50:20 “you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good”
ESV Rom 8:28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Genesis 37:1-24 ESV
It's a naive prayer to pray, "Lord, here is my life. Use me for Your Glory!"
It is naive, because 1) we don’t think God will take us fully at our word. 2) We dream the answer only comes with peace, prosperity, promises, promotion, but never pain, pressure, pruning, and persecution.
I do believe such a prayer is initiated not within our soul, but a prayer that comes from the depths of our spirit.
We pursue God because, and only because, He has first put an urge within us that spurs us to the pursuit…The impulse to pursue God originates with God, but the outworking of that impulse is our following hard after Him; and all the time we are pursuing Him we are already in His hand: "Thy right hand upholdeth me."
Tozer, A. W. The Pursuit of God
God never uses us for our glory… He uses us for His glory.
“If God puts his finger on you it's enough to change you, your family, your church, even a nation or the world. The highest compliment a man can ever have is to be tapped on the shoulder by God. When it happens, wonderful things are at hand. Yet it also means a time of preparation is at hand. This can be called God’s chastening. It is God’s way of getting the man He has owned ready for his own use. When God puts his finger on you things may get worse before they get better.”
- RT Kendall, God Meant It For Good
Three Assumptions about Jospeh
1) He was Self - Righteous
(vs 2) And Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father.
2) He was Self - Vindicating
(vs 3) Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors. 4 But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him.
3) He was Self - Promoting
(vs 5) Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more.
Our Human nature is prone to these
1) Self-Righteous
We want to be proven right.
2) Self-Validating
We want others proven wrong. Make the mistake of believing the blessings we experience are validation for our good behavior, or mistake the trials others face as punishment for bad behavior
3) Self-Promoting
Last, we believe we must promote ourselves. Celebrate our gifts, show them off, in order to get attention or advancement. Forgetting, the gift and call of God makes room for itself (Proverbs 18:16 ).
Four Surprises When God takes Hold of You...
1) When God puts His hand on you don’t be surprised… If it starts without your anticipated SIGN.
Vs 18 They saw him from afar, and before he came near to them they conspired against him to kill him.
2) When God puts His hand on you don’t be surprised… If He strips away what you call SACRED.
Vs 23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colors that he wore.
3) When God puts His hand on you don’t be surprised… When He uses the selfish, sinful natures of others to root the SELFISH, SINFUL nature out of you.
2 Tim 3:12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13 while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned
4) When God puts His hand on you don’t be surprised… If He SHUTS the door to quitting
Vs 24 And they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.
When you find yourself standing in the midst of your shattered dreams, your unfulfilled promises, and are disappointed in those you trusted with no where else to turn...
Don't forget
Rom 8:28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
"Sometimes I imagine that I'm a piece of stone, waiting for the sculptor. When I give myself to God this way, He begins sculpting my soul into the perfect image of His beloved Son. At other times, I feel my whole mind and heart being raised up into God's presence, as if, without effort, they had always belonged there." - Brother Lawerence
If you prayed, "God my life is yours, I surrender all." Then trust, what seems like the end, is the beginning of something beautify that is bringing about the very thing you prayed.
TRUST THE PROCESS
Rom 8:29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son
He’s conforming you to the image of His son! Just like you asked.
Steps to Survive the Process:
1) Fully SURRENDER to His process
2) Trust the SWEET SOUND of grace - even in the pain
3) SAY, He Means It For My Good!