WHAT WILL WE BE LIKE?

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What Kind of Person Will You Be In Ten Years?

  1. Ten Years Ago:
    1. World and Nation in 1997:
      • Princess Di and Mother Teresa died
      • Hale-Bopp Comet and Heaven’s Gate Cult
      • O.J. Simpson loses civil case
      • Nintendo 64 was the latest in video game systems
      • Dolly the sheep was cloned
      • Hong Kong returns to China
      • The first Harry Potter book was published
      • The term weblog or blog is invented
    2. Personally: I had just moved to Lake Jackson and began my first full time preaching job. Left Russellville and nearly 4 years of campus ministry. Ethan was not yet born (Sept. 1998). We had only been married for nine years. We had one child.

  2. What will the world be like in 2017? [Ten Years From Now]
    1. What will the River Valley be like?
    2. What will you be like?
      1. The most significant changes in this church, community, county will be in the type of people we become in the next decade.
      2. It’s important that we undergo that change collectively and individually. Both important.

  3. What will the world be like in 2008? [Next Year]
    1. What will the River Valley be like?
    2. What will you be like?
      1. The most significant changes in this church, community, county will be in the type of people we become in the next decade.
      2. It’s important that we undergo that change collectively and individually. Both important.

    Jeremiah 29 – RFC Banquet

  4. The Story of Joseph:
    1. The Time:
      1. There are about 2 decades from the time Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers and the time he met them again.
      2. But there was a little over one decade during which God changed Joseph’s life dramatically. (17 –30)
    2. Dreaming:
      1. Genesis 37:2-11. It all begins with a dream from God.
        1. Joseph may have been naïve, but he cannot deny the dream.
        2. The dream is not Joseph’s, but he sees the blessing of God in this dream.
        3. What dreams do we have? Are those God-given dreams? Would God be part of those dreams? Have you asked yourself what God could do with you in ten years?
      2. Dreaming the dreams of God may not be popular. Dreamers are not always well received. They fill people’s minds with adventurous ideas and cause discomfort.
        1. Yet despite the opposition and persecution of others, if the dream is of God, it cannot be stopped.
    3. Devotion:
      1. Genesis 39:1-23. Faithfulness to what is right no matter the circumstances.
        1. 39:9 – Joseph believed that adultery with Potiphar’s wife was not just disrespect toward Potiphar, but also God.
        2. But what had God done for Joseph? What harm if Potiphar never knew? If Joseph had been a bit cleverer, maybe he could have avoided being put in prison. Maybe if he had somehow appeased Potiphar’s wife without actually comitting adultery?
      2. Doing what is right may not always be rewarded, but unrighteousness makes us useless to God.
        1. Not because God is a wimp and a prude and faints before sin.
        2. Sin chokes out our spiritual nature. We become burdened and smothered by our guilt and selfishness and pride. We no longer become pliable in God’s hands.
    4. Diligence:
      1. Genesis 40:1-23. Waiting on the Lord with patience.
        1. How difficult it must have been for Joseph to be forgotten (v. 23).
        2. Although for Joseph it may have seemed par for the course.
          • hated by his brothers
          • sold into slavery
          • lied about and denied justice
          • thrown into prison
          • forgotten by one he helped.
        3. Joseph could have demanded special consideration for what he had been through. His past was really bad. He could have held all of this against Pharaoh, Potiphar, his brothers, even God.
          • and we might actually forgive him if he had!
          • but Jospeh never let his experience give him an exception clause.
          • Joseph saw the work of God in all that was happening and he remained dilligent. He persevered!
          • We will persevere for athletics, academics, and finances – why not for God’s purposes?

  5. Conclusion:
    1. The rest of the story: Genesis 45:1-11.
      1. God sent Joseph through his trials to save lives. (That’s the way of Christ!)
      2. Joseph saw the hand of God in those 22 years since his enslavement.
      3. It was all for the good of God’s people – It was for our good.
    2. Questions:
      1. What if Joseph had shut up about his dream? What if he had remained silent about the will of God?
      2. What if Joseph had submitted to Potiphar’s wife?
      3. What if Joseph had forsaken God while in prison? What if he had denied the gift God had given him to interpret dreams? (It got him into trouble, why bother?)
    3. The kind of people we are in ten years depends on dreams, devotion, and diligence.
      1. But don’t think it is simply up to us to make it happen.
      2. It is up to us to ask God to use us, to respond to his initiative, to trust him, to remain faithful.
      3. In ten years I pray we are God’s people.

Chris Benjamin

West-Ark Church of Christ, Fort Smith, AR
Evening Sermon, 30 December 2007

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