Summary: Message detailing some stories about prisons and connecting it to the life of Joseph, then finally directly it back to our own lives.

PRISON

INTRO: I teach US History, and when I get to the 1950’s and 1960’s I begin studying a whole lot of demonstrations.

There’s demonstrations like a Lunch Counter Sit-In, a march over a bridge in Selma, Alabama. There are demonstrations at Kent State protesting the Vietnam War, and demonstrations protesting…well…family values at Woodstock. Since then, I saw a man demonstrating outside a car show playing the ukelele, who happened to drive in a car to his protest. I saw a photo of naked Australians spelling out NO WAR in the sand to give a message to George W. Bush in 2003. I think the oddest demonstration I’ve ever heard about is when German farmers protested falling milk prices by spraying cops right in the face with milk…squeezed directly from the cow!

But you know what is the single greatest demonstration in the world? The single greatest demonstration in the world is when someone displays the love of Christ to the least of these.

And who are the least of these? Well, widows, orphans, and….PRISONS

BIBLE VERSE: Hebrews 13:1-3

Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. 2 Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. 3 Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.

BECAUSE THIS WEEK’S LESSON IS ABOUT PRISON: THIS LESSON WILL DEAL WITH PERHAPS THE MOST FAMOUS PRISONER IN THE BIBLE: JOSEPH.

BIBLE VERSE: GENESIS 37

1 Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.

2 This is the account of Jacob’s family line.

Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad reportabout them.

3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him. 4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.

5 Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more.6 He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: 7 We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”

8 His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.

9 Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”

10 When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?” 11 His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.

Joseph Sold by His Brothers

12 Now his brothers had gone to graze their father’s flocks near Shechem, 13 and Israel said to Joseph, “As you know, your brothers are grazing the flocks near Shechem. Come, I am going to send you to them.”

“Very well,” he replied.

14 So he said to him, “Go and see if all is well with your brothers and with the flocks, and bring word back to me.” Then he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron.

When Joseph arrived at Shechem, 15 a man found him wandering around in the fields and asked him, “What are you looking for?”

16 He replied, “I’m looking for my brothers. Can you tell me where they are grazing their flocks?”

17 “They have moved on from here,” the man answered. “I heard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’”

So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan. 18 But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him.

19 “Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other. 20 “Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.”

21 When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. “Let’s not take his life,” he said. 22 “Don’t shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him.” Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father.

23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the ornate robe he was wearing— 24 and they took him and threw him into the cistern. The cistern was empty; there was no water in it.

25 As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelitescoming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt.

26 Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? 27 Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed.

28 So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.

29 When Reuben returned to the cistern and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes. 30 He went back to his brothers and said, “The boy isn’t there! Where can I turn now?”

31 Then they got Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood.32 They took the ornate robe back to their father and said, “We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son’s robe.”

33 He recognized it and said, “It is my son’s robe! Some ferocious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces.”

34 Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days. 35 All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “No,” he said, “I will continue to mourn until I join my son in the grave.” So his father wept for him.

36 Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard.

FOR THOSE THAT DON’T KNOW, JOSEPH ENDS UP IN A PRISON, THEN A SLAVE, THEN FINALLY BELIEVE IT OR NOT A HIGH RANKING OFFICIAL….

FACTS ABOUT JOSEPH….

1) Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers, and many people have a hard time believing how biological family members could do so much damage to each other. Well, it actually isn’t all that uncommon. In the old days, because the heritage of the family and household fell into the hands of one male and not any of the others, it would have been unwise to divide up the property. So, all the money went into one account.

HAVE YOU HAD ANY DISPUTES WITH YOUR SIBLING? HOW? WHY? ANY JEALOUSY OVER A SIBLING?

2) Joseph came from what you would call today…a blended family. According to scripture, he had 12 brothers birthed up 4 different women. Does being the youngest of a giant blended family make him insignificant?

DO YOU HAVE A BLENDED FAMILY? HOW HARD/EASY IS IT TO GET ALONG?

3) Joseph was sabotaged by having big dreams.

WHAT ARE YOUR DREAMS? HAS ANYONE EVER STOOD IN THE WAY OF YOU ACHIEVING YOUR DREAMS?

4) BIBLE VERSE: ROMANS 8:28

“We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to their purpose.”

DO YOU BELIEVE THAT? DO YOU REALLY BELIEVE THAT?

*Leaders, for the record, this is one of the key verses that separates the believer from the unbeliever. The rain falls on both the just and unjust, but the reaction to the saved soul varies differently from saved person to saved person.

THOUGH GOD IS IN CHARGE OF THE UNIVERSE…AND THOUGH GOD WAS WITH JOSEPH (EVEN IN PRISON)…WHO ULTIMATELY WAS THE SPIRITUAL FORCE BEHIND HIS PERSECUTION?

*But what about those raised in a tough situation?

BEING RAISED IN A TOUGH ENVIRONMENT IS NO EXCUSE

Several years ago, there was a famous study done by Victor and Mildred Goertzel, entitled “Cradles of Eminence” where they examined the backgrounds of 300 highly successful people.

People like:

· Winston Churchill,

· Franklin D. Roosevelt

· Helen Keller

· Albert Schweitzer

· Clara Barton

· Gandhi

· Einstein,

· and Freud.

Among the things they studied were how these prominent individuals grew up. And what they found was surprising:

* They discovered that 3/4s of the children endured poverty, or broken homes, or were raised by parents who rejected them, were over possessive, or dominating.

* Nearly all the writers - 74 out of 85 writers of fiction or drama and 16 of the 20 poets - came from homes where they experienced “tense psychological drama”. In other words, their parents didn’t get along and screamed and abused each other.

* And over ¼ of these great people suffered from physical handicaps such as blindness, deafness, or crippled limbs.

It makes one wonder if the kind of home life these men and women endured as children influenced the type of people they became.

CLOSE

THE WRECKERS AT NAG’S HEAD

Just off the shore of North Carolina on the island of Cape Hatteras is a village known as Nag’s Head, a small shoreline town where, back in the 1800’s, the “wreckers” lived. These “wreckers” made their living gathering up parts and cargo from ships that had run aground in the night. But these ships didn’t run aground accidentally. No, they were lured into the rocks by these “wreckers” – deceitful men who had fastened a lighted lantern onto the head of an old nag – a horse (thus the name Nag’ Head) – and would then lead the old horse up and down and back and forth on the edge of Diamond Shoals beach. Ships out at sea would mistake the bobbing lantern for the stern light of a ship that they supposed had found safe passage through the mid-Atlantic, and they would, in turn, head in that direction, only to run aground on the rocks. With nowhere to go, the crew and the ship were no contest for the wreckers, who would pillage the ship and all its cargo. In fact, “wrecking” became a thriving business in Nag’s Head, even though it was built on treachery. Even now guests to Nag’s Head can see old homes built and furnished with the material taken from the more than 2,300 ships that were misguided and ultimately destroyed.

Here’s the deal: We talked about prisons tonight, and that is obviously a unique topic for youth ministry. But behind every prisoner was first a thought that wrecked their mind. And as Christians, we face a wrecker, and this wrecker has a name. His name is Lucifer, Satan, the Devil, Old Scratch and 1000 other names he goes by depending on who He is talking to or about. Don’t get caught by the Wrecker, devout your life to Christ. For God’s sake, do it now.

Sources:

Stiles, Todd. Trusted with a Prison, Sermon Series: Lessons from the Life of Joseph, Sermoncentral.com.

Strite, Jeff. God Was With Him. Sermon Series: The Mystery of Egypt, Sermoncentral.com.