E4 - Fulfilling Your Purpose
Genesis 37-50
Part of Formed by Peacemaking
May 27, 2024

The practice of peacemaking is doing the hard work of forgiving our past, forging new patterns, and framing our pain in order to fulfill our of loving God and others.

You cannot fulfill your in life if you aren’t committed to the hard work of .


Genesis 37:2-11

are the stories we tell ourselves.

Every Young Man Dreams of Becoming A:
-

– symbol of creativity.
- – symbol of courage.
- – Symbol of clarity.
- – Symbol of contentment.

With the wrong purpose:
- The King becomes a

– symbol of control.
- The Warrior becomes a – symbol of cruelty.
- The Prophet becomes a – symbol of crowd-pleasing.
- The Lover becomes an – Symbol of consumption.

Genesis 37:16-28

Genesis 39:20-23

Genesis 40:8, 14, 23

Genesis 41:39-40

Genesis 45:1-11

Genesis 50:15-21

1. Joseph the past.

2. Joseph new patterns.

3. Joseph his pain.

Joseph did the hard work of forgiving his past, forging new patterns, and framing his pain in order to fulfill his purpose of loving God and others.


Raise your from pleasure seeking and power hoarding to peacemaking.

Joseph’s story points to ’ story.

Joseph’s story can become story.

To experience true-self living we have to experience our personal Joseph journey. We must embrace our gains and especially our losses. We must be grateful, and we must grieve. We must find that God was always with us, even in the death of what we wanted most. But God gives us resurrected life. Our cross experiences still happen. Suffering continues in our world and in our lives. We are not exempt. Jesus is not the chaplain of the American dream. Our life in Christ is not a wand that magically changes what we lived; nor does it magically insulate us from pain in the future. We cannot change the events of our past any more than Christ can change the fact of his suffering. But by faith our cross experiences are reinterpreted. They are seen as a way for a new kind of life to be born. —Plass & Cofield


In your groups this week, you are going to go on your own Joseph Journey.
1.

out your story.
2. End with .