In this final message from Genesis, Jason Locke tells the story of Joseph and his brothers. After their father’s death, they feared Joseph’s retaliation for having sold him into slavery. With tears and words of forgiveness, Joseph shared these crucial words, “Although you planned it for evil, God intended it for good.” This message focuses on God’s higher purposes that thankfully extend beyond our flaws and imperfections.
Archive for Genesis
The biblical writers portray Joseph as a man of faith. He was faithful to God even in the face of great obstacles. When Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce him and then falsely accused him, Joseph chose to keep his integrity. Above all else, Joseph didn’t want to disappoint the God who gave his family the dream of blessing the entire earth. Jason Locke preaches from Gen 39:6-12.
Jacob’s family was dysfunctional, to state it mildly. Jacob favored Joseph above all his other sons, and they hated him for it. There’s an obvious problem with favoritism. But all of us need to feel as if we’re God’s favorite in order to love others as we should. Jason Locke thinks out loud about these issues in this week’s sermon from Genesis 37:1-4.
In Gen 28:10-17, Jacob finds himself totally alone and with nothing to support him. Fleeing for his life, Jacob is headed to find his relative Laban — who will try to turn him into an indentured servant. Put simply, Jacob is in a desperate place. At this moment, God speaks to Jacob in a dream. He sees a stairway to heaven and hears God speak promising words to him. Jason Locke looks at this text and at how God seeks to redeem us in the midst of life’s most difficult moments.
Shortly after the birth of Esau and Jacob in Genesis 25, you find that the family of Isaac and Rebekah became incredibly dysfunctional. Each parent had a favorite child. Jacob swindled his brother out of his birthright. Isaac tried to pass his wife off as his sister. Then Isaac decided to secretly bless his older son. In order to thwart Isaac’s deception, Rebekah hatched up an even more devious scheme. The result was that the whole family was in shambles as Esau vowed to kill his brother Jacob. Despite their obvious flaws, Rebekah did something right. She sent her son away to find a wife rather than allow him to marry one of the heinous Canaanites. Jason Locke describes the possibilities of parenting even when you as a parent may be far from perfect.
The bridge between death and hope is often tenuous at best. Folks face death every day. Dying communities. Dying ecosystems. Dying employment sectors. Dying churches. Dying loved ones. But the good news of Jesus Christ is that God works with the dead and dying to bring new life. The bad news for us is that the resurrection power of God is only visible in the face of death. For faithful people like Abraham and Sarah, the link between death and hope is laughter. This week’s sermon looks at the birth of Isaac.
Despite the obvious temptation to write Hagar and Ishmael out of the Abraham narrative, God acted to sustain them and even to make out of Ishmael a great nation. In these ancient stories of faith, who was good and who is bad? Did God only bless those who belonged to the chosen people? These questions and more form the backbone of Jason Locke’s sermon from Genesis 21.
Over half of the world’s population look to Abraham as the patriarch of their faith. What kind of a man was this from whom God established great nations, a multitude of people, and the global faiths of Judaism, Christianity & Islam? What can we learn from how God worked in Abraham’s life? Jason Locke points in these directions as he starts a new series on the great patriarchs from Genesis 12-50.