April 10, 2011
The Peculiar Path of Joe Jacobson: The Coat, The Cloak, and the Signet Ring
Lesson 3: The Signet Ring (Accidentally on Purpose!)

Sunday Morning: Daybreak & Refresh

Core Ideas:

• For Such a Time as This (Esther 4:14 & Psalm 139) — no matter how others view us, no matter what circumstance tells us, no matter what our family does to us, God has put us here for this moment in time to be an outpost for the Kingdom of heaven. In a broken world of broken people, we are here on purpose, with purpose, and for God's purpose.
• Keying off Joseph being selected by Pharaoh to oversee the preparations for famine relief and also the relief efforts. Once again Joseph is confronted with trusting God or playing God.
  1. Joseph is incredibly efficient, organized, and faithful in his duty second only to Pharaoh — never taking personal advantage of his position and working for the best of Pharaoh and the needs of the world — he is what God promised Abraham that his descendants would be, a blessing!">
  2. In doing his job, his dreams from long ago come true, and he is put into a position to say, "I told you so!" or to get even with his brothers, but instead, he practices forgiveness and carefully works the situation to get his family to Egypt.
  3. In the process, Joseph saves God's people and reclaims his family for God. Sometimes we have to be "the terminal generation" for family mess, lack of forgiveness, rivalry, and strife and re-inject our family tree with faithfulness.
     

Key Focus:

• We can live by two different definitions for our life — those around us or the God with us and within us. Whose opinion of us matters most determines our life's focus. So who are we going to believe? How are we going to live? And which will give us more freedom and joy? God has put us here on purpose ... even if it appears that all of live is a big huge accident, an awful mistake, and we are the butt of the joke!
• Once again, we can play God, or we can act like God and live to reflect the righteous character and gracious compassion of God! — LIVE_holy! and GIVE_generously (we often don't think about forgiving as giving, but at it's heart, that is what it actually is!).

SH!FT Elements:

• GIVE_generously — forgiveness
• MINISTER_selflessly — what Joseph did in his role as Prime Minister
• GO_fearlessly — the call to practice forgiveness and share the message of forgiveness, the emphasis of Communion and example of Joseph
• GROUP_inclusively — accountability, confession, and forgiveness are key roles that happen in smaller groups. Joseph demonstrates this in his extended family, his family group.
• LIVE_holy — Joseph will not take credit for dream interpretion, but again gives glory to God (Genesis 41:16).
• LIVE_holy — giving the names to his sons, Joseph shows he lives concious of God's presence in life (Genesis 50:50-52).

Key SoHills Emphasis:

• WATS is coming on 17th
• Keep focusing on SH!FT
• Eggstravaganza on 23rd
• Easter on 24th

Key Scriptures:

• Ephesians 4:29-5:2 to use for Scripture reading
• Matthew 6:14-15 which plugs into the Lord's Prayer that we finished with last week! (I will include in my Time in the Word.)

Communion Focus:

• Forgiveness — maybe Jesus' cry at the Cross, Father forgive them (Luke 23:32-36)
• Tie into Jesus' cry, "It is finished!" Jesus came to do what God sent him to do. Now it is our turn (Luke 24:44-49), we are sent to be agents of forgiveness.
• We leave the Supper, the Table of the Lord, forgiven, but also called to forgive and share the message of forgivess! We GO_fearlessly sharing the grace and forgiveness of Jesus!
• Special Tie In, please notice: A tie in to this from Joseph's story is Genesis 43:31-32, where Joseph is trying to reconcile with his brothers but their guilt and the cultural barriers and the brokenness that divides them means that Joseph eats in one place, the servants in another, and the brothers of Joseph in another. They are in a palace and share a feast together, but apart. Separate and isolated because no one will acknowlege the truth of the moment. Because of the need forgiveness and guilt that runs rampant in the room, Joseph's Egyptian friends do not know the grace of God who forgives because it is not being lived out among these brothers. This could be a powerful example of what we must do in Communion: find those we don't know, or find those we know with whom we are isolated or divided, and use this moment at the table to share in God's grace, forgiveness and community — after all, Jesus prayed, shortly after the institution of the Lord's Supper, that the disciples would all be one so the world would believe (John 17:20-21, 23). So we can use the Table, especially at Refresh, to be a time that we make sure we are not divided into groups, eating with only those who are like us or near us or familiar to us.
• Maybe a powerful way to emphasize this is with the redemption story of Judah, Joseph's brother who was responsible for him being sold into slavery, who was untrustworthy and had bad sexual ethics, but eventually was transformed and offered himself to Joseph (although he didn't know it was Joseph at the time) as a slave rather than having Benjamin kept in prison until Jacob came — follow the Judah story from Genesis 37-51.

Drama, Media, & Connecting Pieces:

• Pre-video:
• Video or Drama Piece: TBD — but something that focuses on forgiving others is a good focus here.


Sunday Evening: Sundown

• Title: How Rich You Are! Eph. 1:3-14

• Speaker: Stephen Corbett

• Prayer & Ephesians 1:3-14: Tom South

• Communion Devotional: Joe McKissick

• Song Leader: Jason Fry

• Closing Shared Reading: 1 Peter 1:3-4