By now, having studied Joseph s story for a while, we are able to see the prevailing theme of God s Providence. This theme runs throughout the Joseph narrative, but in fact, it runs throughout the whole Bible....
A teenager of 17 years cast into slavery by his brothers. Thirteen years pass by, perhaps most of which were spent in prison. Then, to amaze us, at the age of 30 he is not only freed from prison, but he is elevated to a position second only to that of Pharaoh, the most powerful monarch on earth. Talk about "rags to riches"! Talk about a "rise to fame"! Talk about a "success story" without parallel!...
And he said, "There was a man who had two sons; and the younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of property that falls to me.' And he divided his living between them"...
Waiting, waiting, waiting. Most of us do not do this very well, do we? Letters by the US Postal Service are now called "snail mail" compared to the much faster e-mail of our sophisticated computer age. Now we even send "e-cards" to each other! We do not like waiting in lines for too long, and we like our "fast-food" to be well fast!...
Well, if you didn t know the story of Joseph before this series began last Sunday, you can already testify to the truth of my introduction: "It is an exciting story, a story of God s providential care that unfolds in the flow of tremendous drama."...
God rules and overrules in all the circumstances of life. Do you believe this to be true for you and for others? This seems to be the conviction of so many of our Founding Fathers. Although there are many who would seek to rewrite history for us, seeking to convince us that many of them were mere deists, believing in a Creator who is disinterested in human affairs, the primary documents tell us otherwise....
April 17th, 2005 that is the day when this all started: a series of sermons on the entire book of Acts. Of course, we haven t gone straight through, Sunday after Sunday, month after month, year after year. This is why it has taken us so long to get through the entire book. But today, we close this lengthy series with our final passage....
Encouragement is a wonderful thing, wouldn t you say? To encourage others means to inspire them with courage, spirit or hope; it means to spur them on towards endurance; it means to give them confidence as we cheer them on....
Just because a person happens to be a veteran sailor or a seasoned traveler, does not mean that peril at sea will be taken lightly. In fact, it will be taken all the more seriously! And along with this, the knowledge that you are not ultimately in control of all that is happening! This is what we see in the description of Paul s sea voyage....
This text before us in 1st Kings is about waiting; it reveals to us how Elijah waited on the Lord in his time of need. Truth be told, faith and waiting go hand in hand, for faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see (Heb 11:1). When we can t see yet have hope, we are waiting, waiting for something we cannot bring about through our own strength or resources....
