IS GETTING CANCELLED THE END?

Don’t forget to intentionally connect with one another, share testimonies and spend some time worshipping together.

Are there people who you are wanting to come and try church over the next few weeks? Why not pray for boldness to invite them.

Worship

In the talk on Sunday we looked at how Joseph was cancelled by those closest to him, but God did not cancel him. In fact he would be used to bring about the salvation of an entire nation.

As we worship this week, declare God's truth over your own life.

Song Suggestion:

Because of your love

Bible

Read Genesis 37:12-36.

Joseph is cancelled

Joseph is cancelled by his brothers.

"Cancel culture seeks to destroy sin, but it actually ends up destroying people in the process."

How does the brothers' behaviour make you feel? Where do you see glimpses of their attitude in your own life?

Joseph is abused and treated in the most appalling way. For many of us, this will trigger things that have happened to us. If you need to, talk to your life group about this and get some prayer.

God's sovereignty

There are a very strange set of "coincidences" that happen in this bible passage.

Joseph sets off for Shechem, a very remote place, to find his brothers, but they have moved on. In the middle of nowhere, a man appears who has a conversation with Joseph. This man just so happens to have been passing by Joseph's brothers at exactly the right time to hear them say they were moving on to Dothan, an even more remote place. When Joseph gets to Dothan and his brothers are planning to kill him, a group of Ishamelites just happen to be passing by.

If any of those "coincidences" had not happened, all of them would have ended up dead as Joseph would go on to save them and all of Egypt from starvation.

Where can you see the hand of God in your own life? Talk about some of the ways you have seen God's sovereign at work in your life.

How is Joseph's life a pattern for Jesus? Look at some of the similarities in this passage between Joseph and Jesus (stripped, beaten, sold for silver, taken to Egypt).

What is the difference between the cross and a Christian vision of dealing with sin compared to the secular concept of cancel culture?

How is Jesus the true and better Joseph?

Prayer

Where do you recognise yourself in the behaviour of the brothers?

Where have you been "cancelled" by others through family dysfunction, relational breakdown and need to bring this into the healing presence of God?

Give thanks for Jesus and his saving power!

Pray for one another to bring Jesus’ power, life and love to those around you.