Living Hope

Pastor Philip Miller: Human approval, recognition, popularity, honor—as good as those three are, they are really in the end cheap imitations of the real significance we were made for.

Pastor Larry McCarthy: Welcome to Living Hope with Pastor Philip Miller. I'm Pastor Larry McCarthy and we're so glad you've joined us for this series on identity. So Pastor Philip, significance—it sounds like what you're saying is that we've been hoodwinked. We've been conned, we've been scammed here. We're looking at fake. So where's the real? Where's the real significance?

Pastor Philip Miller: Yeah, so the reality is we were made to find our ultimate significance as children of God. That's our creational design. The problem is we've hijacked our lives and we've tried to go out like orphans in the universe and build a significance for ourselves from other things, from the creation. In this case, as we're looking at Joseph, his temptation was to look for that in people. That people would give him the significance that would help him know who he really was.

Of course, the story of Joseph is that unwinding. Everything falls apart. Every person he looked to and trusted in betrayed him, but God was with him every step of the way. Finally, we get now to the end of the story as he has this beautiful moment where he forgives the very people who betrayed him, who never gave him the significance that he wanted. The only way you can do that is if you've found a better significance.

That's what we're going to see today. Joseph's learning to live as a child of God and find his true, deepest significance in relationship with his heavenly Father. That's an identity that's also available to you and me today through Jesus Christ. We've been adopted as children of God, and so we have a new way to live, a new identity as well.

Pastor Larry McCarthy: Well, stay tuned after the message because Pastor Philip and I are going to discuss living with the smile of God upon our lives. But now, let's go to the pulpit of the Moody Church for part three of the sermon, Joseph: Seeking Significance Through People.

Pastor Philip Miller: Despite Joseph's moment of softening, Joseph is still messing with them, isn't he? He's making them suffer. He's imprisoned Simeon as a kind of hostage. He's accused them of being dishonest. Now he's put money in their sacks so they look like thieves. He's inflicting intense psychological angst on his brothers.

And his brothers go home without Simeon. They explain to their father this was what happened and he kept Simeon there and the only way we can go back is if we bring Benjamin. The father is distraught. Verse 36: "You bereaved me of my children. Joseph is no more, and now Simeon is no more, and now you would take Benjamin. All this has come against me."

Jacob refuses to let them take Benjamin back. They just leave Simeon to rot in Egypt until, of course, they run out of food. Then they realize we gotta go back. They can't avoid the conversation and they say, "Listen, if we're going to go back, we have to bring our brother. It's the only reason they're going to let us go back." Jacob doesn't want to let Benjamin go. Then Judah decides, "Father, I swear on my life I'll bring him back safe."

So off they go to Egypt. They come before Joseph. They bring Benjamin. The moment Joseph sees Benjamin, he says, "You guys come have dinner in my private quarters." He releases Simeon to them and all the brothers are reunited, although they still don't know it's Joseph. Genesis 43:26-30: When Joseph came home, they brought into the house to him the present that they had brought with them and bowed down to him on the ground.

And he inquired about their welfare and said, "Is your father well? The old man of whom you spoke? Is he still alive?" They said, "Your servant, our father, is well. He's still alive." They bowed their heads and prostrated themselves. He lifted up his eyes and he saw his brother Benjamin, his mother's son, and said, "Is this your youngest? The brother of whom you spoke to me? God be gracious to you, my son."

Joseph hurried out, for his compassion grew warm for his brother and he sought a place to weep. He entered his chamber and he wept there. Then he washed his face and came out and controlling himself said, "Serve the food." They eat. After the meal, the brothers receive their sacks full of grain, but Joseph has his own personal silver goblet placed secretly in Benjamin's sack.

Off they go. Joseph gives them a head start and then sends his steward in pursuit. This is what the steward says when he catches up with them. Genesis 44:10-12: "He who is found with it, with the cup, shall be my servant, and the rest of you shall be innocent." Each man quickly lowered his sack to the ground and each man opened his sack and he searched, beginning with the eldest and ending with the youngest, and the cup was found in Benjamin's sack.

Now why is Joseph doing this? It's another test. Joseph has learned that his half-brothers are willing to come back for their own brother. They didn't abandon Simeon, did they? They came back. The sons of Leah have demonstrated loyalty to their own. But the question is, will they show loyalty to Rachel's son? Benjamin. Will they do to Benjamin what they did to Joseph? Does the loyalty break down between the moms?

Notice, Judah is the one who speaks up. Remember, he's the one who swore on his life to bring back Benjamin safely to Dad. Genesis 44:30-34: "Now therefore, as soon as I come to your servant, my father, and the boy is not with us, then as his life is bound up in the boy's life, as soon as he sees that the boy's not with us, he will die. Your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant, our father, with sorrow to Sheol, to the grave.

Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a servant for my lord. Let the boy go back with his brothers. For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I fear to see the evil that would find my father." Judah says, "Look, keep me, let Benjamin go free." In this moment, Joseph realizes that the same God who has been working in his own life over all of these years has been working in his brothers' lives as well.

They are different people, and it utterly melts him. Not just for a moment, but for ever. Genesis 45:1-15: Then Joseph could not control himself before all who stood by him and he cried, "Make everyone go out from me." No one stayed with him and Joseph made himself known to his brothers. He wept aloud so that the Egyptians heard it and the household of Pharaoh heard it. Joseph said to his brothers, "I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?"

But his brothers couldn't answer him, for they were dismayed at his presence. Joseph said to his brothers, "Come near to me, please." They came near and he said, "I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here. For God sent me before you to preserve life.

For the famine has been in the land these two years and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt.

Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, 'Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me, do not tarry. You shall dwell in the land of Goshen and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children's children and your flocks and your herds and all that you have. There I will provide for you, for there are yet five years of famine to come, so that you and your household and all that you have do not come to poverty.'"

Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck and wept. Benjamin wept upon his neck. He kissed all his brothers and wept upon them. In Genesis 45:21-28 we read: Joseph gave them wagons according to the command of Pharaoh and gave them provisions for the journey. To each and all of them he gave a change of clothes, but to Benjamin he gave 300 shekels of silver and five changes of clothes.

To his father he sent as follows: 10 donkeys loaded with good things of Egypt, 10 female donkeys loaded with grain, bread, and provision for his father on the journey. Then he sent his brothers away and as they departed, he said to them—I love this—"Do not quarrel on the way." Boy, he knows them. He just gave Benjamin more than anybody else had and he knows who they are. Don't fight on the road.

Verse 25: They went up out of Egypt and came to the land of Canaan to their father Jacob. They told him, "Joseph is still alive and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt." His heart became numb, for he did not believe them. But when they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said to them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived.

Israel said, "It is enough. Joseph my son is still alive. I will go and see him before I die." So up they go, the family of Israel, Jacob to Goshen in Egypt to reunion with Joseph at last. Genesis 46:29-30: Then Joseph prepared his chariot and went up to meet Israel, his father, in Goshen. He presented himself to him, fell on his neck and wept on his neck a good while.

Israel said to Joseph, "Now let me die, since I've seen your face and know that you are still alive." Jacob, Israel, did indeed die a few years later. He was mourned greatly by his family and buried. Genesis 50:15-21 says this: When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him."

So they sent a message to Joseph saying, "Your father gave us this command before he died." They're making this up. "Say to Joseph, 'Please forgive the transgressions of your brothers and their sin because they did evil to you.' And now please forgive the transgressions of the servant of the God of your father." Joseph wept when they spoke to him. His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, "Behold, we are your servants."

Joseph said to them, "Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today. So do not fear. I will provide for you and your little ones." Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. What a transformation in his heart, isn't it?

He's comforting those who were cruel to him. He's speaking kindly to his kidnappers. He's forgiving his betrayers. How is that even possible? How can he look at the very people he once dreamed would rise up and recognize him for the person of significance that he believed he was, and instead rejected, betrayed, abandoned, dishonored, and forgot him? How does he look on these people with compassion instead of condemnation?

How does he forgive? Don't you see? Joseph's forgiveness here reveals his transformed identity as he is now finally finding significance in relationship to God. If Joseph were still looking for significance in his brothers' recognition, he would be bitter and resentful and angry right here because they never gave him the recognition that he felt like he deserved. He never got what he dreamed of.

But the forgiveness of Joseph is evidence of a massive shift in identity that's taken place. Through all of his hardships, Joseph has learned to look ultimately to God for the significance that his family will never be able to give to him. For God was with him when he was abandoned. God drew near when he was rejected. God esteemed him when he was dishonored. God remembered him when he was forgotten. God raised him up when others tore him down.

In the end, Joseph discovered that if he had the approval and honor of his heavenly Father, of God, he could face the rejection of humanity, even from his family. Because his identity was rooted in the significance that only God can provide. You see this story is all about how Joseph learned to live not as an orphan grasping for significance through people, but as a child of God graced with significance from on high.

The takeaway for us is this: The significance our souls desperately need is conferred by our Father. Human approval, recognition, popularity, honor—as good as those three are, they are really in the end cheap imitations of the real significance we were made for: the significance that comes from God himself.

In Jesus Christ, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you have been graced with a significance that is weighty and durable and thick. You have been adopted as a son or daughter of God. You are a child of the King. Even though you may be abandoned, your Father is with you always. Even though you may be rejected, your Father will draw near.

Even though you may be dishonored, your Father esteems you always. You may be forgotten, but your Father will remember you. You may be torn down, but your Father will lift you up. This is who we are. We are beloved children of our good Father who is in heaven. If he has given you significance, if he smiles over your life, no one can ever take that away. Amen? Amen. So I close with this question: Where do you find your significance?

Pastor Larry McCarthy: This is Living Hope with Pastor Philip Miller. I'm Pastor Larry McCarthy and before we start our discussion today, we want to say a huge thank you to those who keep this program going through their financial gifts. Now, if you'd like to help support the work that we do, we'd love to send you a resource as our way of saying thank you. Visit livinghopeoffer.com or call us, 1-800-214-5001.

We're so glad you're with us today as we explore the power of finding our significance as a child of God. Pastor Philip, we've seen Joseph at his most desperate. He's boasting about dreams, he's testing his brothers from a position of power. But now help us, what does it look like when God's really starts working on him?

Pastor Philip Miller: The end of his story is quite beautiful, isn't it? He has this moving scene where he weeps, he's forgiving his brothers. He says, "What you intended for evil, God was intending for good all along." He sees God's hand of redemption on every moment in his story and his life. What you're seeing is really a transformed identity.

Instead of looking to people to give him the significance his soul was deeply longing for, he built his life around that and it failed him at every turn. We're watching God sort of dismantle that kind of idolatry. In exchange, God gave Joseph something way better: a more durable identity where he knows that his significance is found in relationship with his heavenly Father.

That secures him and gives him a place where he knows he matters. It won't be moving around based off of human approval. He's finally freed then to do something extraordinary, which is extend forgiveness to the very people that had hurt him so deeply. That can only come from a place of security and fullness and from an identity that is ready to bless.

Because here's the thing: when we try to build our identity to gain significance through other people, we go toward other people in a needy posture. We need something from them. They've got to validate us and affirm us and prop us up so we know who we are. You can't forgive someone that's letting you down if that's your relationship with them.

But if you have a better identity in Christ, you have a better identity as a child of God, then you can actually go to the very people that have hurt you and you can actually bless them, extend forgiveness, because you don't need them to validate you in the same way. You actually can become a conduit of grace in their lives because you've been freed from this in a sense.

That's the power of a more durable, better identity, the identity that we have on offer and is available for us in Christ. As a matter of fact, it's already ours. We've been adopted into the family of God when we believed in Jesus Christ. We just need to learn to live into this a little bit better.

Pastor Larry McCarthy: When you're talking about this enabling power, that if we wake up with our God is well pleased with us—you call it the smile of our Father—help our listeners with the relationship of that now for this need for approval. It really washes that out or takes care of it, doesn't it?

Pastor Philip Miller: It certainly gives us something more firm to hold on to. So we know who we are. The gospel tells us that in Jesus Christ, Christ is in us, we are in Christ. Which means all that is Christ is now ours. We've been adopted, we're co-heirs with Christ. We've been seated in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. All the resources of that glorious identity have been conferred upon us by grace. Thank you, Father. That's amazing.

And so the reality is if I can learn to believe that, and the Holy Spirit's on the job, he's bearing witness with my spirit crying out, "Abba, Father," so part of what the Holy Spirit is reminding me of is who I am as a beloved child of God. As the Holy Spirit is reminding me of what's true, and I'm learning to actually believe what God says is real, that I really have a significance—I'm a prince of heaven, I'm a priest in the kingdom of God, I'm a beloved child—if that's true, then when somebody criticizes me, I can hear it, I can think about it, I can even parse out what parts are fair and what parts are accurate and what parts are just unfair and I should just forget about.

But I can actually just think through—it won't rattle me to my identity. It doesn't have to displace me all the way to the core. It gives me a place to actually engage with others. I don't need as much from them, and so I can actually just engage rightly with them. The same thing is true when compliments come.

They don't need to swell our heads because we don't live for human approval if the smile of God rests upon our lives and we wake up in his joyous delight. Then we know who we are and we can just handle stuff that comes at us. It frees us. We're still in all these relationships, but we're not bound to them in a kind of way that our identity is rattled and trades up and down like the stock market. We've got something far more durable and a resting place for our soul.

Pastor Larry McCarthy: I hope you will find that to be liberating today, beloved, that you don't have to be shackled to other opinions of what people think or what they want you to do. Our approval is not centered on seeking significance through other people. Praise God. No, I don't think you heard me. No longer shackled by what others think or demand of us, but free to rest in the smile of God. That's not wishful thinking, beloved. That's the offer of the gospel.

That's the kind of durable hope our newest book, Marx and Moody, points us to. Pastor Erwin Lutzer opens by standing at the graves of these two men, Karl Marx and D.L. Moody. Both with very different legacies. Early on, someone said to young Moody, "The world has yet to see what God can do through a man who is fully surrendered to him." And Moody decided to be that man. And God used a poorly educated shoe salesman to reach millions.

That's what can happen when a life is fully surrendered to God. Now to request your copy of Marx and Moody, simply go to livinghopeoffer.com or call us, 1-800-214-5001. You can also write to us at Moody Church Media, 1635 North LaSalle Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60614. The pull to build our identity on our own terms doesn't stop with people. It can also be a desire for control and next time we'll talk about Jacob's identity trap.

Thanks for joining us for Living Hope where you'll always find gospel truth for the journey of a lifetime. Living Hope is a production of Moody Church Media and is sponsored by the Moody Church.