April2002.Shtml

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Entity: St Thomas Sheffield

Source: stthomaschurch.org.uk

Source URL: http://www.stthomaschurch.org.uk/2sundayresource/april2002.shtml

Archive URL: http://web.archive.org/web/20020908173722/http://www.stthomaschurch.org.uk:80/2sundayresource/april2002.shtml

Archive Datetime: 2002-09-08T17:37:22

HOW TO USE THESE NOTES These notes are designed as a resource to help you further apply Mike’s teaching on Joseph to your Christian life and walk. They relate directly to the sermon Mike preached at the 2nd Sunday whole church celebration so you may find it helpful to get that tape as well (order via the Church Office). The notes are meant to be flexible for you to adapt and use as appropriate, but of course not as a substitute for the text itself. Some suggestions of how you can use them… 1. As an aid to personal Bible study 2. As leader’s notes as you prepare to lead a Bible study / discussion in your small group or cluster 3. As notes everyone has in the small group My own personal recommendation is 1. and / or 2. When it comes to the UP, IN and OUT section it might be best to use these questions in personal reflection as you prepare, but you might want to offer some or all of them for discussion within the group as well. Other questions are listed as ‘small group application’ to help stimulate accountable discussion within the group.

JOSEPH SERMON STUDY NOTES for SMALL GROUPS / CLUSTERS Mike Breen - April 2002 — Introduction Jesus said that the Kingdom is manifest now; it is coming very soon, but it is also in one sense delayed and we have to wait for its full expression in the future. This tension is echoed in the heart of every believer-there is always something that we are waiting for until the full revelation of all that God has for us. The waiting game is a common human experience. God used waiting in Joseph’s life to teach him what faith really meant. Faith is the key not just to help us endure the waiting but actually to realising the very thing for which we wait. WEEK ONE - Waiting and wisdom Most people would describe waiting as a negative, frustrating experience which leads to the point of unbearable strain. Yet in the Bible God usually builds waiting into a person’s life so that they learn the lessons of faith. A waiting person does not have all that they desire and so they must learn first of all to be thankful for what they do have and as a result they become faithful and wise. Joseph was waiting for the time when God would reveal him to be the one he had prepared for a great task. Joseph harboured an amazing divine vision in his heart but he had to wait for its fulfilment. In the waiting he learned to be thankful in all circumstances and to embrace whatever current situation he was in, and each and every opportunity set before him. Joseph would not have chosen for himself the route of abuse, accusation and abandonment; or the way of slavery, imprisonment, and terrible trial, but he embraced it as God’s path. So God was able to form and fashion his heart and as he endured the waiting so he became the grateful, faith-full, wise man God needed for the job. Personal reflection / small group application Reflect on / share experiences when you have had to wait before seeing God’s breakthrough. Are there such situations in your life now? UP How did this affect your relationship with God? Did you struggle to give thanks to God in all situations? Have you seen faith and patience lead to releasing God’s promise (Heb 6v12) through waiting? IN What lessons have you learnt about yourself? Has your small group had to cope with delay and waiting to see God act? In what ways can you grow together more in waiting times? OUT Do you know others (especially non Christian contacts) who are going through waiting and tests of patience? Are there ways you could use this to share Kingdom values with them? WEEK TWO - Difficulty and dependency Difficulty teaches a person to depend on God. If we were never in want, we would not know God provides for us. If we were never up against it we would never know God is with us. It is in the midst of difficulty we learn dependence. The world teaches us to be independent, self sufficient and self strengthening. At one level that is fine, but if that is what is at the centre of our lives then we will never know peace, joy and satisfaction. Often people who have apparently achieved great things feel poor within. If you want to be great you need to invest in the inner life and that means learning to depend on God and not on yourself or your own abilities, strengths and skills. People of greatness have always been those who have had difficulty they had to embrace. People of greatness have always been those who come to the point of realising they cannot depend on themselves alone. But God also wants us to learn to depend on him when things are going well and not just when it is difficult. That way we really have life in all its fullness. Personal reflection / Small group application UP Do your difficulties tend to turn you away from or towards God? Are there times when difficulties have eroded your trust in God? Do you ask God for help and pray for his presence in difficulty? IN Do you have tendencies to independence towards others? Are you able to share your difficulties with others - especially your small group, especially when you feel a failure? Does your group give regular time to share members’ struggles? OUT Do you know non-Christians / people of peace who are going through difficulties? Pray for them not to blame God but to turn to Him. Pray for opportunities to point them to God as their source of strength. WEEK THREE - Depth and filling Many of us, faced with difficulty, try to avoid it, ignore it, escape from it or to justify ourselves. Joseph had been sold into slavery wrongly; he had been falsely accused and wrongfully imprisoned. It would have been entirely appropriate for him to seek justice and to try to escape his prison bonds-but he didn’t. He embraced the difficulty he faced and so became a deeper person. God used the difficulty to hollow out his heart so that his inner life became bigger than his outer life. From the outside he didn’t look like much - a slave who found the trust of his master, a prisoner who became trusted with certain responsibilities. But inwardly he looked like the person God would use to change history. We need to invest in our inner lives and characters and not our outward appearances. That is the world’s way, and it is shallow. In the midst of difficulty depth is delved in the heart of a person. Great leaders of significance have always been those who have allowed difficulty to deepen their character and fashion their heart after God. E.g. Winston Churchill spent 25 years in a political wasteland, but this was to prove the place of preparation for one of the greatest national leaders of the twentieth century. E.g. Nelson Mandela spent years in imprisonment on Robin Island. Joseph was completely shallow and self centred when he was seventeen. Thirteen years later he was the deepest, wisest man anyone had ever met, because he had allowed God to delve into and hollow out his heart through much pain, difficulty and hardship. This hollowing out of a person’s heart and inner being, by very definition, produces space within-space for God to fill with his Spirit and with faith. A deep person is one who is full to their depths with the Spirit of God because they have had more of their heart hollowed out and filled by God. Such people make a difference and are noticed. Personal reflection / Small group application Think of people you know with depth of character, who have really made a difference and think of the hardships in their life. UP Recall any injustice you have suffered. Have you suppressed your response or surrendered it to God? Yield them to God now and ask the filling with His Spirit. Reflect on the process outlined in Romans 5 v 1-5. IN Has anyone helped pray you through unkind or unfair treatment…or false accusation? As a group, pray for anyone who is struggling to yield such a situation to God. Ask for the filling of God’s spirit in areas of pain. OUT Pray for Christians being persecuted for their faith. Is there anyone you should apologise to for wrongly treating them? Does your group know anyone who has been wronged and who you might seek to help let it go to God? WEEK FOUR - Faith and certainty If God has the freedom to come in and fill the hollowed out space in your life in greater and greater measure, then he has the freedom to speak to you in deeper and more impressive ways. When he speaks a word within you that creates faith in you (‘Faith comes by hearing the word of God’ - Romans 10 ) Such faith will enable you to move mountains and achieve the destiny God has for you. ‘If you have faith, you will receive’ is the testimony which runs throughout the teachings of Jesus and the whole of the New Testament (e.g. Matthew 17, John 15). The heroes listed in Hebrews 11 were not commended because they were great warriors or diplomats or because they did great things, but because they had faith. And that faith was created through listening to the voice of God whispering to them from within. The more space God has within you the more he will be able to speak and that will create more faith. ‘Faith is being certain of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen’ (Hebrews 11: 1) Faith in the Bible is not wishful thinking or godly hopefulness. It is defined as certainty-being certain. (Yet most of us think faith is what you need when you are not quite certain!) Joseph stood with absolute confidence and certainty before Pharaoh and told him ‘God will interpret your dream’ Not can, or might, but will! That’s not the kind of diffidence you would expect from one who had been badly abused and imprisoned-that is a statement of certainty . Faith is being certain of what you hope for - not hoping for what you are certain you need. Joseph had been a cocky self centred teenager but he became a man of certain, confident faith whom everyone respected and admired. When he stood before Pharaoh advising him on the interpretation of his dream and on what Pharaoh needed to do as the whole nation faced famine, Joseph spoke not with youthful arrogance, but with certainty and faith and everyone was in awe of him. He was certain of what he hoped for, and what God had revealed and promised in the dream. He was not just hoping for what he was certain they all needed. And that was how he lived the whole of his life. Even as he lay on his deathbed, he spoke with certainty. Recap Certainty / faith is created by hearing the word of God within. The more space God has available for him to fill the more he will speak and the more you will hear his voice and act on it in faith. Space is created by God hollowing out your heart and creating wisdom, depth of character and dependency on him. This happens through embracing the difficulties that arise as you wait for him to fulfil his purposes in your life. Personal reflection / small group application Think of / share times when you have heard God and it has released faith. UP In what ways do you usually hear God? How can you listen more effectively? IN Do the ways you hear God relate to your personality or flow from your 5-fold ministry? Can we listen to God for one another more? OUT Have you had a word for a non Christian? Have you shared it? Pray for God’s word for your Person of Peace.

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