Momentum - Learning to Overcome the Evil Aimed at You, Part 1

Let me ask you, has someone wounded you, betrayed you, done you wrong?

Maybe it was someone you loved, someone you trusted, someone you respected, but they just did you wrong and there's anger and bitterness and you don't know what to do with it. If that's where you find yourself today, we're going to talk about how to overcome the evil that's aimed at you. Welcome to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Living on the Edge features the Bible teaching of Chip Ingram on this daily discipleship program. I'm Dave Drouie, and today Chip explains how you can overcome the evil that's aimed at you, even the unjust, raw deals that leave you feeling angry, betrayed, or hopeless.

Now if you have to miss any of today's message, remember you can catch up anytime with the Chip Ingram app. Now with today's message, learning how to overcome the evil aimed at you, here's Chip. Two main characters in the New Testament are Peter and Paul, and Peter's ministry is primarily to the Jews and Paul's primarily to the Gentiles. And Peter would write, Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you're suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. In other words, when things are very painful, difficult, evil, unjust, in a fallen world, like don't be surprised. The apostle Paul would take it one step farther in 2 Timothy 3, 12, and 13.

He says, in fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, and then notice this, while evil men and imposters will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. And the question I have for you as we get started this morning is who has wounded or betrayed or abused or abandoned or forsaken you or forgotten you or hurt you more than anyone else in the world? I'm not going to ask you to share this, I'm not going to ask you to write it down, but I am not going to ask you to reach back into some stuff that most of you have pushed down very, very deeply, and it could have been a parent, it could have been a sibling, it could have been a mate, it could have been one of your kids, it could have been a business partner, it could have been someone involved in a church. But whose picture, whose face comes to your mind when you think of being lied to, betrayed, hurt, wounded, or did something to someone you love? They did it to one of your kids or they did it to your mom or they did it to your dad, and in your most honest moments, you got a rock. And you got a rock of wound. How do we as R12 Christians respond and then overcome the evil that's aimed at us?

Because everyone has it, you're not alone. But what we tend to do is push it down, go into denial, and then a lot of the issues we have in our lives is because we're walking around with rocks inside our heart and they weigh us down. And they block our relationship with God, they produce all kinds of things inside of us emotionally. I'm going to look at a man's life who I think endured more injustice, betrayal, evil than anyone that I can find in all of scripture, and he had a secret and he responded in such a way that he overcame the evil aimed at him. Joseph's journey reveals how to overcome the evil that is aimed at you and aimed at me, and if you open your Bibles to Genesis chapter 37, we begin a story of this amazing guy. He doesn't start out very amazing, however, and if you're familiar with the Bible, you know that a big portion of all of the book of Genesis, chapters 37 all the way through 50, talk about him. The overview, let me tell you the beginning and the ending of his entire story.

It's going to start in a pit, and he's going to end in a palace. He's going to start, we're going to learn a little bit about his life, he's got a dysfunctional family, his father shows great favoritism that sets him up for failure, and he's, you know, Joseph has a lot of good responses, but early on it's going to open up, he's 17 years old. He's the center of attention, he has this special coat that sort of marks him off, his dad shows favoritism, he tattles on his brothers, he's a narcissist, he thinks he's the center of the universe, God gives him a dream, and instead of stewarding it, like wow, that's sort of a holy dream, he blurbs it out and comes to his brother and says, you guys are going to bow down to me someday, and so he has some issues to deal with. But in chapter 37, it says, so Jacob settled in the land of Canaan, where his father lived, and this is the history of Jacob's family. When Joseph was 17 years old, he often tended his father's flocks with his half brothers, the sons of his father's wives, Bilhah and Zilpah, but Joseph reported to his father some of the bad things his brothers were doing, which made him very popular, of course. Now Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other children, by the way, that's a recipe for disaster, because Joseph had been born to him at an old age. So one day he gave Joseph a special gift, a beautiful robe, but his brothers hated Joseph because of their father's partiality, they couldn't say a kind word about him. One night, Joseph had a dream, he promptly reported the details to his brothers, causing them to hate him even more. Listen to this dream, he said, we were all out in the field, tying bundles of grain, and my bundle stood up, and your bundles all gathered around and bowed down before me. This is like, boy, don't you love your little brother.

And so they say, so you're going to be our king, are you? His brother's taunted, and they hated him all the more for his dream when he'd said it. Then Joseph had another dream, and this other dream tells the same story, and so let me give you sort of a running development of this pit to the palace story. You'll notice in your notes he was born in a dysfunctional family, so write down dysfunctional, because what I'm going to do is I'm going to go through this quickly, but I'm going to give you like the trailer of a movie.

If you want to get the movie, you need to go home and read chapters 37 through 50 slowly and thoughtfully. But what I want you to get is the key words that I have you underline is the kind of stuff that you go through. Some of us grow up in dysfunctional families, right? Well, you're going to see that I guess that can happen, and God can still do something good. So the dysfunctional family is his dad, his partiality, and it produces some not good things in Joseph and a bad family dynamic. So then his brothers, they reject him.

He's rejected by his siblings, and the story will unfold. You know, his dad says, hey, I want you to go over there and check on your brothers, because they're doing some sheep. And so Joseph is checking on his brothers, and he can't find them, and he asks this guy, hey, have you seen my brothers? He says, yeah, the guys are over there.

This is a very loose translation of the exact Hebrew, of course. And so on the way he's there, his brothers are thinking, we hate this guy's guts. Let's kill him. And there's a little argument about the best way to get rid of him, and one of his brothers kind of cares, and so he talks the other brothers into, let's put him in this pit. I mean, why kill him? Let's just put him in this pit. And then while they're waiting, this caravan of Ishmaelites come by, and one of the other brothers goes, you know, why should we have his blood on our hands? Let's get something for him.

So 20 pieces of silver. They sell him to this caravan, and this caravan is on its way to Egypt. So he's 17 years old. Yes, his dysfunctional family. His dad doesn't do a really good job on this.

He's got some narcissistic, arrogant issues, and so those are his issues. But he's rejected by his siblings, and then he's abandoned to a foreign land. So imagine one of you, if you're older and have a 17-year-old or so, imagine your 17-year-old getting on a caravan with people who speak a different language, being taken to a world with all these different gods, the gods of Egypt, and he gets dropped off. He doesn't know the culture, doesn't know the language, and he goes from being the privileged Mr. I'm the center of the universe to a slave.

So life is getting pretty difficult in a hurry. So when he gets there, there's a little slave auction, and Potiphar, who is the head of secret service for the king of Egypt, he buys Joseph. And so he's sold as a slave, and Potiphar brings him in, and Joseph has this unique ability. He has two great strengths. One, God has given him the ability to interpret dreams, and number two, he is administratively gifted. The guy just gets it.

I mean, he's a strategic thinker who knows how to implement a strategic plan. And so Potiphar watches, and God's hands on Joseph and everything he puts his hand on is like, it goes really well. So Potiphar's a very smart guy. He eventually turns over everything to him and basically says, Joseph, you run my world, and the text says he didn't worry about anything. And so Joseph, even though he's a slave, he's, you know, God's hands on his life, things are going pretty well, and his wife, Potiphar's wife, gets the hots for Joseph. This is all in the original text.

And so she says, hey, you know, my husband does a lot of business travel or whatever. I want to sleep with you. Come on, come on. And Joseph says, I will not betray. Your husband has been good to me, and I couldn't ever do this against God. And so day after day, I mean, imagine being 19 years old, a young male in a very difficult situation, and some gal wants to have sex with you.

I'm just telling you, most young men in that situation are saying, that sounds like a good idea. But there's something about Joseph, his convictions. There's something about Joseph he's learning.

There's something about Joseph understanding who's blessed his life. He resists, and he resists. Finally, she ends up alone with him sometime as he's walking through the house. She grabs him, pulls him into the bedroom. He takes off his jacket, runs for his life, and then when Potiphar comes home, she says, this Hebrew that you brought into our house tried to rape me. Well, Potiphar is very upset. And so he's falsely accused of rape by chapter 39, and then he's sent to prison.

Unjustly. Now, does anybody have any situations in your life, or people that you love, where you've come from a dysfunctional family, you've suffered great rejection, you've been abandoned, you've been sold into slavery, falsely accused about something, or been in prison? So, I'm trying to build the case that I don't know what you've been through, or I've been through, but this guy probably has been through it in spades.

Finally, he's forgotten by a friend. And here's where I'm going to have to ask you to, you know, read a little bit on your own to really enjoy the entire historical, truthful documentary movie that is placed in Genesis 37 through 40. Because to get the feel of it, what you need to understand is that he's in this prison, and while he's in prison, two of the king officials, a baker and a cupbearer, they both land in prison, they both have dreams, they come to Joseph, they're totally distraught, and the cupbearer has a dream, and he interprets the dream and says, in three days you're going to be restored to your position. And the baker goes, this guy is great with dreams, what do you think about my dream? He interprets his dream, he says, in three days you're going to get your head cut off.

Both things come true. And so Joseph says to the cupbearer, man, you know, you've seen me, I'm innocent, I didn't do any of this, when you get back to Pharaoh, I mean, put in a good word for me. I mean, come on, man, this is so unfair. I'm losing my youth, I mean, my dad, my brothers, I've been rejected at every level, I mean, he's probably now in his early to mid-20s. I mean, this is so unjust and so unfair, and he's been betrayed and rejected, and the cupbearer gets so excited and so faithful, he totally forgets him. In fact, Joseph is 28 by this time. He's been in prison the better part of probably eight, nine years, and he's forgotten. Anybody ever have these kind of things happen to you?

These are rocks. If anyone endured evil in their lifetime, it was Joseph. Rejected, abandoned, falsely accused, a slave, imprisoned, forgotten. And yet, here's the thing, instead of it breaking him, it makes him. Very difficult, painful, especially unjust times, especially when someone walks out on you, when someone lies to you, when someone betrays you, when someone abuses you. In most cases, it breaks a person. They get bitter, they have unresolved emotional issues and social issues. Often they turn against people, they turn against God.

You talk to people in recovery programs and alcoholic programs and drug rehab programs. What you find is they start telling their story, and they usually have one of seven of these or a handful of others. And yet, you find some people, they come through those things, and it's like it makes them.

There's character and there's compassion and there's strength. What eventually happens is Pharaoh is going to have a dream. And his magicians can't figure out what the dream's all about, and the cupbearer has a moment of his amnesia goes away. He goes, oh, hey Pharaoh, because Pharaoh's getting a little angry about no one being able to answer this.

And the cupbearer, having been in prison once, I think he's thinking, you know, I think we've got a man who can solve this. And he brings Joseph in front of him, they give him a quick shave, literally the text says, and he comes before Pharaoh. Pharaoh tells him his two dreams. Joseph accurately interprets both of the dreams.

In fact, but when he does it, something's happened. See, Joseph was arrogant, narcissistic, I'm the center of the world. And now he's got his one window of time to get out of prison, and Pharaoh says, Joseph, I understand that you can interpret dreams. And he says, actually Pharaoh, no one can do that.

And you know, I mean, if you were watching a movie right now, you would say, Joseph, you idiot, this was your chance, don't say that, tell him you can do it. And then his next line is, only God can. Now think of that, there's all these gods of Egypt, he says, only the God, Yahweh, my God, only he can reveal these things. So he's got this amazing integrity, and you know, the Pharaoh's kind of saying, well, you know, my God, my magicians can't pull it off, so tell me.

And he interprets both accurately, and then the Pharaoh goes, you know, in light, you have the greatest discernment and wisdom, and he gives the recommendation. Because the dream is that there's going to be seven years of bounty, followed by seven years of absolute famine that's going to destroy all the land. And unless the king builds all these storehouses and saves the grain during the bounty years, Egypt and all the nations around them are going to go down the tubes. Well, he appoints Joseph to be second in command, he rules all of Egypt, and that's how the story progresses. A little bit later, what you're going to find is, his brothers, because of the famine, won't have any food, and they're going to be ready to die.

And they'll, hey, there's food in Egypt, and they will go up to Egypt, and I wish we had time to get through this whole story. And so they come up to Egypt, and as they come up to Egypt, they don't recognize Joseph. Because now he's in all Egyptian garb. The Pharaoh actually gave him a wife. And then he's had two children. And he's the second most powerful person in all the world. And Pharaoh basically saw the same thing as Potiphar.

He said, you know what, when this guy runs it, it goes great. Over and over, as you would read it a little bit later this week, this phrase, the Lord was with Joseph, is the theme of his life. In bad times and good times, the Lord was with Joseph. The thing is, when you look at his circumstances, you'd say, I don't think the Lord's with him. If the Lord's with him, how do you end up in prison? If the Lord's with him, how do you get rejected? If the Lord's with him, how come he gets a raw deal? If the Lord's with him, then how come that cup-bearer forgets? Joseph, by faith, is going to trust that even though he can't see it in his circumstances, God really is with me. And then notice how he responds. Let me give you an overview of his response.

His response to evil, first he survived. And by the way, when you go through a time like this, sometimes you get an A plus just for surviving. You've been abused. You come home and there's a note on the refrigerator and your mate's walked out, I don't love you anymore. You've been in a business relationship and you realize this good, quote, Christian business person that you've been in with is also a good embezzler.

And he's left town and you've got all the debt and then you're just fuming. Joseph learned a new language, he learned a new culture, and he went from being hyper-privileged to being a peasant. He survived. Second thing he did is he thrived. He used his gifts where he was at. He ended up being the head of the prison. Everywhere he goes, he didn't say, well, you know, God's rejected me and the world's rejected me and life isn't fair and I'm a victim and it's so terrible and I'm just going to stay home and watch soap operas and eat chocolates. He took his gifts and he said, you know, I can't control that out there, but his gifts of administration, his gifts of interpreting dreams, he jumps in and he thrives where he's at, he does what he can with what he has, and he doesn't look at circumstances. Third, he resisted.

He refuses to bail out on God's agenda for his life. You know, when you're down, when you're tired, when life's unfair, when you've been betrayed, what do you feel like doing? You feel like, you know what, maybe an extra glass of wine or two would make me feel a little bit better.

You know, those prescriptions for those migraine headaches are for my back, but I get a little buzz and I feel depressed so I think I'll take them when my back's not hurting. That's how it starts. You know, I've been walked out on and I don't have anybody to be with and it can't hurt to watch just a few little pictures. But Joseph said, nuh-uh. He resisted.

No shortcuts. I'm going to honor God in the midst of the difficulty and the pain. And then notice he waited on God's time and God's place. And I hope, I really do hope that you'll look at the whole movie later this week because what you'll see is, watch this, God had a really big, wonderful plan and since God is in absolute control, I'm going to get a little ahead of myself but you've got to hear this now, and God is all wise and God is caring and God is loving. When people try and wreck your life with their tiny little bad, evil plans, God takes them, refashions them, puts them back into the big good plan and he orchestrates even their bad stuff to bring about his highest good stuff.

Getting a handle on how God turns others evil for our good is a tough one when you're the one in the trenches. So Joseph's story is a great one to hang on to when life gets especially hard. Well, Chip will be back with a final thought but before he is, just a quick word about this series. Based on Romans 12, Momentum fleshes out the structure of Chip's series, True Spirituality, by exploring the lives of some of the most famous men of the Bible. From Abraham and Moses to Joseph and Daniel, Chip helps us appreciate how these guys lived out the practicalities of true spirituality. In the process, Chip will ignite the momentum of your faith journey. Momentum is one of those series you're going to want to keep handy and listen to from time to time.

So let me remind you that accessing Momentum is easy with the Chip Ingram app. Well, Chip, we spend a lot of time and, candidly, a lot of money on creating resources to meet the spiritual needs of people right where they are. And all last month, we talked about how we use people's gifts to help us create those resources.

Now, can you tell us about one of the new ones that's just coming off the press? Well, Dave, you know, we create resources that are specially designed to help people in different seasons and windows in their life. I've got a very close friend that I've learned so much from.

His name is Lance Witt, and he developed a resource. It's called Leaving Ordinary Behind, 25 Days to an Extraordinary Faith. It's a devotional.

What I find when people need to get back on board, they need to cultivate the habit again. And sometimes something big is overwhelming. This is a devotional.

You read a little bit, you interact a little bit. Twenty-five days that will reignite your spiritual life, that will help you get unstuck, that will take you from where you're at to begin to get a fresh wind of God's Spirit in your soul and in your heart. This is a great resource for people that are struggling right now. This brand new devotional, written by Chip's friend and fellow pastor, Lance Witt, is called Leaving Ordinary Behind, 25 Days to an Extraordinary Faith. To check out the discounts while they last, go to LivingOnTheEdge.org or give us a call at 888-333-6003.

App listeners, tap Special Offers. Again, the resource we're talking about is our brand new devotional called Leave Ordinary Behind, 25 Days to an Extraordinary Faith. Well, now here's Chip with his application. As we close today's program, I want to remind you first and foremost that God has not forgotten you. When you go through the kind of rejection, abandonment, in his case falsely accused, when you go through the kind of pain and difficulty, especially when it's unjust, you can begin to start thinking and believing that God has forgotten you. For 13 years, Joseph hung on to the promises of God that he got in that dream, because I will tell you what, his circumstances didn't look good. But he survived, he thrived, he resisted, and he waited. So let me encourage you, just where you're at right now, learn to adapt.

Use your gifts where you are. Refuse to bail out of God's agenda for your life. And no matter how much it hurts right now, wait for God's time and God's place.

He understands, and the one word through all of Joseph's life was this, and the Lord was with Joseph. You know, there's times where you need to walk outside in the midst of your pain and just pour out your heart and cry and talk to the Lord, tell him how you feel, tell him how disappointed you are, tell him what a struggle it is, and then look up at all those stars, and remember the God that made those is in control, and he's all powerful, and he promised, I will never leave you or forsake you. He wants to do something good in you.

He wants to comfort you. Guard your heart against resentment and bitterness. Guard your behavior from a quick fix that will make you feel good now, and you'll pay great consequences later. I encourage you, hang on to the promises of God regardless of how you feel, and God's promise is this, he will work it for your good. Don't give in.

Don't give up. Trust him. He will be faithful. You know, a great way to stay engaged and connected to CHIP and Living on the Edge is with the CHIP Ingram app. You'll be getting all of these Momentum messages, CHIP's free message notes, and much more. Not only that, but it couldn't be easier to order resources or give us a call right from the app. Well, I hope you'll join us again next time when CHIP continues our current series, Momentum, How to Ignite Your Faith. Until then, this is Dave Druey saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.