Oh, hey, how's it going, guys? Well, good evening, my friends. My name is, well, it depends on who you ask. Either Aaron or it's Chip.
I will respond to either. But I am so, so excited to be able to spend time together this week, just a little bit about who I am and where I come from. The reason I have two names is because I had my first name, Aaron, given to me by my mother when I was born. Like, most of you probably have a similar story with your name.
But then I spent about four years living and working here at Hume Lake, where I was given the name Chip. I was wagging Master Chip for a number of years. And I just have not lost the name Chip, so I'm still Chip. So you can call me either what?
I serve as a pastor down in a little town called Kingsburg, just down the hill from here. And I have a wife and two little boys. So they're camp names. I'll give you their camp names.
You can figure out their real names if you want to. And then maybe we can put them in the face. My wife's name is Clementine, and my sons are nuggets and bean. Those were their camp names when we were up here at camp.
So I don't know whether to encourage you to try to get my kids' names or to not. But I mean, we don't actually have to buy them, but I could though. So anyway, so, so excited to be able to be here with you guys. It's so, so excited to be able to open up God's word with you this week.
Because we're going to have a lot of fun. We're going to do a lot of really sweet things, really fun things. You guys are going to have a blast in your adventure classes. I know you're going to hear more about those in a little bit.
You're going to have a great time of recreation and free time. But ultimately, the highlight of camp is what we get to do right here in this room. As we come together, as we lift up the name of God in worship and in praise, and as we open up his word together and see how the God of the universe, the maker of heaven and earth, has revealed himself, shown himself to you and me through his word. So I'm so excited to be able to get to participate in that with you, opening up God's word, and seeing how God has shown himself to us.
So that's what we're going to do this evening. But before we do, let me pray for us, and then we'll jump into scripture together, OK? Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for this week that's ahead of us, this chance to walk through the life of Joseph and to see God, not just about this man named Joseph who lived so long ago, but to see the God of heaven and earth, to see God, to see how you interact with your people, with the world that you created, that how you continue to interact with your people and the world that you created today.
As we see your sovereignty, as we see your providence, as we see your plan working out throughout history, that plan that is still being worked by you and your sovereign goodness today. God, please help us to see that clearly, to trust in that, to come to know you better, to love you more, and to live lives of ever-increasing faithfulness to you, as we seek you through your word this week. Pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen. All right. This week, like I said, we're going to be looking at a story. And in some ways, this story is a part of a larger story.
So we're going to be looking at the story of Joseph's life. You guys have seen that already. You can't begin to play out through these videos and even the live production that we started with. Did you guys enjoy that opener?
It's always so fun. It's such a great job. I love to watch them. But those aren't just these silly skits or movies.
They're there to help us to know this story. And I know many of you, especially in Christian schools, you probably heard the story of Joseph's life before. But as we walked through this week, I want to see you see it in a little bit of a different story because Joseph's life, this story of Joseph, is not a story that is self-contained. It's not a story that stands on its own.
It's a story that's a part of a much bigger story. It's a story that's a part of a much bigger story because this entire book tells one great big story. From the very beginning to the very end, it's one great big story. And it's the story of God and the world that he made.
Now here's the thing about stories though. A good story never just really goes in a straight line. That's a boring story. A good story is full of twists and turns.
Anything that you don't expect. And the life of Joseph is absolutely no exception. The life of Joseph is full of twists and turns. How many of you guys have ever been in a maze before?
Anyone? Anyone like a corn maze or something like that? Well, about a year ago, I took my kids to a place called the Great Wolf Lodge. Have you ever been there?
I don't know if it's awesome or terrible. I've been a couple of times and I still don't know yet because I still have the smell of chlorine like burned into my nostrils. But also we had a lot of fun. So at the Great Wolf Lodge, they have a mirror maze.
Have you ever been in a mirror maze before? And the thing with a mirror maze is that it's not exactly like a normal maze. Right, a normal maze, you get to the end of a corridor or a hallway and you go, OK, do I turn left? Or do I turn right?
And you have to make the decision. Which way am I going to turn? The thing with a mirror maze is you can't always tell exactly when the turns are. And what makes that even better in a mirror maze is when you go through a mirror maze with a six-year-old who's very excitable and really wants to run through that maze.
So this was a few years back. I don't know if you were six or seven, but my son was so excited. Oh, no, I did it. I didn't mean to do it and I did it.
Oh my goodness. I even kind of did the motion, didn't I? Man, I'm sorry, that was actually unintentional. Anyway, so my son who was seven, no other age, but seven.
We get into this mirror maze so that the Great Wolf Lodge and he takes off, right? He's ready to go. He's so excited and he runs and he goes to take a turn and boom, right into the mirror, right? Because the thing with a mirror maze isn't just that you don't know what direction to go.
It's that you don't know when the turns are coming. You don't know when the twists and the turns are coming in. And in a lot of ways, that's how good stories are. Good stories have those twists and those turns.
They go directions that you don't see coming. Well, in a lot of ways, that's Joseph's life. But Joseph's life is just one small part of the story. The story that we're gonna look at this week is a much grander one.
And it's one that in fact starts well before Joseph is born. You see the story of Joseph starts in Genesis 37, but tonight I want us to start all the way back in Genesis chapter one. Because in Genesis chapter one is where we are introduced to the main character of our story. And that main character, our story, is not Seth, right?
It's not a young man named Joseph. No, the main character of our story is the character, the person, when I say story, when I say character, that doesn't mean that these are fictional people or fictional events. No, these are real people that happened, and real events that happened in real places at real times, but the main character of our story, we're introduced to in Genesis chapter one, verse one, when it says this. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
There it is. In the first line of the story, we're introduced to the main character and who is it? God. In the beginning, who created the heavens and the earth?
God. In the beginning, God. All right, I told you this entire book, the entire book of the Bible, the entire scripture, it's all one story from the very beginning to the very end. In the beginning, God.
That's our main character throughout this whole story. In the beginning, God. So we're introduced to our main character right up front. And throughout the week, we're going to see how God, the main character of the great big story, plays a role in Joseph's life.
We're going to see exactly what that role is. But before we do tonight, what I want us to do is I want us to learn a little bit about that main character. In the beginning, God. That's who the main character is.
But if that's who he is, then what is he like? What is that main character like? What is God like? If he's the main character of this story, we should know a little bit about him.
So to do that this evening, I want us to turn out of the book of Genesis. And we're going to go into the book of Psalms. We'll be in Psalm 33. Psalm 33, if you want to turn there, go ahead and open up to Psalm 33.
And after we've walked through Psalm 33, we'll come back to Genesis. And we'll look at how this story plays out. But first, who is this main character of this great big story? You see it in Psalm 33.
Now I should say there are a million different places in scripture that I could go to show who this main character, who God is, what God is like. I've chosen Psalm 33 tonight, but there are a thousand other places we could turn to in scripture that would show us just as clearly who God is. But what we're going to see is we walk through Psalm 33, is we're going to see four different attributes or aspects, four different pieces of who God is, four different things that describe our main character in the story that we're walking through this week. Beginning in Psalm 33 verse one, listen to this.
Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous. Praise be fits the upright. Give thanks to the Lord with the liar. Make melody to him with the harp of 10 strings.
Sing to him a new song. Play skillfully on the strings with loud shouts. Then listen to this. And verse four, so those first three verses, that's just saying praise God.
Sing to him. He's deserving of your praise. But then listen to verse four, it's going to tell us why he's deserving of our praise. And he says this, for the word of the Lord is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness.
He loves righteousness and justice. And the earth is full of his steadfast love, the steadfast love of the Lord. So what's the first thing that shows us there? So that God is worthy to be praised.
He's worthy of our praise, our love, our adoration, our thanks. And then it says why? And the first thing it says is for the word of the Lord is upright, and all of his work is done in faithfulness. What does that mean?
It means simply this, that God keeps his promises. That first attribute of God that we see here in Psalm 33 is that God is faithful. Say that, God is faithful. God is faithful.
That means that he keeps his promises. The word of the Lord is upright. When God says he will do something, guess what? He does it 100% of the time.
The Bible tells us that God is true. That all of the words of his mouth are true. That if he says it, he will do it over in Deuteronomy. You don't have to turn there, but Deuteronomy chapter seven, verse nine, we read this.
No, therefore, that the Lord, your God is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations. Number one, God is faithful. This main character of our story is marked, first and foremost by this, his faithfulness, that he is faithful. His words are true.
What he says he will do, he will do. Then the Psalmist continues in Psalm 33, starting in verse six, he says this, By the word of the Lord, the heavens were made. By the breath of his mouth, all their hosts, he gathers the waters of the sea as a heap. He puts the deeps in storehouses.
Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him, for he spoke and it came to be. He commanded and it stood firm. See that God who is faithful, the God who keeps his promises, the God whose word is true, God who is faithful is also a God who is powerful.
He is faithful and he is powerful. It says by the word of the Lord, the heavens were made, by the breath of his mouth, all of their hosts. What does that mean? It means that God simply spoke and the heavens came into existence.
By the power of his word, all the hosts of heaven, that's the angels were made. Means that everything that exists in heaven and on earth, in all of creation was made by God with just the very power of his voice. Guys, this week, you guys are going to be blessed to have the time to study God's creation. You're gonna get to see some of the intricacy and the beauty of the world that God has made.
And as you're doing that this week, as you're studying the world that God has made, I want you to reflect on the fact that God made that simply by the power of his voice, that he spoke and boom, it sprung into existence, that by the power of his voice and his righteous upright hand, it stands firm. The Bible says that all things were made by him and through him and to him and that in him, all things hold together. Guys, God is not just a God who makes promises and is faithful to keep his word. He's a God who is powerful to keep his word.
The reason that he's faithful or the way that he's able to be faithful is because if he says it, he has the power to do it. Why? Because everything was made by him and through him and to him and for him and in him, all things hold together. He is the faithful God over heaven and earth.
And he is the powerful creator and ruler of all things. So it says in Genesis 1, 1, in the beginning, God did what? Created the heavens and the earth. Do you understand how profound that is?
In the beginning, God created everything that exists. From the smallest atom to the largest galaxy, God made it. He spoke it into existence by just the power of his voice. So this main character of our story, he's faithful, but he's also powerful, but that's not all.
We continue reading in the Psalm. The Psalmist tells us more about who this character, who this God, who this main person in our story is. It says this, the Lord brings the council of the nations to nothing. He frustrates the plans of the peoples.
The council of the Lord stands forever. The plans of his heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage. The Lord looks down from heaven.
And he sees all the children of man. From where he sits and thrown, he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth. There's this idea here of God sitting and thrown in the heavens above all of his creation. This is this idea of holiness.
Maybe you guys have heard this word before, maybe it's come up, right? The Kansas arts written on the front of your Bible, right? It says the what? The holy Bible.
And that word holy, what it means, it means something is set apart. It means something is set apart that it's different. When we say that God is holy, we mean yes, that he is holy in the sense that he is perfect and sinless. He's set apart from the rest of creation in that way.
But that's not ultimately what we mean. When we say that God is holy, we mean that God is of a completely different kind than anything else in all of creation. Why? Because everything that will set exists.
From you and me, to the mountains, to the trees, to the stars, to the sky, to duck-billed platypus, to an angel, all of those things are all put into one big category. Do you know what it is? Creation. Everything you can imagine in this world is put into that one category of what?
Creation. All the kings, all the rulers, all the authorities, all the nations, they're put into what? Category. Creation.
And there's only one other category. And in that other category, there's only one thing, one person. That category is create-tor. And the only thing in that category is God.
And so it makes the point here that he brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. That his power is over and above all other powers. That he sits in throne. We see a picture of God's holiness.
And Isaiah chapter 6, the prophet Isaiah, goes into the throne room of God. God gives him this vision of the throne room of God. And as Isaiah describes it, and Isaiah chapter 6, he sees God on this throne high and lifted up. It says that the train of his robe fills the temple.
It fills the heavens. The sound of his voice, the foundations of heaven tremble, they shake because God is so powerful. He's surrounded by angels on either side that are consistently throughout time, echoing these words, holy, holy, holy. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.
God is holy. He's completely unlike anything or anyone else. He's completely unlike any other power. He's not just in a different league.
He's playing a different game. He is a completely unique thing in all of existence, because he's the only thing that is not creation, but is create-tor. So we see that he is faithful. We see that he is powerful.
And we see that he is holy, separate, different, from everything else in all of creation, but the psalm doesn't stop there. Because listen to what we hear if we keep reading. Psalm 33, listen to verse 18, behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him. That fear is that's the stand in awe and reverence of him.
That's to understand his power and his beauty and his majesty. Says behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those whose hope in his steadfast love, that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive and famine. Our soul waits for the Lord. He is our help and our shield.
For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name, let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us even as we hope in you. Guys, this is the incredible thing about God. He's the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. He has no beginning and no end.
He always has been, he always will be. He rules and he reigns over everything. He is faithful, he is powerful, he is holy, and he is loving. The God of the universe, the King of Heaven and Earth, who made everything by the very sound of his voice, who holds all things together, who numbers the hairs on your head, he knows all, rules over all, and yet, he loves his people so deeply.
This word, it's translated here, is steadfast love in the Hebrew language that was originally written and the word is said. It's this powerful word, different people will translate it differently. Sometimes they'll say steadfast love, sometimes they'll say loving kindness, sometimes they'll say this overwhelming love. Guys, that powerful, faithful, holy God is also a profoundly loving God.
And listen, as we walk through the story of Joseph's life this week, Joseph's life is going to be an absolute roller coaster. There are twists and turns that you don't see coming. Time and time again, Joseph is going to run right into that glass wall. But all throughout that, what we'll see is the consistent presence of a faithful, powerful, holy, and loving God, the main character of the big story.
It's who he is. Here's the thing, he's not just the main character in the story, he's also the author of it. He's also the author of it. So let's look to that story now.
Back to Genesis chapter 1. Genesis chapter 1 in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. We continue, we go to Genesis chapter 2. And Genesis chapter 2, it zooms in on the peak of God's creation.
After God has made everything else on day six, God makes something special, something unique, something different than everything else that he's made, he makes people, Adam and Eve, men and women, he makes us in his image. The only thing he's in all creation, is the other said to be made in God's image are people. The mountains, the trees, the galaxies, the stars, the sky, the angels, the duck-billed platypi, none of them are said to be made in God's image, but people are, the masterpieces of his creation. He makes these people.
And in the very next chapter in Genesis chapter 3, those people that God made in his image to know him and to love him and to serve him, the very next chapter, they do the opposite. They sin against God, they break God's law, they seek after things other than God. And because of that, they are separated from God. Because God is holy and he's righteous and he's perfect.
And when God's people, Adam and Eve sinned, they became unholy and unrighteous and imperfect, and so they were separated from God. And from that point on, the Bible tells us through Adam's sin, sin entered into the world and death along with it. And so as we continue on in the story, what we see is we see this world that God made for his glory, these people that God made for relationship with him and we see them completely controlled by sin, completely given to sin. So Adam and Eve have kids and their kids sin.
They sinned so much that those first two children that Adam and Eve had, they end up, one of them ends up killing the other. And this goes on and on and on and sin spreads through the world and eventually God sends a flood. Because the world says that every intention of man's heart had become only evil continually. And so God sends a flood as punishment against the sin, but he saves a group of people from that punishment.
But then you know what happens? Sin spreads again. And we see this go on and on. And then in Genesis chapter 12, God comes to a man, not a perfect man, but a man named Abram.
And God makes a promise to Abram. I wanna read this to you in Genesis 12 verses one through three, it says this. Now the Lord said to Abram, go from your country to your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing.
And I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you, I will curse. And in you, listen to this, this is so important, in you, all of the families of the earth shall be blessed. So he makes this great promise to Abraham. Abraham, I'm gonna give you a land to live in.
I'm gonna grow your family into this great big nation. And even more than that, Abraham, through your family, I'm going to bless the entire world. What's the first thing we saw about God back in Psalm 33? It's like God is what?
God is faithful. So when God makes a promise, he keeps that promise. We continue on. We'll jump over to Genesis chapter 28.
And we'll see Abraham's grandson, a man named Jacob, whose name is later changed to Israel. And we see God repeating his promise that he made to Abraham, now to Abraham's grandson, Jacob. And he says this, in Genesis 28, starting in verse 13. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham, your father, and the God of Isaac, and the land on which you lie, I will give to you and your offspring.
And your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and they shall spread abroad to the west, into the east, into the north, into the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. God still intends to keep this promise. This great and powerful promise to bless the entire world through Abraham's family. And then Jacob goes on and he has sons, not one son or two sons.
He has a lot of sons, right? He has 12 sons, in fact. And that youngest son is a son named Joseph, whose life we're gonna look at this week. We'll read just the beginning of Joseph's story in Genesis chapter 37.
Says this, Jacob lived in the land of his father, so journings in the land of Canaan. And these were the generations of Jacob. Joseph, of Jacob, Joseph being 17 years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bill Ha and Zilpha, his father's wives, and Joseph read a bad report of them to their father.
Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he was the son of his old age. Probably not great, right? That dad is playing pretty clear favorites here, but we'll see how it plays out. So he loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he was the son of his old age.
And he made him a robe of many colors. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him, more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him. Now Joseph had a dream. And when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more.
And he said to them, here this dream that I have dreamed behold. We were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my chief arose and stood upright. It's like a bundle of grain. Joseph stands upright.
Let me see this. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my chief. And his brothers said to him, are you a deed to reign over us? Or are you a need to rule over us?
So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words. And then he dreamed another dream. And told it to his brothers and said, behold, I have dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun and the moon and 11 stars were bowing down to me.
But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, what is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to you and bow ourselves to the ground before you? And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept in mind this saying. So I told you Joseph's life is a roller coaster.
At this point, Joseph is on the lift hill. He's just gotten on the ride and things are going up, up, up. I'm the youngest. I'm dad's favorite.
I've got this really sweet jacket. Now I'm getting these dreams that all my brothers are gonna bow down to me. And even mom and dad are gonna bow down to me. Joseph's going up, up, up.
But if you know the story, if you know what happens next, he's about to take a very steep dive, isn't he? A turn that he doesn't see coming. But here's the thing. What we're gonna see is we walk through Joseph's life.
Is that Joseph's not the main character. Now the main character of the story of Joseph's life is not Joseph himself. Rather, it is the author of the story, the author of creation and the author has planned every twist, every turn, every climb, every drop, every loop, every double helix triple double court screw on that roller coaster of Joseph's life has been planned by the God that we saw in Psalm 33, a God who is faithful, who is powerful, who is holy and who is loving. He's holy and he's powerful.
He's over and above all things with the power to do whatever he wills. We combine those together, we have this word sovereign. It means that he is the king over heaven and earth, that he rules and reigns over all things. He's sovereign, he's faithful.
He's made his promises. He's promised to Abraham. He's promised to Isaac. He's promised to Jacob.
That's a promise that carries on through Joseph. He is faithful and he has a plan to make his promises come about. And he is loving. He is loving.
Something we're gonna see throughout Joseph's story is that even though there are hard, difficult, painful, scary, unexpected things that happen in Joseph's life, we see that that sovereign and faithful God is a loving God. And that even those difficulties, those pains, those heartaches, those sufferings in Joseph's life, God works them for good. That's our theme verse this week. The end of Joseph's story, Joseph utters these words to his brothers in Genesis 50, 20.
He says, as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good. Why? Because he is a loving, faithful and sovereign king. That's who our main character is.
The loving, faithful, sovereign Lord over heaven and earth. And we're gonna see how he shows himself in the life of Joseph, but not only that, we're gonna see how he shows himself in your life and in mine, let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that you show yourself so clearly through your word.
And God, we thank you that you show yourself so clearly through history, through the lives of people like Joseph, through the lives of people in scripture, but also in our own lives. Lord, you show your sovereign loving kindness in our own lives when we look for it. God, teach us to trust that you are who you say you are. That you are faithful, that you are powerful, that you are holy, that you are loving, that you are good, that you are sovereign.
Help us to understand, believe and trust in you. Lord, that we might rest in the fact that you are the author, not just of scripture, not just of the life of Joseph, but you are the author of all creation. You are the author of salvation. You are the author of our very lives.
Teach us to trust in those things, to trust in you. We pray this in Jesus name, amen.