April 3, 2011
The Peculiar Path of Joe Jacobson: The Coat, The Cloak, and the Signet Ring
Lesson 2: The Cloak (Dealing with Life's Lunar Landscapes!)

Sunday Morning: Daybreak & Refresh

Core Ideas:

• Walking with God in Strange Places (Joseph's faithfulness in Pharaoh's Land) -- boy is he treated unfairly!
  • Did he cause some of it? Yes! Was a lot of it unfair? Absolutely.
  • But what is most important in the journey? Fun, ease, pleasure? No, character.
  • How many of us never get to the joy of significance because we have tried to take a shortcut around our character and blamed our failures on ...
    1. The relentless of temptation and its power over us.
    2. The unfairness of life and the system in which we are stuck.
    3. The forgetfulness of those we have helped.

Key Focus:

• Sometimes our life seems so foreign to what we imagined it to be. Likes those old flickering films from the moon. Strange landscapes, weird movements, costumed people, and surreal experiences. Yet if we are willing to be faithful, God does great things and blesses our lives with incredible achievements!
• Kingdom people are on a caravan, a journey together. Our home is not place, but people; and our goal is not a city, or even our ease or success, but God's character. Are we willing to trust that God is at work in the middle of all this to do his work and form his character?
• We have a sure Hope, but we live out our faith with uncertain people! Focus in on this when Joseph's dream interpretation in prison is forgotten. How often does he have to put up with people letting him down? How long can he bear this unfairness? What can he do when nothing he does seems to matter?
  • Why do we give up because people we know fail us?
  • Why do we remember the failure of those who are brothers and sisters in Christ more than we remember any others?)
  • Didn't Jesus have this same problem?
  • But how do we survive it ... especially when we feel alone and abandoned and let down by everyone and everything important to us?
• But what about our faith in God?
  • Doesn't honoring God matter?
  • Does giving up or taking shortcuts make things better?
  • Do we really trust that things will be made right in the end?
    

SH!FT Elements:

• MINISTER_selflessly — Joseph displayed this in every venue he was placed, Potiphar's house (Genesis 39:1-6) or prison (Genesis 39:20-23) or later, for Pharaoh, reminding us of what Paul wrote to slaves: "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving" (Colossians 3:23-24).
• LIVE_holy — Joseph is faithful sexually under the most grueling and arduous circumstances because he knew that ultimately this would be a sin against his God and also against his master who placed great trust in him (Genesis 39:7-10) — this will also be emphasized in Communion..
• GIVE_generously — Joseph's help of the two prisoners with their dream interpretions

Key SoHills Emphasis:

• WATS is coming
• Keep focusing on SH!FT

Key Scriptures:

• 2 Peter 1:3-11 to use for Scripture reading
• 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8 which I will probably read
• Matthew 6:9-13 NKJV which I would love to close the service with: we read the Lord's Prayer together from the New King James vesion with it on the screen. Perfect ending for the service.

Communion Focus:

• Possibly the theme of examining ourselves and our walk with God — 1 Corinthians 11:27-28; 2 Corinthians 13:5-7
• Am I trying to LIVE_holy?
• Do I recognize how precious I am to God, with God's Spirit living in us — 1 Corinthians 6:18-20.

Drama, Media, & Connecting Pieces:

• Pre-video:
• Video Piece: Our Shift Video right before sending and remind folks of our ongoing Shift focus and tie in the the Shift pieces!
• Video Piece: Lord's Prayer (we have used before) as early Vid for Refresh?

Sunday Evening: Sundown

• Title: Saints Alive! Eph. 1:1-3

• Speaker: Jason Fry

• Prayer & Ephesians 1:1-3: Richard Melton

• Communion Devotional: Foy Owens

• Song Leader: Glen Wallace

• Closing Shared Reading: 2 Corinthians 13:12-14