The Teenager Who Changed the World - II

The following message from Pastor Greg Laurie is made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God.

Check out Virtue, our website for Christian women. Go to harvest.org forward slash virtue. It's been said envy shoots at another and wounds itself.

That's envy. I'll get you. I'll bring you down.

No, you'll bring yourself down. So nip it in the bud before it crushes you. This is the day, the day when life begins. Envy and jealousy are insidious. It's like a carrot that tempts us to bite but that's ready to bite us back.

The late syndicated columnist Charlie Reese said, if malice or envy were tangible and had a shape, it would be the shape of a boomerang. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us guard against that bounce back danger of envy and jealousy. He continues his series, World Changers, with a look at the example left for us by Joseph. This is the day, the day when life begins.

All right. Well, let's grab our Bibles and we're going to turn to two passages today. Hebrews 11 and Genesis 37. Hebrews 11 and Genesis 37. And the title of my message is The Teenager Who Changed the World. And I'm talking about Joseph. If you're a teenager, listen up to this message especially.

If you're older and you shop at Forever 21, please stop now. Let's pray together. Father, we are glad to be here today in Your house with Your people to open Your Word and to hear Your voice. And You tell us in Scripture that Your sheep hear Your voice. Well, Lord, we're Your sheep, so much like them, disobedient, prone to go astray.

Don't always listen. We're Your sheep and You're our shepherd. And You want to speak to us today, so would You do that? Because, Lord, we want to be world changers and we want to make a difference. We don't want the world to change us. We want to change the world. So speak to us. We would ask now in Jesus' name.

Amen. Now we're looking at two passages together. Hebrews 11 and Genesis 37. So first let's look at Hebrews 11 verse 22. There's not a lot about Joseph in Hebrews. By faith it says, Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel and gave instructions concerning his bones.

So we're introduced to Joseph in Hebrews 11 at the end of his life. Here he is in a foreign country and he didn't want to be buried there. He wanted to be buried in the land of Canaan. He had walked in faith. Now he's dying in faith.

So he wants to go home again. But how did Joseph end up in Egypt to start with? That is where our story begins. Turn over to Genesis 37. I'm going to read verses 2 to 4 from the New Living Translation where we're introduced to Joseph. When Joseph was 17 years old, he often tended his father's flocks.

He worked for his half-brothers, the sons of his father's wives, Bilhah and Zilpah. But Joseph reported to his father some of the bad things the brothers were doing. Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other children because Joseph had been born to him in his old age. So one day Jacob had a special gift made for Joseph, a beautiful robe. But his brothers hated Joseph because their father loved him more than the rest of them and they couldn't say a kind word to him.

We'll stop there. So as our story begins we have Jacob as an older man favoring one son above the others. Dad goes out and gets him a special custom designer coat. A multicolored jacket. The more familiar phrase is King James Version. A coat of many colors.

Right? What does that mean? It means it was a richly ornamented robe. Now there's more to this than initially meets the eye. One commentator said this was a tunic that was sleeved and it was extended to the ankles.

So here's the idea. The brothers would have work clothes on. They would be in jeans.

Right? They might have had their sleeves cut out so they would have freedom of movement to work in the fields. Dad gave to Joseph the equivalent of like a tuxedo or this super cool designer jacket that would have cost a lot of money. Which effectively said he did not have to work. Look at Genesis 37 again. Drop down to verse 5. One night Joseph had a dream. And when he told his brothers about it they hated him more than ever. Listen to the dream he said.

We were out in the field tying up bundles of grain. Suddenly my bundle stood up and your bundles all gathered around and bowed low before mine. His brothers said to him, do you think you'll be our king now too? Do you actually think you're going to reign over us? And they hated him all the more because of his dreams and the way he talked about them.

We'll stop there. You know what? Sometimes it's best to keep your dreams to yourself. Was Joseph's dream from God?

Yes it was. Should he have said it in this way to his brothers? Maybe not. Maybe he should have just kept that between him and God and let the Lord fulfill it in his timing. And so you know he comes to his brothers and they think he is flaunting everything that he has.

Then it gets worse. He goes to his dad and says, dad I had a dream. Another dream. And in this dream the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars bowed before me. And even dad Jacob who loved him and favored him and said, son what do you think? That your mother and I and your brothers are going to bow before you? Well I'm just telling you the dream dad. Well actually that dream was true. In time literally his father and brothers would bow before him. But again it might have been best kept to himself. And that brings us now to Genesis 37 verse 18.

One day Joseph is standing in Aaron. Dad says, go check up on the kids. I keep calling them. I text them. They are not answering.

Maybe it is because cell phones don't exist yet. But I want you to go find out what they are up to. So Joseph comes to the brothers and we pick the story up in verse 18. When Joseph's brothers saw him coming they recognized him in the distance and as he approached they made plans to kill him. Here comes the dreamer they said. Let's kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns. We can tell our father a wild animal ate him and we will see what becomes of his dreams.

We will stop there. Reuben was the oldest brother. He should have been the mature one. He should have stood up for Joseph.

He knew this was wrong. In fact it was Reuben that said, well let's not kill him. Let's just throw him into a cistern.

By the way a cistern is just an empty well. Let's throw him into a pit or a cave if you will. And he will just die there. Then we are not responsible for actually killing him. And the Scripture tells us Reuben planned on going back later and getting him out of the pit. Well how about just standing up for his brother. How about just saying you touch him over my dead body.

Back off. But Reuben was later described by his father Jacob as unstable as water. And that was his character. Reuben was the kind of guy that wanted everyone to be happy.

He wanted to get along with everyone. He was the kind of guy that would not stand on principle. But while they are arguing this out poor Joseph is now in a pit.

And they are just talking about his future and maybe his death. A group of slave traders come along and one of them has a bad idea. Why don't we sell him to the slave traders. Yeah let's make some money. And they sold him for 20 pieces of silver.

Now who does this remind you of? Jesus was sold for what? 30 pieces of silver. And by the way 20 pieces of silver was the price of a handicapped slave.

So they didn't even get full retail for him. They tear up his designer jacket. Cover it in animal blood and go back to them and say, oh dad bad news. Joseph was killed by a wild animal. Here is his beautiful coat you gave to him. Poor Jacob is crushed and he cries out, my boy is gone.

What will I do now? How heartless these brothers were. Not only to sell their young brother into slavery but to break the heart of their father who was devastated. But Joseph was not abandoned by God.

Yes abandoned by his brothers but not by God. Now let's conclude this message. Here is what we can learn from this story.

Number one. Never let envy and jealousy get a foothold in your life. Never let envy and jealousy get a foothold in your life. Jealousy and envy are among the most deadly sins in the satanic arsenal. Left unchecked envy and jealousy can lead to far worse. James 3.16 says, whenever you are trying to look better than the others or get the better of others things will fall apart and everyone will end up at each other's throats.

That is a modern translation but a very accurate one I would say. Envy is what motivated Cain to kill his brother Abel. He was envious that God accepted his brother's offering and not his. Envy is what caused the religious leaders, the Pharisees, to crucify Jesus. Pilate, the Roman governor, accurately diagnosed according to Matthew 27 18 he knew for envy they had delivered him. He knew why they brought Jesus. They envied him.

Why? Jesus was bad for business. Jesus cared about people. They prayed on the people. Jesus prayed for the people.

Jesus wanted to open up access to the Father. These religious leaders wanted to drive the people away. They said, let's kill them.

We will never care for them again. It was envy that motivated them. What a wicked thing envy and jealousy are. Shakespeare called envy the green eyed monster that mocked. William Penn said, the jealous are troublesome to others and a torment to themselves.

Isn't that true? The jealous are troublesome to others and a torment to themselves. You know when you are jealous of someone it hurts you more than them. You know they walk in the room and go, here they are. Here comes the dreamer like the brother said.

Oh here comes Mr. Know-it-all. You have whatever mockery you use and it makes you feel better. It is envy. It is jealousy. That is why you are saying it.

You are so critical. But you just wish you were them. So you want to drag them down. Humans aren't the only ones who are envious. Animals are. Dogs can be jealous. You ever be out walking your dog and you see another dog and your dog lunges at the dog. Get away.

It is my owner. Right. Cats.

They don't care that much. But even crabs can be envious. Did you know that? I heard a story about a crab fisherman that was walking along with a pail full of crabs. Almost full of the top. Someone said, why don't you put a lid on that. Those crabs will get out. He says, oh no. They won't get out. Well how is that so?

He says, well look. Every time one of them tries to climb out the others reach up and pull them back down. And it's true. You're not getting out of here.

You stay down here with the rest of us and get eaten. Right. So that's the way it works. In just a moment, Pastor Greg recalls a time when he learned a lesson about the blowback danger of jealousy from women's perfume. Women's perfume.

He'll explain that in just a moment. Hey everybody. Greg Laurie here inviting you to join me every weekend for what we call Harvest at Home. It's a church service. It's a worship service. It's a Bible study. And it's wherever you want it to be.

In your home, in your car, sitting on a beach, walking down the street, watching it on your phone. Wherever you are you can take it with you and be ministered to every weekend. So join us for Harvest at Home at Harvest.org. We're considering the dangers of envy and jealousy today as Pastor Greg continues this study of the life of Joseph called The Teenager Who Changed the World. The full message is available for download at Harvest.org. It's been said envy shoots at another and wounds itself.

It shoots at another and wounds itself. I was walking with a friend through a department store a while ago. And I don't know about you but I have an allergy to cologne and perfume. And so even when I open up a magazine if there is one of those little cologne samples I kind of have the thing with my throat. And so my friend, I thought it would be really funny to spray my friend with women's perfume.

It just occurred to me. So I grabbed a tester. I came right up behind him and sprayed him with a perfume. And he started to run and I chased him and I sprayed him.

Guess what happened? When you are running with perfume and spraying it, it comes back at you. So it's like I'll get you. I'll get you.

Afterwards he smelled a little like a girl and I smelled a lot like one. That plant backfired. That's envy. I'll get you. I'll bring you down.

No. You bring yourself down. That's why it is a dangerous sin. Hey it can even end our marriages.

You know we become very jealous. One story you may not know about is a conversation that Adam and Eve had. One day Eve said to Adam, I think you have been running around with other women. Adam was like, how would that be Eve?

You are the only woman on the face of the earth. And the next night Adam was sleeping and he woke up to someone poking him in the chest. And it was Eve. He said, what are you doing?

She said, just counting your ribs. See that is jealousy. It is bad. By the way that is not in the Bible.

So don't look for it. The Greek myth tells the story of a statue erected in honor of a famous athlete. And a rival athlete was so envious he wanted to destroy it. So every night he would come in and chisel at its base to weaken its foundation. And one night he was successful. The statue came down on him and crushed him. That is how envy and jealousy work.

So nip it in the bud before it crushes you. Point number two. God will work all things together for good to those who love God. Again Romans 8.28. It says, for we know that all things work together for good to those that love God and are called according to His purpose. Notice that first part of the verse. And we know.

Listen. There are no accidents in the life of the Christian. Only providence. We say it is an accident.

No it was providence. There is no dumb luck. There is no karma. There is Christ. We don't believe in faith. We believe in faith.

We believe that God is in control. We know this. You need to know this. Because things happen in life that don't make sense.

Don't they? You say, why is this happening to me? What have I done to deserve such a fate?

You asked. Well I don't know that I have the answer for you but I know God is in control. I know God is powerful. I know that God is sovereign. Which means He is in control of all things. And so we know this.

What do we know? We know all things work together for good. Notice it says all things. It doesn't say we know that the good things work together for good. No it says all things whatever their color or character David wrote in Psalm 119.91 All things are your servants. Now this does not necessarily mean that all things are good things. And this is what we maybe misunderstand. A bad thing happens to us and some well-meaning Christian may come up and say all things work together for good but those who love God are called according to His purpose.

Very nice. But wait a second. When someone is suffering, when someone is in pain maybe that's not the first go-to verse.

There might be another one you might choose instead. That will come in time. But we might almost be saying well hey I know it's horrible you lost someone you deeply love but all things work together for good.

No wait. What happened to that person is a really bad thing. And you should go and say I'm so sorry this happened to you. I'm sorry your loved one is gone.

And I care and I'm here for you. Because there are bad things that happen that will remain to be bad things and they will never be anything but bad things. But God doesn't say He will make every bad thing good. He says we know that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His promise. He doesn't say bad things become good. He says they work together for good. That means ultimately in God's master plan good things will result. Now we may not have full resolution until we get to heaven on some things. And God explains it.

Or maybe just looking in His face will explain it all. But whatever it is it will ultimately work together for good. But for who? For everybody. Is this verse true for every person walking the earth right now?

No. It's for Christians. We know that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose. Let me just conclude with one brief rapid succession of thoughts if you will. I want to compare Joseph to Jesus. Because you can't help but see this.

Number one. Joseph was hated and envied by his brothers. And Jesus was rejected by his own.

The Bible says He came into His own and His own received Him not. Jesus and Joseph were effectively both sold. Joseph was sold for 20 pieces of silver. Judas betrayed Christ for 30 pieces of silver.

Number three. Jesus and Joseph both forgave their enemies. Jesus forgave them hanging on the cross. Father forgive them for they know not what they do. Joseph extended that same forgiveness to his brothers.

Number four. Jesus and Joseph were both thought dead and they were alive again. Now in the case of Joseph he never died. He was alive but his brothers thought he had died. And then he came back and forgave them and Jesus was dead. He was killed.

He was murdered. But he rose again from the dead. And lastly what the devil meant for evil God used for good. Joseph's brothers wished him dead but God used what happened. In the same way Satan entered the heart of Judas Iscariot to betray Christ. He thought he would silence Jesus once and for all. But in effect Satan was a lot like that Greek athlete trying to bring the statue down.

And he came down on him and crushed and killed him. The crucifixion was part of the plan and purpose of the father because the Bible says it pleased the father to bruise him. Yes it is true that the devil was behind the crucifixion. Yes it is true the devil played a part in the murder of Jesus. But yes it is also true that it was the father's ultimate will as he laid all the sin of the world upon Jesus who had never sinned.

And listen to this. The greatest injustice in the history of the universe resulted in the greatest good to ever happen. The greatest injustice, the betrayal, the beating, and the crucifixion of Jesus Christ resulted in the greatest good. Your salvation. My salvation. So I can hear this message right now and say because of what Jesus did I am going to heaven.

That is worth clapping for. But this is only for those who love God. Do you love God? You know the only way to really know and love God is to have Christ come and live inside of your heart. And then you can have a real love like you have never known. And God loved you so much He sent His Son to die for you.

And now you can love Him back by following Him. Maybe you have joined us here today and you have never asked Jesus to come into your life and forgive you of your sin. I have talked about heaven and forgiveness and you are thinking man I don't know if I am going to heaven. I don't know if I am really forgiven by God.

But you can be. You say how? By asking Jesus Christ who died on the cross for you and rose again from the dead to come into your life to be your Savior and Lord. In a moment we are going to pray. And I am going to extend an invitation for you to believe in Jesus. To ask for His forgiveness.

If you have not done that yet do it now. Let's all bow our heads and pray. Father thank You for loving us so much You sent Jesus to die on the cross on our place. Lord Jesus thank You for coming and laying Your life down. And now we pray that Your Holy Spirit will convict and convince the folks that are here of their need for You and help them to come to You and believe.

Amen. To hear today's message again go online to harvest.org and look for The Teenager Who Changed the World. You will also find it on our Harvest mobile app or for a CD copy call 1-800-821-3300.

You can reach us anytime 24-7 at 1-800-821-3300. And then we are so happy to welcome Pastor Greg's wife Kathy who is joining us today along with Jeff and Shanti Feldhahn authors of the new book Thriving in Love and Money. It talks about what a stress point money can be in more than 90% of marriages. Some couples fight about it, some would just rather not talk about it. But the book points out that it all comes down to differing perspectives, differing values, and the lack of connection on the subject.

Pastor Greg? Okay, let's say that the husband wants to buy something. And being a guy, he probably wants to buy a muscle car. In the mind of the wife, the guy wants to buy something she thinks is extravagant and or in the mind of the husband, the wife says, let's redecorate the house. And what he hears her saying is, let's take a bunch of money and flush it down the toilet, right? So that's not what she means. Maybe that's not even what he means, but they hear it differently. Talk about that. Well, actually, you just described one of the key factors underneath the surface that we found is a big deal for almost everybody, which is that it turns out we're just not valuing what the other person is valuing.

And it shouldn't surprise us. I don't know why we do this, because we know we're different people. Like, you know, technically, I know Jeff is a different human being than I am. But for some reason, in my mind, I don't translate that to, huh, he might have different things that really matter to him.

And that might be just as legitimate as what matters to me. And what we tell ourselves internally is that the other person is wrong in what they're valuing. And that's what we find with most of the couples that we talked with that we surveyed. Can I give you all an example, a very common example right now? Because, you know, right now, there's a lot of couples and probably for years to come, as people are listening to this, there's a lot of economic uncertainty. You know, and that lends itself to suddenly a husband and wife need to come together and be able to talk about money when maybe they haven't really been able to before in the same way. And one of the examples of this different kind of clash, this example of a value difference, is a spender and a saver. And that's a very common, simple example. And even when you have two savers, usually one of them is more comfortable spending than the other.

So you still have this gap. You're listening to Shanti and Jeff Feldhahn. And so we're getting into the hood a little bit here and we're talking about these important issues because, you know, with this pandemic continuing on, I think we're all hoping it maybe would have subsided more by this point. And people are under incredible financial stress.

Some have been laid off, some have been furloughed, a lot of uncertainty in the air, et cetera. This is a time when it's really important to talk about these issues. Yes, money, but to talk about our relationships, to talk about our marriages. So for whatever you send, we'll invest it in this ministry and we'll get you your own copy of this book by Shanti and Jeff Feldhahn, Thriving in Love and Money. This is such an important resource.

The book points out that more than 90 percent of couples deal with stress in this area. So get some help for the financial tension in your home by way of Thriving in Love and Money. The subtitle is Five Game-Changing Insights About Your Relationship, Your Money, and Yourself. We'll send it to thank you for your donation. That helps us continue to bring Pastor Greg's teaching your way each day. You can write us at A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514. Or call 1-800-821-3300. Call anytime 24 hours a day at 1-800-821-3300.

Or go online to harvest.org. Well, Pastor Greg, today you wrapped up your message by talking about eternity. Yeah. How can someone listening know that they're going to heaven? Well, that's a great question, and I guess, let me take it a step further.

I know that is the most important question you can ask. How can a person know they're going to heaven? Let me say at the outset, I believe I'm going to heaven. In fact, I'll take it a step further. I know I'm going to heaven. You say, Greg, isn't that kind of arrogant?

Not really. Because I know this because God has made a promise to me, and I've believed that promise. The Bible says, we write these things to you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. I've believed on the name of the Son of God, thus I know I'll go to heaven when I die. Here's my question to you. Do you believe on the name of the Son of God? Is there any more important issue than that?

I can't think of one. So I'd like to lead you in a simple prayer. And this is a prayer where you will be asking Jesus to forgive you of your sin, and you'll be asking him to be your own savior, friend, Lord. It's a prayer only you can pray.

Pray these words if you would. Lord Jesus, I know I am a sinner, but I know that you are the savior who died on the cross for my sin and rose from the dead. Jesus, come into my life. I want to believe in you. I want to follow you.

I want this relationship with you. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sin and rising again from the dead. And I thank you that you've heard this prayer. And I believe you've come into my life.

In Jesus' name I pray, amen. I want to help you grow in your faith. I want to help you grow spiritually. So I have a free gift for you. It's called the New Believers Growth Packet. What's in it?

No, not a bag of seeds to plant in your backyard. I guess it's sort of a form of a bag of seeds because I want to sow some spiritual seed in your life to help you develop as a follower of Christ. So I'm going to send you a copy of the New Testament in the New Living Translation, but it's a special edition. It's called the New Believers Bible. And it's filled with notes that I wrote that will encourage you in this new commitment or recommitment you've made to Christ. And there's some other materials in the New Believers Packet as well. So order your copy today. And I'm so glad I had this privilege today to lead you in that prayer. God bless you.

You've made the right decision, the decision to follow Jesus Christ. And here's how to get that New Believers Packet. Just write us at A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514. Or call us at 1-800-821-3300.

We can take your call anytime 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 1-800-821-3300. Or go online to harvest.org and click the words, Know God. Well next time, Pastor Greg opens the next chapter in Joseph's life.

As he rises to prominence in the household of Potiphar, he faces perhaps his greatest test. More on that next time on A New Beginning. The preceding message from Greg Laurie was made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God. Sign up for Pastor Greg's free daily email devotions at harvest.org.