Coated - Pt. 2 - With
Introduction We are combating hopelessness. We are challenging you to quit quitting. Give up giving up. Paul told us we could be overflowing with hope. So we have begun to tell you why we should have hope. You can have hope because our Father prefers you. You are His favorite. We are coated with preference. He is for us!
Last week I read to you the familiar account of Joseph receiving the coat from his father that represented his father's preference. But I also brought to your attention the tough things that Joseph then faced due to his brother's jealousy. You know the account. Joseph is thrown into a pit. Sold into slavery. Winds up in the house of an Egyptian official. We know the official’s wife wanted Joseph but Joseph refused and her subsequent lies sends Joseph to prison (how many know that people are more comfortable with your lack of integrity than they are with character?). However, what we miss are the statements made prior to Joseph's imprisonment and then what is said about him when he has been in jail for a length of time. It is these statements that reveal why we should have hope not only due to preference but for another very real reason. See if it is obvious. It is made immediately after he arrives in Egypt.
Text: Genesis 39:2-3, 20-23
The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did.Joseph’s master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined. But while Joseph was there in the prison, the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did. You will remember that I told you that His preference will not keep you out of trouble. That is why you must also know that not only are you coated with preference but Joseph teaches us that we are...
1. Coated with presence.
So how do we continue to recognize His favor when our coating of preference seems to have no bearing and no effect on our circumstance? How does my heart remain full of hope when my world seems to be crumbling around me? How do I continue to have hope when my dreams are crushed? How do I have hope in my heart when my heart is broken? When preference seems to be questionable or to come up short we must remember that we are coated with something even greater . . . Presence!
Even when the outward, visible manifestation of his prefferedness was missing God's presence was never in question. In moments when he was falsely accused and unjustly imprisoned, totally forgotten and forsaken by those around him God's presence was there.
David apparently put high stock in God's presence. Remember his statement . . . In Psalm 139:7-12? "Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you."
David is testifying to the persistence of His presence. I want you to value His preference. I want to make sure you never take that for granted! However, I am concerned that too many of us have elevated His preference over His presence. The issue with that is what happens when His preference isn't evident? What happens when, as His favorite, He directs your path into a place that isn't pleasurable? What happens when your steps are ordered into a situation that is worse than stinky . . . it is flat out stanky? It is then that most of us question our coatedness and then hopelessness takes hold. David knew it. Joseph knew it. We need to know it. The most significant promise we have. The most important and meaningful coat we have been given is His presence. Because if it wasn't for His presence then when our bed is hell our hope is lost. If it wasn't for His presence then darkness would black out our hope. But the greatest coat you have is that Jesus Himself declared that He will never leave you nor forsake you!
He was so determined to remind us of this coating that He gave His own Son a name to remind us. Have you ever thought about that? Of all the names He had at his disposal and that were an option to put on His son He declares He is to be called "Emmanuel" . . . God with us! I am thankful today that God is not only for us (If God is for us then who can be against us - which speaks to His preference) I am even more thankful that He is with us! Right in the midst. Right in the middle. Right in the ring. Right in the fight!
You are coated this morning in presence. You may say what good does His presence do me? Why should that give me hope? Just a side note before I give you the hope producing side effects of His presence and just say this - If He is with you then that means you are not alone which means you head off the first principality of isolation which makes it more difficult for the others to get a foothold.
His presence means peace.
You can rest your head on satin or cement and know that He is with you. Isaiah 41:10 - So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. - The absence of fear equals peace.
His presence means protection.
Joseph himself declares - What the enemy meant for evil God turned to good (Genesis 50:20). Paul had this revelation in Acts 18:9-10 One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: "Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. 10 For I AM with you, and no-one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city."
His presence means provision.
Joseph is positioned to produce provision for not only his own needs, but the entire nation and ultimately we discover in Genesis 45:5, 7 that Joseph knows His presence brings provision for his family. "And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance." His presence ensures provision. He must live up to His name - Jehovah Jireh. If He is there provision must also be there. It is who He is.
His presence means promotion.
Joseph is promoted in the palace and in the prison all because of one reason . . . God is with him. Because we have been trained to give our very best in every situation as a representative of God it is inevitable we will be promoted. Are you saying I will be the boss? No! I am saying since you are His you will do your best and you will show His excellence to those around you and even if you are never the boss you will be promoted in the esteem of those around you.
An Athenian orator writing in the second century to the Emperor Hadrian said; “These Christians who know and trust their God are prepared for anything that comes their way for they believe that no matter what happens to them in the future their God will always be there”.
Come on I hope by now you have come to grips that He is for you. However, you must relearn and recall that He is with us. We need to rehearse the promise that I will never leave you and I will never forsake you. Lo I am with you always. He is here. Come on tell your neighbor I am glad you are here but I am even more thankful that He is here.
Today I declare you can have hope because He is with you!
So on the morning you wake up to a life that went a different direction than you planned or would have chosen He is here.
On the day you find yourself doubled over in pain He is here.
In the moment of life when hell is more apparent than heaven He is here.
When man does their dead level best to destroy He is here.
Facing sickness? Facing pain? Facing foes? Facing death? Facing financial ruin? Facing lack? Facing fake? The good news. The hope we have. The reason you can continue going, fighting, rebounding is because you are never alone. In the fire - He is there.
Can't find His presence? You can't escape His presence. You are coated. You can't disrobe. You can't get away.
