Great Steps of Faith: Talents and Gifts
Genesis 50:15-21; 1 Corinthians 12:4-11
A Sermon delivered by Thomas J. Boone, PhD
Central Presbyterian Church, Mobile, September 23, 2007

A thought occurred to me this week. If we believe that God’s omniscient, then He must be able to hear each of our excuses. “My children have too much homework;” “I don’t have enough time;” “I’m just not feeling up for that;” “My parents are sick,” or “It’s football season.” Circumstances in life abound, but how do we know when our excuses are God-honoring or when they’re simply our way of avoiding giving back to God the spiritual gift He has put into us to use?

Each of us faces seasons when circumstances prevent us from doing what we know is a good thing for God. Several years ago I was over my head in the class phase of my doctoral work. I had time for nothing but studying, classes, and occasional R&R with friends to clear the head. It was an odd to say “no” to people who knew I had gifts in ministry and wanted my help, but I simply couldn’t do it. Saying “no” to opportunities of service isn’t what I’m talking about today, though.

God has given each of us gifts and talents, and we’re supposed to use that gift whenever He asks us to use it because that gift belongs to Him. It may not be that the church receives that gift for a season or two, but we’re always supposed to glorify God through our gifts and talents. So when we lean on our excuses to the point that the church suffers, or individual members bear nearly the full weight of the work, that’s a sign that something’s amiss. When we lean on our excuses so much that people don’t know if we’re members of the church anymore, that’s a sign that something’s amiss. Continually blocking God from using His gifts through us comes from a basic mistrust in God to be able to provide no matter what the circumstance may be.

Joseph had a lot of self-centered reasons for saying “no” when the time came for him to use the gifts and talents God had given him. He was one of several brothers, and his dad’s favorite. One day out of jealousy they beat him to near death and sold him to some slave traders who then hauled him away to Egypt. Once free, now a slave in the house of Potiphar, an Egyptian nobleman. “Use me? No thanks. You’ve done nothing for me, God, so why should I do anything for you?” he might have been tempted to think.

Joseph could’ve sunk into depression. Whatever gifts God had given Joseph wouldn’t be an expression of a free person’s voluntary service to God. Joseph could’ve grumbled about his condition, but eventually Joseph impressed Potiphar so much that he made Joseph the head household servant. Joseph’s command in the house was equal to Potiphar’s. Things were going well but one day Potiphar’s wife tempted him to sleep with her. His response is telling: “How could I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” Evidently Joseph had retained his faith. God had placed Joseph in a situation where his gift in administration could shine and eventually serve as a witness to the Lordship of God in his life.

When life brings too much pain into our lives its tempting to make excuses. The business begins to falter, cancer strikes, divorce happens, alcoholism wreaks havoc on the family, and the last thing we feel we have time for is yet another commitment. But faith is a commitment to let God use the gifts He’s planted in us however He wishes, whenever He wishes. Joseph had every good reason to curse God at the most or at least to say “I can’t do anything anymore,” but he didn’t. Instead, when life handed him a tough hand, as it can do with each of us, Joseph decided to obey God still by bringing glory to God through his gifts and faith.

But that’s not the end of Joseph’s story. As a result of saying “no” to Potiphar’s wife and “yes” to God, Joseph ended up in prison, a dark, dismal dungeon. What a kick to the gut that must’ve been. The story began with Joseph enjoying freedom as the number one-loved son. The tide turned as he faced abuse from brothers, then as a slave, and just as he began to see some promise, he ended up in jail because he did the right thing in God’s eyes.

How could God use Joseph in prison? Even today prison isn’t a pleasing place nor do I imagine it to be an environment of opportunity as a productive member of society. Even more so at that time prison was a place to survive, not a place to enter gleefully expecting God’s glory to shine. Yet, Joseph discovered that even in prison, stripped of all freedom and simple pleasures, even there God’s gifts could shine through Joseph’s life. It simply took a heart of obedience and willingness to let God shine through the gifts he had given him anywhere and at anytime.

You see, while in prison Joseph discovered that he not only had the spiritual gift of administration, but interpretation as well. Two people who had served the king of Egypt were in prison with Joseph. One day they had troubling dreams and Joseph told them that with God’s help he could interpret the dreams so they told them to Joseph. Joseph could’ve just kept his mouth shut to survive, or he could’ve concentrated on complaining and being angry. Instead he decided to let God shine in a dark place through the gift that he had given him. One of the men benefited from the interpretation and was released to serve the Pharaoh, but he forgot about Joseph as soon as he was out of prison. Joseph remained in prison for two years as a result of this man’s negligence.

Two years in a smelly, rotting, and fear-laden prison keeping company among people some of whom Joseph undoubtedly found revolting and others who evoked much compassion yet died. Two years of helping other people, but getting no help himself. Two years isn’t a long time, but it’s long enough to surrender to despair. Two years of enduring hardship is enough time to nurture reasons against ever be useful to God again. If you’ve been there you know how heavy and faith-trying two years of loneliness, despair, and heartache can be.

But apparently two years wasn’t enough to strip Joseph of his heart’s desire to serve God no matter what the cost. After two years had passed, Pharaoh had a dream that troubled him and no one was able to interpret it. Enter the man who had earlier benefited from Joseph’s interpretation. He said to Pharaoh, “I remember my faults today” and he told him about Joseph at last after two years. Pharaoh summoned for Joseph immediately from what the text describes as the dungeon. He had a lot of cleaning up to do and new clothes were put on him so he could appear before Pharaoh, but as tarnished as his exterior had become his interior reflected God. Joseph used God’s gift to interpret Pharaoh’s dream...the same Pharaoh by whose hand he had suffered in the dungeon dedicated for his enemies. Joseph used God’s gift without glaring at the forgetful servant. He simply used God’s gift and as a result Pharaoh heard God’s warning regarding a seven-year famine. He upgraded Joseph from dungeon prisoner to one of primary overseers of Egypt’s land to manage the food in preparation for the coming drought.

Joseph responded to the opportunity to use God’s gifts in him whenever he was asked to do it. This is the reason that Joseph is admired as one of Israel’s great patriarchs, and why he is counted as one of the great men of faith in God’s history with humanity. What is more, he used his gift without thought of reprisal or reward.

Nowhere do we see this more in the story that follows Joseph’s appointment as an Egyptian overseer. Remember the brothers who had beaten him and sold him off as a slave? Well, they were affected by the famine, too, and as a result they had to come to Egypt since it was the breadbasket of the world. And who, of all people, do you think they had to ask for wheat? Joseph, but by this time so many years had passed that they didn’t recognize him even though he recognized them. Had it not been for them the years as a slave and his dungeon existence wouldn’t have happened.

You know where I’m headed with this. Among the myriads of excuses that we can come up with to prevent God from using His gifts through us, on the top of the list are other people. We’ve been too scarred by someone else maybe. Or maybe we have someone else to take care of over and over and over again. Or maybe someone else’s homework and schedules get in the way. For Joseph it was simple: if God brought the occasion for His gifts to be used, then Joseph wasn’t going to let anyone else be a reason to stand against God’s pleasure.

The passage I read from 1 Corinthians contains good words about the use of God’s gifts in the body of Christ, which is the church. If you’re sitting here and believe in Jesus you have a spiritual gift. Spiritual gifts belong to God and are on loan to us, and when God asks you to use them, you must use them. So the basic message from Joseph is to stop it with the excuses and simply let God use His spiritual gift through you. Excuses focus on the negative, and while God certainly understands this, He wants our focus to be on Him. He called Joseph to use his gifts even in times of duress, and Joseph made no excuses. He just obeyed.

And the result? A faith that has been lauded for generations, and expressed most clearly in these verse: “Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good.” He says this to his brothers who most people would like to see put into the same dungeon that was Joseph’s home for two years plus some. In Joseph we have the model of faithful stewardship regarding God’s gifts in us no matter what or when. No matter who trampled on Joseph that wasn’t enough to stop him from being a willing servant to God. Despite years of trials and loneliness, these weren’t enough to stop Joseph from saying “yes” to God. No matter what circumstances surrounded him Joseph remained God’s humble servant and when God intended His gifts to be used through Joseph, Joseph stepped up rather than bowed out.

God still intends to use His spiritual gifts through people like you and me. God has something to achieve through us, and He’s given us spiritual gifts to do it. Are we willing though, to let Him do what He wants through us when the time comes? Or, will we keep making excuses to prevent Him from using His gifts through us?

For the next few weeks we’re focusing on our individual stewardship to the church, which encompasses many things. At its heart, though, stewardship is about your faith. So often we get caught up on the timing of things, or our circumstances not being right. If Joseph had waited until everything was right he’d have died in the dungeon. Think about that. There are seasons when your “no” is even holier than your “yes.” But, as we look to Joseph in the Old Testament and Paul’s mandate that we use God’s gifts to build up the body of Christ our “no’s” must transform into “yeses.” That’s what it means to be people of faith, because only people of great faith pass the tests of faith when it’s easier to count the cost than it is to see the glory. Hallelujah. Amen.