(Gen 50:20) But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.
There are many lessons that can be learned from looking at the lives of various biblical characters. Over the last several weeks we have been looking at Joseph's life. I want us to look again this evening and learn a lesson of how to deal with adversity. When we think of a biblical character that was faced with adversity, we often think of Job. He definitely was hit with much adversity, but for our study tonight we want to consider Joseph. Adversity is a general term that includes trouble, affliction, opposition, pressure, chastening, anguish, testing, or tribulation that is greater than our ability to resolve. When adversity comes to us we often think, "What have I done wrong?" "Why is God punishing me?" But this is wrong thinking! Adversity can be our greatest motivation for spiritual growth or our deadliest means of discouragement. The difference depends upon our understanding of God's purposes through adversity.
I. Sorrow
A. Joseph's initial reaction was one of sorrow.
1. From his brother's own lips we hear of his anguish.
2. Can you imagine what he must have thought when they were lifting him up from the pit?
3. His heart was no doubt filled with relief, thinking that his brothers had just played a trick on him.
4. What must he have thought when he realized that he was rescued from the pit only to be sold into slavery and carried away?
5. Perhaps he spent several nights weeping over his situation.
B. Sorrow is natural.
1. Jesus wept at the graveside of Lazarus.
2. The pallbearers made 'great lamentation' as they carried Stephen to his grave. Cf. Acts 8:2
3. The Bible tells of how the widows cried aloud in their grief over Dorcas' death in Acts 9:39.
4. Sorrow and grief over adversity in our lives is a normal reaction, but it must give way to acceptance of God's plan.
II. Acceptance of God's Plan.
A. God is sovereign.
(1 Cor 6:20) For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
1. What does that mean to us?
2. It should mean that we understand that He can do anything He chooses to do with us…
3. We are a purchased possession, and have no right to question Him.
4. This is not resignation…or giving up; this is accepting that God has a plan for my life and He would never allow anything in my life that is not for His good.
5. Many folks misunderstand Romans 8:28
(Rom 8:28) And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
B. God has a purpose for us.
1. Life is not just a collection of unrelated events.
2. Sometimes we think that our lives are like the pinball that bounces from one bumper to the other until it drops out of play.
3. But God has assured us that He has a purpose for each of us.
4. That purpose is good, because God is good.
5. Joseph came to accept the God was in charge in his life, and when we do the same it will make all the difference in the world!
C. Reject the sin of bitterness toward God.
1. Someone has said that trials will either make us better or make us bitter.
2. Again the difference is our view of God.
3. God is a good God…He is righteous…He is not arbitrary…He is not the author of confusion.
4. He warns us of allowing bitterness to enter into our lives in the wake of adversity.
(Eph 4:31-32) Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: {32} And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
(Heb 12:14-15) Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: {15} Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;
III. Make the Best of the Situation.
A. What did Joseph do?
1. He didn't sit around and mope all day long.
2. Rather he sought to learn through this experience.
3. He chose to be industrious, diligent, obedient, reliable, and conscientious.
4. As a result, he found success as a servant to Potiphar, as a prisoner incarcerated, and as Pharaoh's prime minister.
B. Refuse to focus on the outward circumstances.
1. Often our first response to adversity is to try to remove it.
2. But we need to understand that God is at work in our lives.
3. It may be that God is…
a. Trying to get our attention.
(1 Pet 1:7) That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
b. Assuring us of His love.
(Heb 12:6) For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
(Heb 12:11) Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
c. Calling us to self-examination.
(1 Cor 11:31-32) For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. {32} But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.
C. We may miss God's purpose in the adversity if our focus is only on what is happening to us, and not on what God wants to happen within us.
(Heb 13:20-21) Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, {21} Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
D. Maintain integrity.
(Job 13:15) Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.
1. Let's not forget who we are, or Who God is!
2. What kind of testimony do we have if we lose our faith and confidence in Him in the midst of adversity?
3. Jesus spoke of the two foundations in Matthew 7.
(Mat 7:24-25) Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: {25} And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
4. Note that the foundation didn't keep the rain from falling or the flood from coming up.
5. But it kept the house from falling apart!
How to we respond to adversity when it comes? Do we resist and fight against it or do we allow God to have His way in our lives?