In A Capitalistic System
Tom Shrader examines Joseph's rise to power in Egypt and his wise management during seven years of abundance followed by seven years of famine. He draws practical applications about handling prosperity, avoiding debt, and understanding that God wants not just our resources but our entire lives surrendered to Him.
“The most miserable people I know are not people who are lost - the most miserable people I know are Christians who are still trying to live like they're pagans.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Survival Through the Cycles of Life (2005)
Recorded: 2005
Duration: 42 min
Themes: wisdom, prosperity, stewardship, surrender, provision, faithfulness, preparation, cycles, managing prosperity, financial planning, young professional, business owner, facing uncertainty, career transition, new believer, seeking direction
Scripture: Genesis 37, Genesis 39, Genesis 40, Genesis 41, Genesis 47, Romans 12:1-2, Matthew 5
Theological Themes: providence, god's sovereignty, biblical stewardship, total surrender, sanctification, holy spirit, christian discipleship, divine provision
Full Transcript
Today is the 6th session of our series looking at the life of Joseph. The title of the series is Survival Through the Cycles of Life, and I want to take some time to make sure we're all on the same page.
Today's going to be one of those lessons that I find challenging to teach. For me personally, I find it a little easier to teach New Testament than Old Testament. For whatever reason, I find the narratives difficult, because I want to go verse by verse, each word, and they don't really lend themselves always to that, but they provide us great illustrations and magnificent stories. When we say story, I think it's important to say this is not a work of fiction—these are actual events that took place. In the best world, we could go to the New Testament and pull out these great doctrinal truths and then run to the Old Testament and illustrate them.
Understanding Life's Cycles
What we're talking about are the cycles of life, the ups and downs of life. I was just talking to a young man last night who pitches in the minor leagues, and he's trying to figure out whether to go back again. Why he's asking me makes no sense, because I can't help you with that. But he's an average guy—throws 90, moves it around, gets some strikeouts, gets some walks, his ERA's low, but that's not what the scouts look for.
They want somebody with either a lot of strikeouts or no walks. They really don't want any walks, because a lot of strikeouts requires velocity, and no walks shows control. So this kid's kind of stuck in the middle. We're working through it, and I'm saying, here would be my bottom line: your career's going to have these ups and downs in it, and if you don't have the passion for it, the stomach for it, when you get to those downs, after a few of them, you're just not going to push through it. That's not unique with baseball—that's just life, isn't it?
Here's what we cannot do: we cannot take the ups and the downs out of your life. What we can do is say, listen, there's something in you that we call the Holy Spirit. That's for those of us who are Christians, and again, just to make sure we're on the same page, a Christian is someone who understands that their sin has separated them from God, that they are sinful people and therefore imperfect, and God demands perfection. Our sacrifice or anything we might do to try to somehow compensate for this sin is flawed—it demands a perfect sacrifice, and that's why Jesus was born.
The Perfect Name for the Perfect Savior
When Haley got pregnant and we announced they're going to have a baby, here were the two questions we got in sequence. Number one: do they know if it's a boy or a girl? The second question was: what's his name? Do they have a name? I am stunned—and this is new to me—by how many people, and they tend to almost all be from the female persuasion, have asked me, what are you going to have the grandbaby call you? It never even occurred to me. Then I'm watching Seinfeld the other night, and George has the name Seven for a kid—he thinks that's the perfect name.
Well, here you go. Here's what the angel said to Joseph: you will name this baby Jesus, and the reason you'll name His name Jesus is because He will save His people from their sin. That's why Jesus was born. There's your Christmas message right there—that's why we don't need to meet that other week, because you just got it right there. He'll save His people from their sin.
So Jesus comes, dies, and we at the appointed time come to Him in repentance and faith. Now we have the helper, the promise—the Holy Spirit who indwells us—and that allows us to have stability in the midst of these ups and downs. It doesn't mean they don't hurt. It doesn't mean the highs aren't exhilarating. It doesn't mean the lows don't have great pain with them. But there's a stability in that, and no one models that better than Joseph.
Joseph's Journey Through the Cycles
This has been a magnificent study, just to look at that singular point. Let me give you a quick flyover. In chapter 37, he's his father's favorite. The brothers know that. They hate him. They know that their father loves him more, so they sell him into slavery. He ends up in the house of Potiphar, who's the head of Pharaoh's secret service, if you will. Potiphar's wife falsely accuses Joseph of trying to rape her, and Joseph is thrown into prison.
He lands in the prison at the end of chapter 39, and the chief jailer sees in Joseph exactly what Potiphar saw and puts him in charge of the whole jail. One morning, he comes in, and above and beyond the call of duty, he sees that there are two new prisoners—the cupbearer and the baker. These are two key guys in Pharaoh's administration, and Joseph is put in charge of them.
He comes in one morning, and they look dejected, and he said, "What's wrong with you? What's the problem?" They said, "We had a dream. We don't know what it means." So they both told him the dream, first the cupbearer, and Joseph said, "All right, here's what it means. In three days, you're going to be restored to your position." The baker said, "I like that. What's my dream mean?" And he said, "In three days, your head will be lifted off. You're going to die."
Joseph says to the cupbearer in chapter 40, verse 14: "Keep me in mind when all goes well with you. When you get back to your position, don't forget me. See if you can get me out of here, because I don't want to be here." One day, Pharaoh
has a dream. He calls in all the guys around him. No one knows what it means. And in chapter 41, verse 12, the cupbearer says, there was this little Hebrew kid. I don't remember his name. I've lost his card. I don't remember his name, but boy, do I remember what he did.
And that's what we said. We said that people remembering your name is almost insignificant, but that they remember the exposure they've had to you, that brush with you, whether it's a comment or a word or an extended period of time, that you have an impact on people's lives. And he said to Pharaoh, hey, there was this little Jewish kid. I had a dream. He interpreted it perfectly. He might be able to help you.
Pharaoh calls Joseph. He explains the dream to him. Actually, there were two dreams. And Joseph says, God's given you two dreams because He intends to move definitively on this. Chapter 41, verse 32, as for the repeating of the dream, it means that the matter's been determined by God.
Now here's what's going to happen, Pharaoh. You're going to have seven years of unparalleled growth, prosperity, and then seven years of famine. And if you're really smart, you'll put in place right now, while you're coming into the good times, you'll put some things in place that will allow you to survive the difficult times. You need to get somebody in control of everything. You need to get him to take some grain and store it in these great, prosperous times for the down times.
And Pharaoh said, I don't know where we're going to find a guy like this. We need a guy like you. And finally, Pharaoh says, all right, let's do that. Let's pick Joseph, and we're going to put you in charge of everything. And Joseph becomes really the grain czar, and then way more than that. And Pharaoh says, listen, everything that Joseph tells you to do, you do it.
The Cycles of Joseph's Life
So you see the survival and the cycles here. Joseph really is that penthouse, outhouse, penthouse, outhouse, penthouse, outhouse, and he's in the penthouse right now. He's arguably the most powerful man, other than Pharaoh, in the entire world.
Today we're going to look at an unusual situation in that all that Joseph has predicted has now come to pass. And now, in the midst of all of this, I think we can pull some practical application out for you and for me today. I've got two rabbit trails that I want to go down, and one is a very familiar, reoccurring theme for us.
Joseph's Personal Involvement
Chapter 41, verse 46, Joseph has personal involvement. Joseph was 30 years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from Pharaoh's presence and traveled throughout the land. We'll make a huge thing about this, but this is the characteristic we saw before. When Joseph saw that the cupbearer and the baker were hurting, he wasn't obligated in any way, shape, or form to help them out. Not my job, man, he could have said.
But as Christians, we don't have the opportunity or the privilege to disconnect. Joseph could sit in the palace with Pharaoh and clip coupons. He didn't have to. He's out. He's hands-on. He's not distant.
There's a sense in which, for you and me as Christians, life is sloppy. We begin to deal with one another, and that's a sloppy process. Because there's a lot of hurt, and there's a lot of pain around us, and there's a lot of people that have done things, stupid things, and they seem to repeat them. And they come to you for help. And you don't have, I don't think, the privilege of just saying, no, I'm too busy. Not my job. I don't have time.
Now, obviously, there's some limitations. You get that. But I'm saying, here's this sphere of influence where God's placed you. God placed you there. He placed you there for a reason. He has you there for a purpose. And the purpose is not so you can just be your guy, your gal. You've got all of eternity to live this perfect life. While you're here, God's got you, and He expects you to be working for Him.
To be living a life where, as you just begin to live this, people just come into your life. They start calling you. You don't even know why. Why would you call me? Because I see something different in you, and whatever it is, I want it. Just like Pharaoh. Pharaoh saw something different in Joseph. He never said, oh, Joseph, I want your God. He did say, oh, Joseph, I want the benefits of your God.
Language we might use, and some of you might be unfamiliar with it, and that's okay. You're not going to take the time to explain it right now. But what we, as fallen people, love is we love all the fruit of the Spirit, the benefit of having the Spirit in us, love, joy, peace, but we don't want any of the duty or the obligation or the responsibility of being a Christian. As you're a Christian, you can't just say, I'm going to check out. Not an option.
Joseph's Conservative Philosophy
Verse 47, we're still in chapter 41, and this will be our first rabbit trail of the day. Look at Joseph's conservative philosophy. In the seven years of abundance, the land produced plentifully. Joseph collected all the food produced in those seven years of abundance in Egypt and stored it in the cities, and in each city, he put the food grown in the field surrounding it. Joseph stored up huge quantities of grain, like the sand of the sea. It was so much that he stopped keeping records because it was beyond measure.
Now, this is just the unfolding of the story. Here's what I want you to see. Understanding what God was getting ready to do in the land, Joseph developed a philosophy that said, I'm going to do what's prudent and what's right.
The Test of Abundance
How does that relate to you and me? It's the test of abundance. We got through this baby, and we got through the delivery, and the baby's healthy, he's small, but he's healthy, and all this. Rarely do we think of that as a test. If we say test, it's going to be the test of, okay, the baby's not healthy. The x-ray has a spot on the lung. I lost the deal, not made the deal.
The Test of Prosperity
Everyone in this room, I think—and there may be an exception or two—but everyone in this room is rich. Wait a minute, what do you mean rich? Because every time we have this discussion, I get so frustrated because I'll lay all this beautiful stuff out and you'll say, "Oh, that's for rich people, I'm not rich."
Here's rich. Here's the definition of rich. Anyone who has a dime of discretionary income. If you got your clothes and you got your food and you got your house, now you're rich. How are you going to handle that? How do you make determinations?
One day, I'm not really involved in a lot of the nuts and bolts stuff at the house, and one day I noticed, because Susan was sick, that we weren't getting mail. I said, "Susan, we're not getting any mail," and she said, "Well, you've got to go get it." I said, "Oh, well, we don't have a mailbox." I never noticed, but we don't have a mailbox. I went out front, and she said, "It's that big silver thing, you have to take a key and go get the mail." I said, "Oh, okay, well, I didn't know that, how would I know that?"
So I get the mail, and she's sick, she's in bed, and I get this pre-approved platinum titanium card for $25,000 or something. So when Susan wakes up, I said, "Hey, man, this is incredible. I've been pre-approved for this titanium card," and she said, "Tom, we get those all the time." I said, "Well, we don't get them all the time," and she said, "Well, we do get them all the time." I said, "Well, we don't get them." She said, "How would you know? You don't get the mail."
Rather than argue, two weeks later, she came in with a stack of these things, probably $200,000 worth of pre-approved credit. You know what I did with those? I threw them away. Now there's another side of this, because I have friends, and this is how they establish their budget. They take their credit card, they get what they'd like to have, they take it to the counter. If it swipes and says approved, it's within their budget. That's how they do it.
The Test of Giving
Here's the test. It's the test of prosperity. It's like giving. Here's what we do at the end of every year. Susan and I, and over the years, it's gotten easier. We'll have a moment, usually in a car or at dinner or something, when I'll say, "We need to talk about giving for the next year. We need to figure out how we're going to increase it."
And it's gotten to be kind of just almost a standard thing for us in what we do. What I have found to be extraordinarily helpful in that conversation is not to say, "How much money am I going to give," but to ask the question, "How much of God's money are we going to keep?" That changes the whole context of the question and the answer for us, maybe not for you.
And I found it to be very simple. If you use something, and I have to tell you, to me, this is incredible, and it'll get you where you want to go, not necessarily tomorrow. And some of you could do way more than this. But if you take 10% as a baseline, and I can't really argue that, other than we see some principles in Scripture, so we take 10%. If you take 10% at a baseline, and you increase that 10% every year, at the end of 10 years, you're giving 20 plus percent of your income away. And almost everybody can do that.
That should be where we're headed—20, 30, 40%, really. And some of you may look at each other and say, "Well, that's a shocker." Well, I'm not saying start tomorrow, but I'm saying, do you see that? And as you get older, it ought to get easier, most of us, because you've got more discretionary income.
The Perspective of Need
I mean, my dad comes down. My dad has taught me so much about money, because we never had a lot of it. We used to do silly things like Christmas clubs, things that we would laugh at now. But I watch my dad, and I watch him kind of go, "Tom, do you realize that bottle of water is $2? That you're complaining about $2 for a gallon of gas, but you're paying $2 for a bottle of water? That doesn't make sense to me, because the water's free over there in that sink."
That's a pretty strong argument, isn't it? So I give him water out of the sink. I mean, I'm not going to drink it, but if he wants to drink that stuff. But isn't that great? Isn't that just—those are the kinds of conversations that you can have as you look around.
You can do a lot. Here's why, because you don't need near as much as you think you do.
Defining Debt
And this will not be the definition they'll use at ASU. Here's my definition of debt. I'm going to give you two of them. Number one, it's an obligation to repay the money we borrow to acquire a possession or experience for which funds are not available, but credit is. Let me read it again. An obligation to repay the money we borrow to acquire a possession or experience for which funds are not available, but credit is. Now, there's a key phrase in there: possessions or experience.
I'm not making this up. We had a guy in this study, one of these studies. Not this. This was a Thursday morning study. He was actually in this study. And he's all discouraged. He just looks awful. I said, "You look awful." He said, "Oh, I'm just discouraged. I am so far upside down. I borrowed so much money, I just don't know how to get out of it." I said, "I know that's really tough."
I don't see him for a couple of weeks. I see him. I said, "I haven't seen you for a couple of weeks. Where have you been?" And I'm not making this up. He said, "I borrowed money to go to Vail to ski for two weeks to think about all this money and this debt that I have." Not prudent.
Here's another definition of debt. It allows you to pretend to be rich even if you aren't. So if I pull up, I got a ride the other day in a car. My car wasn't working. And so I got a ride—
in this car. I don't know much about cars at all, but I got in this car and said, "Man, this is really nice." I asked what it was—they said it was a new hot car. I said, "Oh, wow. Maybe I should get Susan a car, but I'm a little strapped. I don't have a lot of money. What's this cost?" He said, "Well, new just like this is $92,000." I said, "Oh, wow. Well, what would I add to it?" He said, "No, it pretty much has everything in it."
$92,000. Some of you may spend that much for a car—that's between you and God. But here's the deal: if you're spending $92,000 for a car, it's not about transportation at that moment. You're all saying that's right, but you're doing the same thing at a different level. So leave them alone. Don't be picking on anybody—pick on yourself. Don't be beating everybody else up.
The Illusion of Financial Status
If I pull into the parking lot and there are two of these cars sitting right by each other, and one guy paid cash because he's got a boatload of money while the other car is absolutely leased and hocked to the hilt, when I'm looking at them, they look the same. Debt allows me to have a little swagger that perhaps I don't really own. That's what you've got to get around in your life.
You were too hard and critical of those people who want to drive those cars. How about some of you who are borrowing all this money to send your kids to college? Stupid. To send your kid to college, to borrow $150,000 to send your kid to college to get a $35,000 a year job—that's stupid. My view. Now, you can have a different view. If you've got a lot of money, fine.
But you know what that's all about, don't you? It's about being at the Christmas party when they ask, "Well, where's Biff going to school?" It's not so cool to say, "Oh, he's at MCC. He's at Mesa Community." But to say, "Oh, he's at Brown"—that sounds good. But it's not even about school. Stupid.
Foolish Spending Patterns
I'll tell you something really stupid. Here's what's really stupid: to make $60,000 a year and spend $72,000. Those are the things that we do all the time.
Here's what I've observed: guys tend to be very critical in a male-female relationship of their wife and her spending patterns. Wives will blow a budget by buying a dress or a lamp. Guys will buy a boat, then say, "Hey, I don't have anything to tow it," and now they need a truck. Dumb.
All of this gets at a core, and that's about pride and self-centeredness. I'm going to frustrate you a lot in this conversation because I won't answer the questions: "What should I drive? What should I wear? Where should I live?" Those are the questions you have to answer. But if you've got this surplus, I want you to understand—God holds you responsible for that.
The Famine Arrives
The seven years of abundance came to an end, verse 53, just as Joseph had said. There's famine in all the other lands. In the whole land of Egypt, there was food. When all of Egypt began to feel the famine, the people cried to Pharaoh for food.
Pharaoh—this is incredible—Pharaoh then told the Egyptians, "Go to Joseph and do what He tells you." Pharaoh says, "I'm busy pharaohing. I don't have time for this. Do whatever Joseph tells you to do." I want to hit the pause button a second. This has to be a heady experience for Joseph. This is a lot of power—you're running the show, basically.
The Nature and Use of Power
Here's the thing about power: you can get it in a variety of ways, but once you have it, the issue is how do you use it? Power is one of those things—you've heard this—power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Well, here's the problem with that statement: the only entity I know with absolute power is the Almighty God, who I don't see as corrupt. He doesn't lie, He doesn't sin, He's perfect, He's holy, He's righteous.
So we might say, in most humans' life, power corrupts, and in many humans' lives who have absolute power, it corrupts absolutely. Here's the issue: when you have power, how do you use it? How do you get it is one thing, but how do you use it in this process? Joseph uses it in compliance with what He understands God wants Him to do.
Joseph's True Commodity: Wisdom
Joseph brings to the party a commodity. It's not just grain—Joseph brings wisdom. In this world, you can have extraordinary power because you can have wisdom. You have the Word of God. That's what Joseph had. Joseph had God's view of this world.
God told Joseph what was going to happen, and I would say God gave Him a plan for it. God's done the same thing with you in this book called the Bible. In this book called the Bible, God's given you His view of the world, and He's given you a strategy, a plan. All you've got to do is implement it.
We're in a knowledge-based society. All you need is a computer and you've got a bunch of knowledge. I'm looking for a letter—it's a long, convoluted story—but there was a letter, and I know about this letter, and I know a phrase from this letter, but I have no idea the time frame or any of the stuff for the letter. I go on Google, and I type in the phrase that I know. I hit search, and my seventh thing down was the letter. That is amazing.
Knowledge vs. Wisdom
If anything, we almost have too much knowledge now. I have too many facts. There's not a powerful premium on knowledge, but how about the guy or the gal that brings wisdom to the table? That's what Joseph brings. Powerful guy.
The famine hits. It spreads all over the whole country. Joseph opened the storehouse, sold the grain to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe throughout Egypt. All the countries came to Egypt to buy their grain from Joseph.
because the famine was severe in all the world. Joseph is there. He's in the midst of this power. He never loses his compassion. We're going to look at this and see some of the things that Joseph does. He keeps demanding payment, and there could be a way, I think, to read this and say, is there compassion here? He's an extraordinarily compassionate person, and what makes Joseph such a valuable commodity is his wisdom.
Sometimes we look, I think, at the Christian faith and think it doesn't make a lot of sense. Well, it really doesn't. It doesn't make a lot of sense sometimes to think, here's the deal. I'm holding Brayden the other day, and I'm looking at him and I'm thinking, you're cute, but you've got a lot of issues. The most overriding is you're really lost in your sin. I haven't done anything yet, but he's going to confirm my position the minute he has the ability to do something. He'll sin within months if he gets the chance. That's what he is.
Why? Well, let me explain this to you. When Adam sinned, Brayden was thrust into sin through Adam, and there was nothing that Brayden could do to appease a holy God. So God decided He needed to become human, and rather than just come here, He was born through a virgin 2,000 years ago, and then lived a perfect life, and then He died, and then He rose from the dead. And if you believe in that, then when He died, He died for you, and God forgives your sin because of Him.
The Foolishness of Worldly Wisdom
That's a little foolish to me. Sure it does. That's what the Bible says. It's foolishness to those who are perishing, but we understand it because God's opened our eyes to see that truth. And that's the message. It doesn't matter what people think.
There's an organization in this very town that holds seminars every year that teaches people that they can live forever. Live forever. They're generating about a half a million dollars a year in seminar fees, teaching people that they can live forever. I'm talking about in this body, in this place at this time.
I was telling this story yesterday, and a guy came up to me, and he said, I've met two of those people. I was trying to sell the guy a timeshare, and I said to the guy, how long do you think you're going to live? And he said, forever. And he said, we hear that all the time, meaning I'm going to live until this point where I die. And he said, well, I mean, when do you think you're going to die? And the guy said, I don't think I'm ever going to die. I'm going to live forever.
Now I've got to tell you, that's a tough sell to me. The closing room in that deal has got to be about this big, where they're just grinding. Now that's foolishness. It doesn't matter. And to them, what we say sounds foolish. Obviously, what they say to us is foolish. How do we sort all this out? Where do I find the wisdom in the Word of God? The same asset that Joseph has is available to you.
Real-Life Monopoly
Now jump to chapter 47. The story just continues. This is real-life monopoly now. "There was no food, however, in the whole region because the famine was severe; both Egypt and Canaan wasted away because of the famine. Joseph collected all the money that was to be found in Egypt and Canaan in payment for the grain they were buying, and he brought it to Pharaoh's palace. When the money of the people of Egypt and Canaan was gone, all Egypt came to Joseph and said, 'Give us food. Why should we die before your eyes? Our money is gone.'"
Sounds exactly like what you said yesterday, the end of the month. We're all out of money, don't have anything left, except their condition is real. There's nothing they can do about it.
Here's what Joseph says. Joseph here, in verses 13 through 15, has this windfall profit. In verses 16 through 17, look at this compassionate attitude.
Joseph's Compassionate Exchange
"Then Joseph said, 'Bring your livestock, and I will sell you food in exchange for your livestock, since your money is gone.' So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and he gave them food in exchange for their horses, their sheep and goats, their cattle and donkeys. And he brought them through that year with food in exchange for all their livestock."
They're going, wait a minute, that's compassionate? He now takes their livestock? Absolutely. Here's what he traded. Think about this. He trades an appreciating asset for a depreciating asset. Isn't that fundamental investment 101? Never invest in anything that eats? And Joseph says, here's what I'll do. Give me those. Because what good is a cow if you don't have anything to feed it? And Joseph now is accumulating all of these things and ultimately now has this extraordinary friendly takeover.
"When that year was over, they came to him the following year and said, 'We cannot hide from our lord the fact that since our money is gone and our livestock belongs to you, there is nothing left for our lord except our bodies and our land. Why should we perish before your eyes—we and our land as well? Buy us and our land in exchange for food, and we with our land will be in bondage to Pharaoh. Give us seed so that we may live and not die, and that the land may not become desolate.'"
Buy us. Now you own us. We're enslaved to you. Give us some seed. We'll start to plant this. And that's exactly what happens and everything belongs to Pharaoh.
The First National Income Tax
Now before you get too harsh in your judgment, look at verse 23. Here's Joseph's abiding legacy. "Joseph said to the people, 'Now that I have bought you and your land today for Pharaoh, here is seed for you so you can plant the ground. But when the crop comes in, give a fifth of it to Pharaoh.'"
I don't mean this in a flippant way. This is the first record we have of a national income tax and it's at about 20% here. The other four-fifths you may keep as seed for the fields and as food for yourselves and your households and your children.
Now look at their response. They're not saying, oh you screwed us over. You got everything. This isn't fair. We want everything equal. Here's what they say: "'You have saved our lives,'" they said.
we find favor in the eyes of our Lord, we'll be in bondage to Pharaoh. Joseph established this as law and it's still enforced 400 years later at the writing of this passage.
Let me stop right there and do a quick application. Remember when I said at the beginning about teaching narratives? Sometimes, as I work, it can happen to anything, but especially in some Old Testament passages, you can spiritualize things an awful lot. There's a lot of license in there. I don't think you have to squint to see though that this could easily be a physical picture of a spiritual truth.
A Physical Picture of a Spiritual Truth
A physical picture of a spiritual truth and the spiritual truth is, here's what God says to us. I don't need your grain and I don't need your livestock. I want you. That's how the Sermon on the Mount begins. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who understand they're spiritually bankrupt. Blessed are those who understand when Jesus says, here you go. If you want to save your life, you got to lose it. If you really want life and you want it abundantly, then you've got to take this life and give it away.
That's what Paul writes about in Romans chapter 12, verse 1 and 2. Present your bodies as a living sacrifice. It's the only reasonable act of service. Here's what He said. He's delivered these magnificent truths in chapter 1 through 11 of the book of Romans about God's sovereignty and how God saves and how God predestines and how God chooses these magnificent truths. And He said, here's the only reasonable response. If you're saying, well, you know, I'm a logical person. Here's the only logical thing to do. If you're saying, I just want to do what's right. Here's the only right thing to do in light of all this truth is to say to God, it's yours. My life is yours.
In my personal life, March 6, 1980, sitting right out there at McCormick Ranch, after 30 years of life, I said to God, I've screwed this thing up every way you possibly can. It's not much. I understand Jesus died for me, and I am so grateful for that. And God, here's what I got. I got this life, and it hasn't produced much. You just do whatever you want with it. Whatever you want to do, let's see what happens. That's that physical picture of a spiritual truth.
What does God want from you? Everything. Everything. I'm willing to give God... No, no, no. If the next sentence isn't everything and the next word isn't everything, then the sentence is incomplete. I'm willing to give God everything. And now I begin to live a life that's filled with vibrancy because I'm living for Him. He's the driving force. See that? It's an incredible truth for you and me.
The Misery of Half-Hearted Christianity
The most miserable people I know are not people who are lost. They're not Christians, and they're stuck in this world, and those aren't the most miserable people I know. The most miserable people I know are Christians who are still trying to live like they're pagans who are stuck in this. God, I'll give you this, but that's about it. God, I'll do this, but I don't want to do that. God, you can have my Sunday, and you can have my Bible study. You can have my family, but you can't have my business. God, you can influence me, but you can't change me. They're miserable. It's a miserable way to live.
And if that's you and you're miserable, then the only answer here is to deny your faith, which I don't think you're capable of doing if you truly saved, or live for Him. This is serious stuff.
The Stakes Are Eternal
I'm talking to a... Think about this. I met some interesting conversations this week. I got a call from some people in our church, called our office, and I'm dealing with our compassion ministry guy. And here's what they have. In our church, they have a family member, and they said this, she's not a Christian, she doesn't know Christ, she's just drifted into a coma, she'll die in the next 24 hours. You know, we'd like to do a memorial service at the church. Can you guys accommodate us? Which obviously we can't. Forget all that. Forget all this. Don't get... This lady, in 24 hours, is going to be in hell forever. See, I don't know what else you got going today, but that's bigger than that. This is the biggest thing you got.
One of the guys here in town has a great saying, he says, considering we deserve hell, anything other than that is a pretty good day. This lady... And she died, by the way. She died yesterday. She's in hell. Right? Now, she's in hell. That's so judged now. I'm not judging anything. She denied Christ. Jesus says, I'm the only way, 2 plus 2 is 4, she's in hell. That's the stakes here. This isn't just about getting a cup of coffee and enduring 45 minutes of this and then going on your merry way. The stakes are huge. So we need to understand that.
Five Tips for Application
Five tips, out the door you go. Number one, be committed to hands-on living. Get involved. You're not exempt from the messy parts of life.
Number two, be frugal in handling your abundance. You might want to write this down. Live on less than you make.
Number three, be careful in exercising authority. If God puts you in a position of authority, and almost all of you are in a position of authority someplace, be careful how you use it. Dads, listen, dads, don't exasperate your children. I've found that in my life. That was one of those things that was so easy to do. I'd be frustrated. And when you're frustrated and you have things that are out of your control, you're looking for something to control. And the easiest thing to control is to come home and try to control the kids. Your spouse is going to stand up for herself, but the kids are tough. Kids are so vulnerable.
Four, be satisfied earning a profit. There's nothing wrong, nothing wrong with making a million dollars. There may be something wrong in how you spend your million. There's nothing wrong in making $50,000. It may be something wrong in how you spend it. Wayne Grudem has written a magnificent little book on business. And I'm sorry I can't give you the title of it, but if you go to
Amazon or Phoenix Seminary website, and type in Wayne Grudem and look at those books. You'll see it on business. It is a magnificent book on really the joy of business and then the corresponding responsibility. It's a terrific book.
Number five: be faithful to meet the needs around you. You are in full-time Christian ministry. You just aren't getting paid for it, most of you.
When You Finally Have the Power to Get Even
Here you go. If you look at these last five lessons, if you have been a visionary and you've been snubbed and you're a person of integrity and you've paid the price for it, and then you advanced and you're thrown to the bottom again like Joseph has, and then all of a sudden you have a network—remember me—and the cupbearer doesn't, and then all of a sudden you're in a place of control. What do you do? This is an important question.
When you're now beaten and scarred, weathered over this, and you've survived and now you have the opportunity to get even? It's not the desire, do you hear that? It's not the desire to get even, it's now you have the opportunity.
Your credo has been, "I don't get mad, I get even," and now all of a sudden you've been through all these cycles of life: up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, been abused. It all started, by the way, with these brothers, and you've said, "Oh, I would if I could." Well, now Joseph's in a position, not "I would if I could," but now he's in a position where he can get even. How do you respond in the midst of that? That's what we're going to look at next week.
Father, thank You for the day, the place, the time, the opportunity to be here.