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

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. We are a discipleship-driven ministry on a mission to encourage Christians everywhere to live like Christians. And probably the hardest lesson in the Christian life is what Chip alluded to, repaying evil with good.

When someone treats you horribly or stabs us in the back, everything in us wants to get even. But today Chip's going to help us respond to injustice differently by examining a Bible character whose godly attitude in the face of tremendous betrayal and unfairness is worth imitating. So if you're ready, let's continue Chip's series Momentum with his talk, Learning How to Overcome the Evil Aimed at You, from Genesis chapter 37. 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? If you had to just, you know, let's, 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 kind of things inside of us emotionally. I want 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'll 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 brothers 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 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 grew 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 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 who's 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. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and we'll get you back to our series Momentum in just a minute. But first, do you feel stalled out spiritually, like no matter how hard you try, you just can't find a consistent rhythm? Well, keep listening after this message as Chip highlights a helpful resource we have that'll jumpstart your faith and get you growing again. You won't want to miss it.

Well, with that, here again is Chip. Finally, he's forgotten by a friend, and here's where I'm going to have to ask you to 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, 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 cup bearer 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 cup bearer, 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, on 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'd 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 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'd he end up in prison? If the Lord's with him, how'd he 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 guy cut, buried, forgets? Joseph, by faith, is gonna 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 mates 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 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 gonna 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, you know, I don't have anybody to be with and it can't hurt to watch just a few little pictures. But Joseph said, uh-uh, he resisted.

No shortcuts. I'm gonna 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 gonna get a little ahead of myself but you gotta 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. So if his brothers had never rejected him, he would have never been on the caravan. If the caravan had never sold him, he would have never been a slave in Potiphar's house. If his wife wouldn't unjustly have accused him, he would have never gone to prison. If he wasn't in prison, he would have met the cupbearer. If he wouldn't have met the cupbearer, then he wouldn't have been interpreting of the dreams by the most powerful man in the world and by doing that, 13 years of all that adversity was a part of God's sovereign plan to get the right man at the right place at the right time for his good and God's glory. And I want you to know that the person that walked out on you, I want you to know that the business deal that fell through, the father or mother or person that abused you, the person that lied to you, they don't have the power to ruin your life. God takes all the small, bad things to make a good, big thing. But most people bail out on those things. Most people feel like, well, I'm a victim and life is terrible and I deserve to indulge.

I deserve to sedate or medicate my pain. This is Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and you've been listening to part one of Chip's message, learning to overcome the evil aimed at you from our series Momentum. Chip will be back shortly to share some helpful application for us to think about. You've heard us say we are on a mission to help Christians everywhere live like Christians.

And that's a great vision statement and goal, but how can we practically do that? In this series, Chip shows us the way by studying the lives of six well-known Bible characters. Discover what we can learn from people like Abraham, Moses, and Joseph, and how their attitudes and faith in God are helpful guides for us today.

You're not going to want to miss a word of this meaningful series. Well, I'm joined in studio now by Chip, and Chip, with so much uncertainty and chaos in our world today, many people are really struggling with their faith. Some may feel stuck while others are doubting God altogether. What can we do to help these believers reignite their relationship with Jesus? Well, first of all, it's a great question, Dave, and we all go through times like that. That doesn't mean you're bad or something's really wrong. I personally have certainly had seasons where, Lord, I don't feel like reading my Bible.

I don't feel really connected with you right now. And what I've learned in talking with many others is sometimes you need something to give you a little jumpstart, something to sort of reignite your faith. And at Living on the Edge, we've developed a devotional that I think is really helpful to do this. It's from my friend Lance Witt, and it's called Leave Ordinary Behind, 25 Days to an Extraordinary Faith.

And here's what I've heard from people who've read that. It jumpstarted me meeting with God again. It was short, it was interesting, and it really helped me reconnect with God. You know, you do this for 25 days.

Let me tell you this. It'll help you reconnect your heart with God's heart. Or maybe you know someone that's really struggling, and this would be a little devotional that would help them get back on track. Thanks, Chip.

To order Leave Ordinary Behind by our friend Lance Witt, go to livingontheedge.org or call us at 888-333-6003. As you study the life and faith of these notable biblical figures, you'll see your faith and dependency on God grow. So order this devotional today by going to livingontheedge.org or by calling 888-333-6003. You'll be glad you did.

Here again is Chip. 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. 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. Let me 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. Thanks for that encouragement, Chip. As we close, I want to thank each of you who makes this program possible through your generous giving. One hundred percent of your gifts go directly to the ministry to help Christians live like Christians. If you found this teaching helpful but aren't yet on the team, consider doing that today.

Sending a gift is easy. Go to livingontheedge.org or call 888-333-6003. That's 888-333-6003 or visit livingontheedge.org. Have listeners tap donate, and let me thank you in advance for doing whatever the Lord leads you to do. We'll listen in next time as Chip wraps up his series, Momentum. Until then, this is Dave Druey saying thanks for joining us for this Edition of Living on the Edge.