God Specializes in Plan B Well, good morning, everybody!

We're going to start with words that Paul wrote to the church at Rome a long time ago in extraordinarily difficult times. We're in this series because we're in a season that is difficult for a lot of folks. These are remarkable words. This is what Paul wrote, "We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance produces character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us." There are three postures that human beings can adopt as we look at the future, because the future is a big deal to all of us. One is this posture that Paul is talking about and that is "I have hopes." The hope is the belief that my future holds good prospects. There are two parts to this business of hoping. One of them is desire. I have to genuinely want what it is that the future holds, not just think I'm supposed to want it, I have to actually legitimately, authentically want it. The other part of hope is that I have to believe. I have to really reckon that this is true. Hope is not just hype, and when I have thiswhen there's something that I look forward to, and I genuinely want it, and I really think that it's on the waythen I live with a sense of anticipation. Then when I wake up in the morning, I embrace the day because it's getting me one day closer to that to which I look forward. You can tell if you're around somebody who is a hoper, you can tell. Hope is contagious. Now, if I desperately want something, but I believe it's not going to happenif I hunger and thirst for it from my soul, but I think it's not going to take place, then my posture towards the future is despair, and it just hurts. I long, I achenot going to happen. We cannot live well or long in despair. It is so toxic to the soul that we'll find some other way out. A lot of times, people will manage despair by what may be called resignation. In resignation, what I do is try to dampen down my hope by ratcheting down my desire for whatever it is that I wanted by telling myself it's not really that big of a deal. Not that great a job. Not that good of a place to live. She's not that pretty. There are plenty of other fish in the sea. Resignation is kind of a half-way house between despair on the one hand and hope on the other hand. Sometimes, frankly, this is about the best that we can do. Sometimes it's the strategy of choice. I always think about it this time of year because I'm a Maple Leafs fan. Do I want the Leafs to win? Since I was 10 years old. Do I believe they will win? I'm not an idiot. It's been 40 years. So I resign myself. I tell myself, "It's not that big a deal. I've survived this long without it. It's not like the Oilers are going to win." I just adopt a strategy of resignation.

Now ultimate hope is the hope that I'm banking my life on, and we all have these. Whether we know it or not, whether we name it or not, it's what I want more than I want anything else. What do you want, really want more than you want anything? See when the Bible talks about rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God, this is what it's getting to. It's getting to what do you want? What do you want so bad you can taste it? What do you want more than you want anything else? What's worth wanting that badly? Because we are wanters. Now a lot of people think, as Christians, that they are supposed to want something, but they are not sure if they really want it, if they're honest about it. Let me just put this in the form of a few questions. How many people here want to go to heaven when you die? Raise your hands. Would you? Okay, that's close to unanimous. Second questionclose to unanimous, I mean I'm not counting, but it's close. Second question, how many of you, again just being really honest, how many of you want to go right now this second if we could arrange it? A little ambiguity at this point, isn't there? I know I'm in church, but I'm not sure what I'm supposed to say. Okay? Another form of this question, and we'll get to the end of it. How many of you would like for the earth to get fixed upright now? No more babies with bloated bellies from hunger. No more stories about corporate greed and corruption. No more guilty, awkward distance between people of different races. No more souls tortured by addictions of one form or another. No more battered children. No more ambulances. No more hearing a siren and wondering who it's going for. No more caskets. No more soldiers. No more wars. No obituary writers. Everybody has a place where they love to live. Everybody has work they love to do. Everybody has people they love to befriend. How many would like for every sword to be beaten into plow shares? For the lions to lie down with lambs, for peace to break out, for justice to flow like water, for the defeat of death and the triumph of joy, and over all of this for there to be a God watching over it every second and this God is so gloriously good that everybody knows Him, and everybody enjoys Him, and everybody loves Him best of all. How many of you want that? Well if you want that then you want what it is that Jesus talked about. Then you want Jesus, because He said when you pray, pray like this, "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Your name. You are so gloriously good. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." He believed. Jesus hoped. You do not, you cannot, understand Jesus if you don't know this about Him. Jesus hoped. Those who knew Him came to hope in Him, and those who knew Him best came to hope the strongest. Personal opinionyou have to decide what you think about thispersonal opinionI think if there is no God, if there is no story, if there is no design, if this universe is simply an accident, the best we can do is resignationthe best we can do. And of course if that's the case, it's good to be honest about it. There is a certain kind of nobility about.

If you've ever read the story of the death of Socrates you might remember when he had a trial for corrupting young minds, and he had to drink the hemlock, and his friends around him were just grieving and very upset. There was this remarkable calm to him. No don't grieve. Don't get all worked up over it. Everybody dies. It will come to you. Receive it philosophically. Hedge your bets. Jesus did not go down the road of resignation. Jesus says, "Don't despair." Jesus says, "Don't resign." Jesus says, "There is good reason for hope." Then people, who follow Him, like the Apostle Paul, go through enormous suffering, but he never resigns himself to it. I was reading a philosopher recently and he was talking about the kind of prayers you don't see from the Apostle Paul. Paul does not give this benediction, "May a meaningless universe fill you with resignation so you can accept your eventual destruction with serenity." Paul says, "May the God of all hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Spirit, by God's presence with you." Now St. Paul says, "You hope, but not for this or that outcome. You don't hope for this job or that relationship or to get this much money or to get out of that problem or to have this happen to your body or your circumstances. No, we're hoping for the whole nine yards. We're hoping for the big enchilada. We're hoping for all joy, for all peace. For up there to come down here, and if you want it, and if you believe that it is possible enough to commit yourself to it, then what you do is you rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Then you're a hoper." Then something extraordinary is possible. It is possible for suffering to produce perseverance, and perseverance to produce character, and character to producenot resignation, but hope. What we do when crisis comes. Because it will come, it comes for everybody. Now over the last decade a lot of research has been done in this area about how is it that some people don't just get through suffering, but they actually get strongervery interesting language. For a long time, people have talked about how there is posttraumatic stress syndrome. More recently, some researchers have begun to talk about a thing that they call post-traumatic growth. People go through suffering, they go through hardship, and they don't just make it through to the other side, they come out different. It doesn't happen automatically. Adversitysufferingcan cripple people. It often does. A lot rests on how people respond to it. So that brings us to Joseph. If you were here last week, we talked about Josephyoung guy, 17 years old. He had the world by the tail, and then all of a sudden his world collapses, as it will for everybody. His brothers betray him, and he is sold into slavery. Then there is this remarkable response to slavery. He thrives in slavery. He does some of his best work ever in slavery.

Just a word, at this point, about slavery in the Bible because it is so different As we think about slavery, we will automatically think about slavery in America in the South. In the ancient worldand we'll think of somebody as a slavewhy don't you just try to overthrow the system? Why don't you try to run away? In the ancient world, slavery was simply a part of every culture. A guy by the name of Mark Noll has written a great book about theology and North American slavery. He talks about how there were big debates between the North and the South about the Bible and slavery, but in those debates, kind of interesting, neither side noted that what was uniquely evil about slavery in America was racism, because in America, to be a slave was based on your race, and it meant to be subhuman. There are a lot of people, a lot of pastors in churches, and a lot of white people in the South that use the Bible to defend slavery. Interestingly, none of them said that based on the Bible, white people ought to be slaves. It was people of a different race. What the North and the South both missed was, deeper than the evil of slavery was the evil of racism. By the way, the most famous talk ever given in the twentieth century in America was by a preacher by the name of Martin Luther King, and some of you remember the line that kept coming up over and over and over, "I have a dream." I have a dream, I have a hope that one dayit's the glory of God, racism will be defeated. Alright, back in Joseph's day, slavery was not a racism deal. It was a bad deal. It was not like God's best arrangement for human life, but it wasn't the same as it was in America. It was a power deal. You might be highly educated. You might be a military genius, you might be a financial wizard, but if your people lost a battle, you could still end up being a slave. You could rise to a high position with a lot of responsibility, kind of flourish, if you were a slave. On the other hand, you could be killed. Now you put yourself in Joseph's place. You're 17 years old; you grew up daddy's favorite. You wear the robe. Your jealous brothers kidnap you. You're sold to Egypt. It's your first day. Do you remember your first day in a job? It's your first day in a job, and you're a slave. Do you think you might have a little attitude problem if that was your situation? Then this remarkable thing happens. We're told that the Lord is with Joseph in slavery. He gets whatever assignment you get on your first day when you're a slave, but he actually works with diligence. He treats people around him as if they are human beings. He actually does the tasks assigned to him with diligence, as if he's working for somebody more important than Potiphar. The overseers, the people in the chain of command, notice this, and they give him more responsibility. He does well with that, and then word gets to Potiphar.

Now Potiphar was a rather high-ranking official in the administration of the Pharaoh. He's the kind of guy who would have prided himself on his ability to spot talent. So he moves Joseph, the text says, into the house. That means Joseph is given now managerial work. Joseph does well with that. Potiphar makes Joseph his attendant, like his personal assistant. Joseph does well with that. Potiphar makes him his CEO. Potiphar has an extensive operation filled with Stanford MBAs, and they watch this Hebrew slave with a GED float up to the top of the organization. Everybody is doing great. The text says, "From the time Potiphar put Joseph in charge of his own household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the Lord was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field. So Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph's care. With Joseph in charge he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate." Joseph gets written up in Forbes. He is getting offers from other slave owners who want to buy out his contract. The Dodgers offered to trade Manny Ramirez for him. I want to pause here to note something that can happen in suffering. Suffering is not a good thing, but good things sometimes come out of it. When you suffer, sometimes you find yourself rising to a challenge that reveals abilities hidden in you that otherwise would have never made it to the surface, and you grow. Now imagine being Joseph: I arrived at Potiphar's. I was a 17 year old spoiled brat always been the favorite. Everything always went my way. I told my brothers about my dreams of grandiosity. I showed up here; I could have lain down and died. I didn't think I could stand it, but I did. I showed up for work day after day, and it was the strangest thing, it's like I was given this power. It's like I was given this ability to be able to do stuff I never thought I could do. I kept being able to do more. I didn't know I could do this. I have gone through being betrayed, being sold into slavery, being forced to live in a foreign land, being alone, having no friends, no money, and come out flourishing. If I can do this You're 17 years old and you find out that about yourself, you find out something pretty significant. People will often say stuff like, "I could never go through what this person went through. I could never stand to lose that. I could never suffer that. I would die." You never know. You never know until one day you go through it, and your heart keeps beating, and your world goes on, and you didn't know. Then all of a sudden Joseph finds out that somehow God is with him in a way that he never expected. Then it's like, you know what? Whatever life throws at me from this day forward The Apostle Paul put it like this, "I have learned what it is to be in need. I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content, of being alive, of being vital in any situation up or down. I can do anything through Him who strengthens me. I have hope." Joseph did not have that, see, until he was thrown into a situation he never wanted to be in. His trials are not over. The text goes on to say, "Now Joseph was well built and handsome. And after a while his master's wife took notice of Joseph and said, 'Come to

bed with me.'" In the Bible, when men fall in love, they are usually drawn to the whole person. Women are often just interested in a handsome face and a well-built body. It's a sad truth about human nature, but it just is. Actually, the Bible is remarkably open about mishandled sexuality on the part of both genders, on the part of a lot of heroes. In this case, that opportunity comes to Joseph and it would have been really easy to say, "Who cares. I'm a long way from home. What does it mean? What difference does it make?" but he says, "No." Suffering produces perseverance. Perseverance produces character. He ends up getting falsely accused. He doesn't get rewarded for these noble choices; he ends up in prison. Anyway, the text says, "But while Joseph was there in prison, the Lord was with him." This is a remarkable statement. I wonder what that was like. He showed him kindness, granted him favor in all he did. So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph's care because the Lord was with Joseph." He gave him success in whatever he did. He's now using his gifts which he has learned are quite extraordinary. He does it with all of his heart, but what is amazing to us is that he's doing it for people in prison. This really happens. People really do this. Sometimes people suffer great adversity, and they end up serving those who are in prison. Suffering produces perseverance. Perseverance leads to character. A really interesting little detail in the storytwo men put under his watch and worked for Pharaohthe baker and cupbearer. One night they both had a bad dream. Then we're told when Joseph came to them the next morning, he saw that they were dejected so he asked, "Why are your faces looking so sad today?" Here's what's interesting, you might not have noticed this: When Joseph was at home, and his life was going great, his own brothers lived in huge pain because he was the favorite. He never noticed. He told bad reports about them. He gloated over his dreams to them never had a clue. Now, in prison, where you might think he would just be consumedI have my own problems, have my own difficulties to deal with. Now he sees. Now he cares. Now he asks. Suffering can do that to a heart, and because they do, it's going to lead to amazing things for him. He doesn't know that right now. One of the things about suffering is it has the powerit doesn't automatically do itit has the power to deepen relationships in profound ways. People who go through great grief sometimes find that although they would never have asked for it, would have it removed if they could, it leads to a depth in the way that they connect to other souls that they have never known before. Sometimes people who have cancer, although they hate this invader that is in their body, they find that they kind of wake up to how it's people

who matter. There's been so much energy and emotion that's just been wasted stupidly in their life, and suffering kind of does this. A month or so ago, I went to Bill's Caf. It's a 12-step group that meets on Thursday nights; it's part of our church. One of the most powerful moments comes when each person in that circle A lot of folks who were there that have something to say or who have never been there before, that is new to the group introduce themselves. They do something we almost never do in normal life. They say who they are, and then they name their brokenness and pain. "My name is Dale. I'm an alcoholic." Do you know what everybody in the group says back to them? "Hi, Dale. Glad you're here. You're one of us. We know all about it. Welcome home." It was so healing. That circle was so healing. Now that's not my limp. I have enough other limps. That one is not mine. But I find myself wanting to say in that momentseriously, I find myself wanting to say, "My name is John. I'm an alcoholic." Just because the warmth of belonging there is so powerful. If you say, "My name is John. I'm a Presbyterian pastor," it sounds like you're in denial. There just isn't that same kind of connection that happens. It's a weird thing how prisoners or addicts or grievers can meet each other and realize that relationships matter and masks come off and souls meet in a way that in normal life we don't do because everything is okay. Joseph is a different person in his relationships in prison than he was at home when everything was going great. He tells the cupbearer, "You're going to get restored to your old job." He says, "When you do, remember me to Pharaoh. Get me out of this prison." Then the cupbearer gets released just as Joseph said, and you can just imagine how Joseph is waiting to get out of prison, waiting for the cupbearer to remember. But the cupbearer forgets when he goes back to normal life. One of the things that happens in adversity is your mind shifts in some ways but then you forget when you go back to normal life. We'll talk about that in a minute. So Joseph waits the next day. He was probably busyprobably tomorrow. TomorrowJoseph is stuck in prison. The next daystuck in prison. Two full years, the text says, then, finally Pharaoh has a dream. Finally Joseph in this strange, strange, strange, strange life gets out of prison and begins a new life. Such an odd journey. So hard to tell what's good, what's bad, what's up, what's down. It's kind of that way in the kingdom for those who hope. For your life is hidden with Christ in God. So hard to say what's good and what's bad. Joseph is at home, he's his dad's favorite. He wears the robe. Bad stuff is going on inside him. Then this terrible thing happens. He gets kidnapped and becomes a slave, but the Lord is with him. He does great in slaverygets lifted up to the highest place that he could belooks like things are going great. Then a terrible thing happens. He gets falsely accused, gets put down in prisonawful place.

Then the oddest thing happensGod is with him in prison. Joseph does great in prison. He gets exalted to the highest place in prison. Then a terrible thing happens. The cupbearer forgets and for two years he languishesfor two years. Then one day Pharaoh has a dream, calls Joseph. Joseph does great with Pharaoh. He gets exalted to the highest place in Egypt, and it turns out that all of his suffering is his glorystrangest thing. A friend of mine was talking this weekI mentioned him to some of you before. His name is Bill, and what he had been hoping for, for a long time in his life, is the stuff that a lot of people dosuccesshe was in real estate, a lot of pleasurereally bright guy, educated, kind of glamorous. Then he took a couple of wrong steps, and he ended up in a prison cell in San Quentin. And the Lord was with Bill. He met God in prison. He's out now and his life is a lot different than it was before he went in. He was saying this week, "You know, if I could go any place in the world before I die, it would not be to France, to the Eiffel Tower. It wouldn't be to see the Great Wall of China. I would go to that prison cell in San Quentin where I met God. That's like holy ground." Here's one of the things that can happen in suffering: It's kind of like in normal life, like we get on this treadmill, and we're just running afterwe don't know what for, we don't know whymoney, success, education, comfort, security, pleasure, happiness, somethingI don't know, just running after it. And then when suffering comes, it just knocks you off the treadmill, and all of a sudden you have to ask, "What in the world am I doing here?" Is there any meaning to this life? Again, suffering is a bad thing, but it can give this kind of gift of changing. It doesn't happen automatically. A lot of times, people go through suffering, and they see things differently, and what they say to themselves is, "You know what? I'm going to keep this new perspective the rest of my life." But they don't, because sooner or later normal life sucks you back into its vortex, and when it does you lose all of the benefit that you could have gotten out of suffering unless you actually took action when it happened. If you have the courage to make actual changeschange my lifestyle, change my friendships, get serious about who I want to put my life in their hands, change my habits, change my goals. Then something can happen in your soul. Suffering can lead to perseverance, and it can lead to character. It can lead to hope. Hope is just the best. Hope is just the best. Hope is it. Hope is it. I've been thinking a lot about hope. It's a weird thing, but I remember the very first movie I took Laura to see when she was this little girl between two and three years old, and it was Snow White. Have any of you ever seen the movie Snow White? Watching that with my daughter I thought about the hopes that I had for my daughter when she was just two years old. And what struck me then was what a bad message Snow White was sending to this little two-year-old girl. Do you ever think about this? I just wanted to tell her when she was a little girl, "Don't be like Snow White. She's afraid of the clichd stepmother who fears her fading beauty. Don't be like that. She's keeping house for seven dysfunctional, grumpy little men who won't clean up after themselves.

Don't do that. She's passively waiting for, "Someday my prince will come." Remember that song? Don't do that. Live your own life. Be vigorous. Pursue your dreams. Don't sit around waiting for some prince to come. If there's going to be a prince let Daddy decide who the prince is going to be. Then she grew up, and it's the weirdest thing how time just passes. It just does. It's the most predictable truth of our existence, but it always is a surprise. Then she met Zack Now there's a promise, and one day there will be a union and between that day and this day, there's hope. You know, marriage is a good hope. Not for everybody. Not the best hope. Not the ultimate hope. Sometimes people put their ultimate hope there, and they end up here or they end up here. Health is a good hope. Not the ultimate hope. Having a long life is a good hope. Not the ultimate hope. Work is a good hope. Not the ultimate hope. What do you do when what you're hoping for doesn't work out? It happened to Joseph. It will happen for you. Maybe now, maybe tomorrow, maybe at the very end, it will happen. What do you do when you lose your family? What do you do when you lose your dream? What do you do when you get betrayed? What do you do when you are forgotten by your friends? What do you do when you languish in the pit? You can live in despair. You can howl and rage against the dark night. And many voices, many gifted voices, many very, very bright minds do this. You can live in resignation. Best we can do. Hedge my bets. Try to bank down my hopes. Don't think it really means anything, but it's not that big a deal. I can tough it out. I can make it to the end. One day, a man named Jesus walked the earth and said there was good reason to hold out for the big enchilada. Not a pleasant little marriage, not a nice little life. One day a man named Jesusand this is just through everything He said. He said through your suffering and pain you will yet taste the glory of God. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done. And then a terrible thing happened. They put Him in a trial. They hung Him on a cross. They laid Him in a tomb. Then the strangest thing happened. The Lord was with Him in the tomb. He does great in the tomb. He gets exalted to the highest place. It turns out so strange His life in the kingdom that all His suffering becomes His glory. Now there is a promise and one day there will be a union, and between that day and this day, there is hope. Prayer Heavenly Father, You know everybody in this room. You know our longings. You know our aches. You know our sufferings. You know our difficulties. You know where we despair. You know our resignations. You know our longing for hope. Father would You speak to each heart, whatever it is that that heart needs to hear. We pray in Jesus name, Amen.