Worship Focus 

 Sunnyvale Presbyterian Church

August 30, 2015

 
Scripture Passages

  

 

  

 
Questions for
Reflection
 
What elements of your family life are you unwilling to offer to God?
 
What dynamics exist but go unnamed? What would it look like to talk about these dynamics?

How can you offer these dynamics to God, right here right now?
 

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Sermon Series
Unlikely Heroes :: A Boy, A Queen, A Tax Collector, A Slave
 
Sunday's Message :: A Slave  
Matt Stephan, preaching
  
 

I used to be a member of a church where the beloved associate pastor once started her sermon, "I hated my husband for 20 years, until I gave my marriage up to God." She told us that the God of the Bible, the one we know in Jesus, is a God of second chances and new creations, and that this God can make bad marriages good. This God can redeem even the worst family dynamics. This God turns brokenness into beauty. This is the God reflected in the story of Joseph. From this narrative we learn that God's plans for us are more powerful than fratricide, favoritism, and many other painful family experiences.

Join us as we reflect on the family dynamics of Jacob's household. They are so terrible that, at the very least, you'll probably feel like a better parent. 7:50 a.m., 10 a.m., 5 p.m---see you then!
 
Blessings, 
Matt

Theme for the Day
 
�Sandi Athey on Bing
There is a way that God's will is both mysterious and complex: You may need guidance, but his will for you is ultimately to love him and love others. If you do that, the rest will become clear.  ---Dr. James Bradley 
Scripture Passages

   
Then Joseph said to his brothers, "Come closer to me." And they came closer. 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 five more years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. 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.
  
Genesis 37:3-8, 12-13, 18-28Second-Scripture               
 
Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he had made him a long robe with sleeves. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him.

Once Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. He said to them, "Listen to this dream that I dreamed. There we were, binding sheaves in the field. Suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright; then your sheaves gathered around it, and bowed down to my sheaf." His brothers said to him, "Are you indeed to reign over us? Are you indeed to have dominion over us?" So they hated him even more because of his dreams and his words.

Now his brothers went to pasture their father's flock near Shechem. And Israel said to Joseph, "Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them." They saw him from a distance, and before he came near to them, they conspired to kill him. They said to one another, "Here comes this dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; then we shall say that a wild animal has devoured him, and we shall see what will become of his dreams." But when Reuben heard it, he delivered him out of their hands, saying, "Let us not take his life." Reuben said to them, "Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but lay no hand on him" -that he might rescue him out of their hand and restore him to his father.

So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the long robe with sleeves that he wore; and they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it. Then they sat down to eat; and looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels carrying gum, balm, and resin, on their way to carry it down to Egypt. Then Judah said to his brothers, "What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and not lay our hands on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh." And his brothers agreed. When some Midianite traders passed by, they drew Joseph up, lifting him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt.