Born Again? I Believe I Am. What Now?

"To this he replied: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Harran. ‘Leave your country and your people,’ God said, ‘and go to the land I will show you.’

“So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Harran. After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living. He gave him no inheritance here, not even enough ground to set his foot on. But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land, even though at that time Abraham had no child. God spoke to him in this way: ‘For four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated.

Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him and rescued him from all his troubles. He gave Joseph wisdom and enabled him to gain the goodwill of Pharaoh king of Egypt. So Pharaoh made him ruler over Egypt and all his palace.

“Then a famine struck all Egypt and Canaan, bringing great suffering, and our ancestors could not find food. When Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our forefathers on their first visit. On their second visit, Joseph told his brothers who he was, and Pharaoh learned about Joseph’s family. After this, Joseph sent for his father Jacob and his whole family, seventy-five in all. Then Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and our ancestors died. Their bodies were brought back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor at Shechem for a certain sum of money.

“As the time drew near for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt had greatly increased. Then ‘a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt." Acts 7:2-18


[This is the 6th part of this series, if you missed the first five, please take time to read them first so you could better understand where we are at with this message. See Link below]

Stephen

In the passage above, Stephen, a member of the church during its first year was speaking. The backdrop to this is that Stephen like other Spirit-filled believers was following in the footsteps of Jesus -- doing the miraculous and preaching the Word. And he like Jesus was seized and was being "interrogated" because of made up charges and the religious charge of blasphemy.

During his kangaroo trial, unlike Jesus who hardly spoke, Stephen "schooled" the religious leaders and those so called teachers of the law. Above we could read the first part of his "sermon" to them.

Abraham

Stephen started with the story of God calling Abraham to move to the land they will eventually possess and where his decendants will call home -- the Promised Land. (Mind you, Abraham and his wife was well advanced in years with no children yet).

Stephen then told of the story of Joseph, who was used to fulfill part of God's Promise.

(Joseph was Abraham's great grandson. He was a son of Jacob and Rachel, Jacob was a son of isaac and Rebecca, and Isaac was the son Abraham and Sarah).

Joseph

In the passage, Stephen narrated that for 400 years their forefathers were exiled from the land promised them and enslaved.

Because of the jealousy of Joseph's family towards him, they sold Joseph to be a slave and was taken to Egypt. Not mentioned was that he first ended up being the slave of Pharoah's captain of the guard. Joseph was imprisoned under false charges. He was eventually freed, he worked directly under Pharoah and became second in command of all Egypt.

All these was because the entire region had a severe famine. Egypt was spared of the consequences because Joseph was able to plan ahead for it under the wisdom and the spiritual gifts given him by the Spirit of God.

Eventually he was reconciled with his family and was able to bring them all to Egypt to save them from dying of starvation during the famine.

The first part of God's Promise has been fulfilled under Joseph. For 400 years, Abraham's descendants now numbered in the millions from the original 70 or so, got to be enslaved in a land not their own, mistreated by a people who now know nothing about Joseph and how he saved their forefathers from the famine.

God's Plan

You being a newly born again believer will have a similar story as that of Joseph. (It is best to read his story and of David's who we talked about in the fifth message of this series).

Like them, the life of new believers will have its share of ups and downs. There will be hardships which at the time is not easy to understand why. There will be times of prosperity, which will be an opportunity to bless people with. And all these, God will work together for their own good.

Take Away

Like them, new believers should hold on to the promises of God. Let them not forget that even though it might not look like it, God has plans to prosper them and not to harm them.

Everything they will go through (the good and the bad) will all be used for God's good purpose.

The new believer's response is to listen to the leading of the Holy Spirit, pray and call upon our Heavenly Father and read and learn from the Word.


Born Again Series