Ecclesia Princeton
Ecclesia Princeton
Waiting Well- Annalee Kelly
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This week we take a break from our series in Romans as Elder Annalee shares lessons from the life of Joseph on waiting well. Video and sermons slides are included below.
- Marshmallow Test (Intro Video)
- Sermons Slides
Great is your faithfulness to me. Great is your faithfulness to me, from the rising sun to the setting, I will praise your name. Great is your faithfulness to me. I'll still bless you. I'll still bless you. I'll still bless you. I'll still bless you. I'll still bless you, lord. I'll still bless you, lord. I'll still bless you, I'll still bless you.
Speaker 2:I'll still bless you. I'll still bless you, would you?
Speaker 3:pray with me, dear God, thank you so much for this day. Thank you so much, lord God, for this opportunity. Lord, I pray that you would give me clarity of mind, clarity of speech. Father, I pray that your words would go and hit all the hearts, lord God, of all your people here. I pray, lord God, that beyond the points, beyond my speech, that what people would remember is that your spirit was here. I thank you, lord, god. I thank you for these, your people, lord, your sons and your daughters, who you love so much. So right now, father, I pray kingdom of God come. Will of God be done. We bless you, god, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. We bless you, god, jesus name, amen. Good morning everyone.
Speaker 3:Um, so we are going to be talking a little bit about weight training, not the kind, but I realized that I probably should have done my Jane Fonda, worn my leg warmers and headband. That was a missed opportunity. But here we are. If we go to the next slide, our Bible passages for today, we're going to be in Genesis 37, genesis 39, and Deuteronomy, if you'd like to turn there. But while you're turning there, there is a really short video that I'd love to show you how many of us can relate. So that video was a reproduction of something called the Stanford Marshmallow Experiment. So this was a famous psychological experiment that looked at a child's ability to resist immediate temptation to receive a larger reward later. Kids in the original study were older. What they found was that children who waited for the second marshmallow had higher SAT scores, lower levels of substance abuse, were less likely to be obese and had better social and self-control skills.
Speaker 3:Who knew that learning how to wait could have so many benefits? Now think about a time in your life when you've had to wait. So we do a lot of waiting in life. Right, we wait at red lights, we wait in line at our favorite coffee shop, we wait patiently and sometimes not so patiently for Amazon to deliver that shiny new thing we ordered 12 hours ago.
Speaker 3:But how many of you would agree that the hardest kind of waiting is waiting on God? We have to wait on God for things like a new job, a new home, a financial breakthrough, sometimes a spouse, children, for friends or meaningful community for friends or meaningful community, for physical or mental healing, for God to show us what our purpose in life is. So what do we do when our prayers haven't been answered yet, because it's God who orchestrated the wait. How will we wait and how do we wait?
Speaker 3:Well, we've all at some point had to wait on God, without a really clear reason as to why, but because we trust him, we have to believe that the waiting serves a purpose, that there is hope to be found at the end of our wait. So let's start by getting into Joseph's story, and let's let Joseph's story encourage us in that hope and teach us how to wait well on God. So, if you're not already there, turn with me to Genesis 37, and let's read verses 1 through 9. Is there someone who has it that can read those verses for me? I didn't ask to use this mic, but does anyone want to volunteer? Yeah, okay, thank you.
Speaker 2:Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan. These are the family records of Jacob. At 17 years of age, Joseph tended sheep with his brothers. The young man was working with the sons of Bila and Zilpah, his father's wives, and he brought a bad report about them to their father. Now Israel loved Joseph more than his other sons, because Joseph was a son born to him in his old age and he made a long-sleeved robe for him. When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not bring themselves to speak peaceably to him. Genesis 37, 1 to 9. Thank, you.
Speaker 3:So on the next slide you're going to see that Joseph was the son of Jacob, the grandson of Isaac and the great-grandson of Abraham. His father, jacob, whose name God changed to Israel, had 12 sons and a daughter, but Joseph was his favorite. Jacob's favoritism is actually a bit ironic, I think, because his father, isaac, also had a favorite son, and it wasn't Jacob, by the way. But when we first meet Joseph, he's a 17-year-old teenager and he's a little bit annoying. We'll say he's a little bit spoiled, but he's the first son of Jacob's favorite wife, Rachel, so he's the favorite child and he knows it. He even gets a special coat from his dad, so there can be no ambiguity about his favorite status. Not only is he spoiled, he's also what we like to call a tattletale, to use a technical term. He's a snitch. He told his father when his brothers weren't doing what they were supposed to be doing and while his father doted on him. His brothers hated him.
Speaker 3:But the root of his brothers' hatred, if we look closer, wasn't Joseph's annoying personality. The root of their hatred stemmed from Jacob loving Joseph more than them. But they couldn't take their anger out on their father right, so they took it out on Joseph, and maybe some of you have been there, maybe you're in, I don't know a volunteer group trying to show up, trying to do great work, trying to treat people well, and when the group leader notices and gives you a public compliment, all of a sudden you start to notice that a fellow volunteer is a little bit icy in their responses to you. If this is you, just let me encourage you. Sometimes people will hate you because of the way other people love you. Don't stop showing up, don't stop being excellent just to accommodate someone else's insecurities. Don't let the accolades cause you to be prideful, but let your work and your life speak for themselves and rest in knowing that God is with you. So even though Joseph wasn't the real reason for his brother's anger, it didn't change their hatred of him either. And they hated him even more after he told them about these dreams he had where his older siblings were bowing down to him. And so in biblical times you may know that bowing down to someone symbolized respect, submission, reverence, a plea for mercy or worship, depending on the context. So this spoiled teenager expected them to believe that they were going to bow down to him? No way.
Speaker 3:Verses 12 through 35 of chapter 37 goes on to tell us that Joseph traveled to see his brothers, trying to see what they were doing. So he could report back to his father, and he was proudly wearing that coat of many colors that Jacob gave him. The brothers they had just had it. They were going to get rid of their problem once and for all. They initially planned to kill him, but instead they sold him to some traitors who were passing by on their way to Egypt. Just like that, joseph became a slave. The utter aloneness he experienced on that 130-mile trip must have been palpable.
Speaker 3:22 years would pass before he and his brothers would see each other again, but Joseph's transformation during that time teaches us volumes about waiting on God, but, more importantly, about waiting. Well, in Joseph's dreams, god revealed his plan for Joseph's life to him, but God didn't reveal how that future was going to come about. Ultimately, joseph's confidence would have to be in God, not in God's plan, and so it is with us. We want God's plan so we can trust the plan, but God sometimes hides the plan. So we'll trust him, and so we wait. Sometimes we want God to change our situation, but God is more interested in changing us in the situations. So on the next slide, if you're taking notes, you can write down this first thought Waiting well involves honest assessments of our own character.
Speaker 3:We want answers. We're a microwave internet and now AI society. We have these expectations quick fixes and immediate answers. We want to be relieved and happy and we want the waiting to end. But God is so much more interested in our holiness than he is in our happiness. He's much more interested in our character. He's much more interested in our character. He's much more interested in delaying his promises for a season so the foundation of our faith can be built up, because he knows that the weight of his promises on a broken foundation will just increase the brokenness. So sometimes what may seem like God's apathy in not answering our requests is really his mercy. What we're asking God to do, even if it's completely within the bounds of scripture, comes from our very limited perspective. Sometimes it takes a waiting season to reveal blind spots in our character and in our heart that we didn't know were there Immaturity, insecurity, anxiety, fear, pride. Sometimes our waiting season is a gift from the Lord to reveal to us what he's been seeing all along. Waiting is an act of faith, and faith will bring answers, but enduring faith will bring answers with character".
Speaker 3:It reminds us of another prominent biblical figure, david as the youngest of his brothers. It probably came as a surprise to everyone when the prophet Samuel announced that he was the one God himself had chosen to be the next king. Maybe David thought like I sure would have, that he was about to be king immediately post-hate, right now. Cue the fireworks, cue the pomp and circumstance, all the things. But as it turns out, the wait was much longer and much, much more difficult than he imagined. David had to wait about 15 years to become king over Judah and another seven years to become king over Israel.
Speaker 3:You see, god routinely anoints us for a task or vocation. He gives us the desire and the gifting, but then he withholds the opportunity for a time, maybe a long time, to prepare us for what we will face when we get the opportunity. It prepares us to become the kind of people that can be trusted with more. So the next time we see Joseph, he's in Egypt, serving in the house of a man named Potiphar. He probably got to Egypt feeling confused and isolated, maybe even scared, but he wasn't alone. So in Genesis 39, 1 through 6, the Bible tells us that Joseph distinguished himself and became successful. Please don't miss verse 2. It says the Lord was with Joseph and that made all the difference. The Bible doesn't give us details about the time between when he was sold into slavery and when he was serving in Potiphar's house, but we know that because the Lord was with Joseph, he was in the process of shaping and transforming his heart and his character.
Speaker 3:In this foreign land he had zero spiritual encouragement or accountability, but he refused to abandon God. Think about how Joseph might have remembered and repeated all the stories he'd been told as a child. Maybe in the quiet moments he could almost hear his father's voice recounting all the ways God had guided their family and kept his promises. And as he matured, his father's faith became his own and he resolved to live a life worthy of the God who he believed had the power to perform miracles and that he knew would someday bring his dreams to fruition. So if you're taking notes, you can write down this next point Waiting well involves an active pursuit of God's word. It requires very intentionally studying the scriptures, learning and meditating on his truth, encouraging ourselves with his promises, praying his word so that in times of darkness or uncertainty, the Holy Spirit can bring them back to our memory.
Speaker 3:Proverbs 3 encourages us to carry God's truth with us wherever we go. It says let love and faithfulness never leave you. Bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart, then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man. And that faithful life he chose to live eventually found favor with Potiphar. Verse 5 tells us that from the time that he put him in charge of his household and all that he owned, the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house because of Joseph. As far as we can tell, potiphar wasn't a follower of Yahweh, but God blessed him because of Joseph. How powerful is that? By God's grace. May the same be said of us that our employers were blessed and more successful because of our presence there and because of how faithfully we perform our work. That our families and our friends are blessed because of the prayers we offer up to God on their behalf and because of the authentically faithful, godly life we live in front of them. And may it be said of Ecclesia that because of our presence in this community, the prayers we offer to God on its behalf, how we serve and support those who live here that the Lord blessed Princeton because of us.
Speaker 3:But Joseph's blessing also invited some unwanted attention. The Bible says that Joseph was handsome and well-built. So Potiphar's wife took notice of him and tried to seduce him. I would imagine that, being the wife of one of the most prominent men in Egypt, she probably wasn't used to people telling her no. But despite her growing desperation, joseph refused her constant advances In this test of Joseph's character. He knew that it wasn't worth his integrity. He knew he had a master on earth and a God in heaven, both of whom would hold him accountable.
Speaker 3:So to punish him for not sleeping with her, potiphar's wife falsely accused him of sexual assault. This infuriated Potiphar and just like that Joseph was thrown into prison. First he was sold into slavery and we thought his life couldn't get much worse. And then, as he's trying to live a godly life, he gets falsely accused and imprisoned. But through it all we're reminded again in chapter 39, verse 21, that the Lord was with Joseph and extended kindness to him, and again in verse 23, that the warden did not bother with anything under Joseph's authority because what the Lord was with him and the Lord made everything that he did successful. So wherever you see phrases like this that are repeated over and over again in a single narrative. God's trying to emphasize it for a reason. Please don't miss it. God used this unfair situation to advance the plan he had revealed to Joseph all those years ago in his dreams. Eventually, the king's baker and his cupbearer also ended up in the prison too.
Speaker 3:They each have a dream, and wouldn't you know it? God gives Joseph the ability to interpret them. He goes from dreaming dreams to interpreting dreams. Ability to interpret them. He goes from dreaming dreams to interpreting dreams. Joseph's seeming demotions were actually God's sovereign promotions.
Speaker 3:The opportunity to interpret these dreams was a kind of test for Joseph. Could he still believe God's words even after 11 years being a slave? Words even after 11 years being a slave? He could have responded cynically. He could have said something like you had a dream. I had a dream before too. See where that got me.
Speaker 3:But Joseph's response in verse 8 gives us a glimpse into how God was continuing to shape his character and increase his faith in his weight. He says don't interpretations belong to God? Joseph hasn't forgotten his dreams and he hasn't given up on them either. He's still waiting on God to fulfill them. He refused to give up on his faith and after correctly interpreting that the cupbearer would be reinstalled to his post, he pleads with him in verse 14. He says when all goes well for you, remember that I was with you. Please show kindness to me by mentioning me to Pharaoh and get me out of this prison, for I was kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews and even here I've done nothing that they should put me in the dungeon. He must have been so hopeful at that point.
Speaker 3:But despite everything Joseph said coming true, the cupbearer didn't remember him. On the surface, this looks like the most epic disappointment ever. I used to think that it's like when you're waiting on a doctor's report and instead of a diagnosis they tell you they need to run some more tests. You get your hopes up, thinking your wait is finally over, only for you to have to wait some more For Joseph. He had to wait another two years in prison before the next turn of events. But imagine with me for a second what would have happened if the cupbearer did remember Joseph. Best case scenario, let's say he released him and allowed him to go back to his family in Hebron. That really happy reunion story would have ended a few years later, when they all died of starvation in the famine, nobody but God knew about the famine that was coming. God allowed the cupbearer to forget Joseph and allowed Joseph to wait some more so he could receive an answer better than he could have ever imagined. If you're taking notes, you can write down this next point Waiting well requires trust in God's timing and in his sovereignty.
Speaker 3:The faith we develop while we wait affirms our belief in his providence and in his sovereignty. It's trusting his timing and trusting in his ability to bring about the good he promises. Trust requires delayed gratification. Hope requires waiting. Patience itself is the art of waiting well.
Speaker 3:We see a similar story in John 11. The Bible tells us that Jesus loved Martha, her sister, mary, and Lazarus, their brother. So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed away two more days. Instead of rushing there to heal him, he intentionally lingers and extends their weight. Seems counterintuitive to me. But sometimes God delays because he wants to give us more than what we ask for. Instead of healing him, jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, revealing God's power, bringing God glory, bringing people to faith in a way that simply healing Lazarus wouldn't have done. You see, sometimes God will break our hearts just so that he can blow our minds. He loves us enough to wait to give us his very, very best. To give us his very, very best.
Speaker 3:And many of you know my own story of waiting on God for a job. So many of you prayed for me and encouraged me, and I'm so grateful. I faced rejection after rejection, but at just the right time and in a way that could have only been orchestrated by God himself. He not only provided my dream job, but he added so many blessings on top of it, including some flowers. We have a slide with some flowers on there, so these beautiful flowers of congratulations came from the Ecclesia staff and from folks in my small group. So we may know the most generous, we may think we know the most generous and spectacular solution God could provide for us. But the God who's able to do immeasurably more than all we could imagine. He knows the outcome that will astound and bless us, and he knows the outcome that will be a seed of faith for others. And he's about to blow Joseph's mind too, but not before he made Joseph wait just a little longer.
Speaker 3:After two more years in prison, pharaoh had a dream that he can't shake. Finally, finally, the cupbearer remembers Joseph, and at the age of 38 years old. Remember we first met him when he was 17. He's now 38 years old when he stands before Pharaoh. Joseph's first words, out of prison, point it to God. God alone gave the promotion and he alone got the glory. He says I'm not able to interpret your dreams. It is God who will give Pharaoh a favorable answer. Joseph proceeds to interpret his dream, reveal to Pharaoh that there's a famine coming and give him instructions on how he should prepare for it. Just like that, joseph goes from a prisoner to second in command all over Egypt.
Speaker 3:God honored Joseph's faithfulness in the little things, and now he would honor Joseph's faithfulness with even more influence. Psalm 105 says until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him. Joseph's dreams didn't say anything about ruling over Egypt. It said he'd rule over his family. So while it might be tempting to think this would make a great ending to the story, joseph still had more waiting to do and if you think about it, his seemingly sudden success was yet another refining test. Now that he'd made it, it might have been tempting for him to give up on the dreams God gave him all those years ago.
Speaker 3:But Moses' warning to Joseph's eventual descendants paints a different picture. It paints a picture for us of an essential component of waiting well. If you're taking notes, you can write this down Waiting well requires remembering God's faithfulness in past seasons, after being freed from over 400 years of slavery and then wandering the desert for 40 years. Requires remembering God's faithfulness in past seasons, after being freed from over 400 years of slavery and then wandering the desert for 40 years when they were poised to enter the promised land.
Speaker 3:Deuteronomy 8, 11 through 16 records Moses as saying be careful, be careful you don't forget the Lord, your God, by failing to keep his commands, ordinances and statutes that I'm giving you today. When you eat and are full and build beautiful houses to live in and your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold multiply and everything else you have increases, be careful that your heart doesn't become proud and you forget the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery. He says don't forget. Don't forget who was with you through all of your waiting. Don't forget who provided for you. Don't forget who encouraged you with his word and built you up in your most holy faith. Who refined your character. Don't forget. Who promoted you. Don't forget all the miracles he performed. Don't forget, please don't forget.
Speaker 3:Joseph didn't forget, even in his success. His growth and strength of character proved that success for Joseph came long before he ruled Egypt. Because of that, God was able to prove his faithfulness to his word given in Joseph's dreams. So when the famine came and Joseph's brothers traveled from Hebron to Egypt in search of food for their family, they unknowingly encountered the brother they abandoned and thought dead many years ago. Chapter 42 tells us that they bowed down before him with their faces to the ground. After a series of events meant to test the brother's repentance, joseph reveals his true identity and says to his stunned brothers God sent me ahead of you to preserve life. God sent me ahead of you to establish you as a remnant within the land and to keep you alive by a great deliverance. This powerful prince of Egypt says in humility therefore, it was not you who sent me, but God. In humility, therefore, it was not you who sent me, but God. So, as I invite the worship team up, I've always wanted to say that, if you're taking notes, you can write down this last point Waiting well involves guarding your heart from bitterness.
Speaker 3:With all that Joseph had been through, nobody would blame him for being bitter. But Joseph had learned to look at every event in his life, even the painful ones, through the lens of God's sovereignty. Over those 22 years he had to fight to keep from getting jaded and bitter. And when we've waited and waited and waited some more on God for years, after a while our hearts can get discouraged. But in those times we have to fight. We have to fight to choose hope over hardness so that we can eventually say like the psalmist I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Speaker 3:Wait for the Lord, be strong and let your heart take courage. Yes, wait for the Lord. Strong and let your heart take courage. Yes, wait for the Lord. So when you're in your waiting season, remember these five things.
Speaker 3:First point waiting well involves honest character assessments. This means taking a deep look at ourselves and asking God to reveal areas where we need growth. Sometimes the wait exposes our impatience, our pride, our fear, but God uses that exposure to heal and transform us. Yes, god wants to use us to change the world, but his first work is in us. It's in us, not through us, and it always will be. Second waiting well involves an active pursuit of God's word. We can't expect to hear from God if we're not spending time in his word. Reading scripture daily, meditating on it and letting it shape our thoughts and our actions is essential. It's how we stay grounded when everything else feels uncertain.
Speaker 3:Three waiting well involves trusting God's timing and in his sovereignty. God's timing is rarely our timing, amen, but his timing is always perfect. When we trust that he sees the full picture, we can rest even when we don't understand the delays. Number four don't understand the delays. Number four waiting well involves a good memory. We must remember how God has come through for us in the past. When we recall his faithfulness, it strengthens our faith for the future. Maybe you want to keep a journal, write down your prayers and how God answers them. It's going to encourage you in the next season of waiting.
Speaker 3:Finally, waiting well involves guarding our heart from bitterness. It's easy to become bitter or cynical when we've waited a long time, but God calls us to keep our hearts tender and open. A soft heart is one that still hopes, still believes, still loves, even in the waiting. And so, if you're in a waiting season, can I encourage you? God's delays doesn't mean he's not concerned with what you're going through or that he hasn't heard your prayers. God's patience has purpose.
Speaker 3:Eugene Peterson's paraphrase of Romans 8, 24 says waiting does not diminish us any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. Whatever you're waiting for, may you be enlarged in your waiting, knowing that god custom builds our refining fires and our waiting seasons to shape us and to mold us into the people equipped to receive and steward well the blessings he has for us. May you see God's hand that's on you, and may you know that he is with you. May you believe his promise that nothing's too hard for him, and may you wait expectantly for his power with open hands. Ultimate fulfillment won't come from our career, or a husband or a wife or children, or a house or a church, or good health or anything else we might desire. May you remember that the fulfillment of all our desires is ultimately in Jesus. Don't ever let what you're waiting for distract you from faithfulness to him. Amen.