I think all of us have graduated from “the school of hard knocks”. And since we are pretty smart people, I am sure we have learned many lessons in that school, and these lessons can make excellent testimonies – if we survive them.
But there is an easier way to learn; a better way that is much less painful and frustrating. God’s word is full of what men and women of old went through, and the Bible uses their experiences as examples of how we should be doing things in different times of our lives.
1 CORINTHIANS 10:11 says,
‘All these events happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us, who live at the time when this age is drawing to a close.’
We’ve all heard the story of Joseph and the coat of many colors. Joseph was a great example of a man who lives by Godly standards, and he is also an example of how living like that can and will be rewarded greatly by God. Today, let’s take a quick walk through the Bible to see what lessons we can learn from Joseph and what he went through.
1. WE MUST HAVE FAITH IN GODLY DREAMS
To recap; Joseph’s story began with a dream when he was just 17 years old. He knew the dreams that he was having were from the Lord and they revealed God’s purpose and plans for his life.
In GENESIS 37:5-12, we see his story unfolding.
‘One night, Joseph had a dream and promptly reported the details to his brothers, causing them to hate him even more. “Listen to this dream” he announced. “We were out in the field tying up bundles of grain. My bundle stood up, and then your bundles all gathered around and bowed low before it.”
“So, you are going to be our king, are you?” his brothers taunted. And they hated him all the more for his dream and what he had said.
Then Joseph had another dream and told his brothers about it. “Listen to this dream” he said. “The sun, moon, and eleven stars bowed low before me!”
This time, he told his father as well as his brothers, and his father rebuked him. “What do you mean?” his father asked. “Will your mother, your brothers, and I actually come and bow before you?” But while his brothers were jealous of Joseph, his father gave it some thought and wondered what it all meant.’
Some people think Joseph made a mistake when he told his family about the dreams, and others think Joseph used the dream to taunt his brothers, but I think that he knew they were from God, and he was so excited that he couldn’t wait to share it with his family.
2. WE MUST KNOW OUR GODLY PURPOSE
God created Joseph for a divine and unique purpose, and He showed Joseph what it was in a dream. You were also created for a divine and unique purpose. God may not show you what it is in a dream like He did with Joseph, but if you become determined to seek His face and plan for your life, He will reveal it to you.
As long as you are content to live your life without knowing what God has planned for you, God will not show you. If you are not fulfilled in your life, even if things are going well, then don’t put it off any longer! Don’t settle for anything less than knowing what God’s personal plan is for you.
EPHESIANS 5:17 says,
‘Don’t act thoughtlessly, but try to understand what the Lord wants you to do.’
Not only will pursuing your vision with God bring fulfillment in your life, it will also help keep you focused on living a Christian life. We see that Joseph’s vision kept him focused during storms and that brought a measure of peace into his life that would not have been there had he not had a vision.
PROVERBS 29:18 tells us,
‘When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild. But whoever obeys the law is happy.’
3. WE MUST UNDERSTAND OUR BLESSINGS
When you know and follow the Godly vision in your life, you will be blessed no matter what physical circumstances you find yourself in. That is what happened to Joseph.
He was hated by his brothers and sold to slave traders from another country. We would look at these circumstances and think that Joseph was anything but blessed, but we read differently in -
GENESIS 39:2 -
‘The Lord was with Joseph and blessed him greatly as he served in the home of his Egyptian master. Potiphar noticed this and realized that the Lord was with Joseph, giving him success in everything he did. So, Joseph naturally became quite a favorite with him. Potiphar soon put Joseph in charge of his entire household and entrusted him with all his business dealings.
Here we have Joseph; a young slave from another country who has absolutely nothing but his vision, and he is standing next to Potiphar, his wealthy and powerful owner, yet the Bible records for all time that Joseph is the one who is blessed and prosperous.
Last week, I said that God is the One who is responsible for everything you have, you aren’t. We need to understand, however, that true prosperity has nothing to do with wealth. True prosperity is having God’s favor upon your life.
DEUTERONOMY 8:18 tells us –
‘Always remember that it is the Lord your God who gives you power to become rich, and He does it to fulfill the covenant He made with your ancestors.’
Joseph was prosperous because he knew that real prosperity only came from God, and that enabled Joseph to operate on faith. Instead of complaining about his circumstances, he served others and gave eagerly to their needs. And, as he did so, God blessed him.
We read in the New Testament that Jesus was a servant. Jesus, the most powerful person who ever walked the earth was a server to other people. That is our example. As we serve others, God will bless us just as He blessed Joseph.
When we serve others, we need to do so joyously. Stop the murmuring and complaining and start praising and thanking God for the chance to do His work in your life. Recognize that God is with you and He anoints you to do the work of His kingdom here on this earth. When you do this, God will work to completion those things He has started in your life.
4. MAINTAIN YOUR CHRISTIAN INTEGRITY
In GENESIS 39:6, we read where Potiphar trusted Joseph. But that never kept Joseph from having great problems.
Joseph was in charge of Potiphar’s entire house, and then Potiphar’s wife started trying to seduce Joseph. That must have been very tempting to a slave in Joseph’s position, but Joseph was a Godly man and he maintained his integrity.
But this time, he was not rewarded for his worthiness. See, the wife got angry that she had been rejected and said that Joseph had tried to attack her. Potiphar listened to his wife and had Joseph thrown into prison.
In GENESIS 39:9, he tells the wife –
‘How could I ever do such a wicked thing? It would be a great sin against God.’
What do we focus on when we are in trouble? We always seem to focus on how much we are going to suffer, don’t we? What has always stood out to me in this story is the fact that Joseph was more concerned with God than he was with himself. Joseph was truly a God-dependent man. He knew that it was only through God that he would have any blessings or fulfillment in his life.
PSALM 75:6-7 tells us –
‘For no one on earth – from east or west, or even from the wilderness, can raise another person up. It is God alone who judges; He decides who will rise and who will fall.’
Joseph wanted to keep his integrity at all costs; even if it meant suffering another set back in life. He was a Godly man living a Godly life. Joseph sets an example that all Christians today should strive to follow.
5. GODLY PEOPLE CHANGE HISTORY
Last week, I preached about how seemingly everyday people have stepped forth with their dreams and visions and have literally changed history. Joseph is one of these men. His dependence on God would soon open another door that would impact the history of Egypt.
We won’t go into the specifics right now, but the king’s chief butler and baker offended him, so he had them thrown into prison where Joseph was. While there, they both had a dream but found no one available to interpret the dreams.
In GENESIS 40:8, Joseph demonstrated his dependence on God by saying –
‘Interpreting dreams is God’s business … tell me what you saw.’
The Lord gave Joseph the interpretations and both came to pass. The butler ended up keeping his job, and the baker ended up losing his head. Soon after, the Pharaoh had a dream and even the magicians could not interpret, but when the king learned that Joseph could interpret dreams, he sent for him.
Joseph told the king that he could only interpret the dream through God, and then the king realized that God’s Spirit was with Joseph, as seen in GENESIS 41.
God was getting ready to take His faithful servant from rags to riches. Sometimes God does that you know. Joseph found himself promoted to a position of power that was only below the Pharaoh himself.
You have heard me many times say that today’s Christians have been blessed to the point of being like spoiled rich kids. Whatever it is that we want, we want it our way and we want it now, don’t we? We have lost our patience, even for waiting on the Lord.
How long did Joseph have to wait between the time his dreams revealed his purpose and the time God let that purpose come to fruition? He had to wait approximately 17 years! There is something else that stands out here, also. That is the fact that during these years, many of which he was enslaved or imprisoned, Joseph did not show signs of getting impatient and begin murmuring that things were not going as he wanted them to go.
Joseph waited patiently upon the Lord, and the Lord rewarded Joseph greatly by not only giving him power and prestige, but by giving him the Godly insight to literally change the history of Egypt.
There is a verse that should be required reading for every Christian who finds themselves getting impatient with their circumstances.
GALATIANS 6:9 –
‘So don’t get tired of doing what is good. Don’t get discouraged and give up, for we will reap a harvest of blessing at the appropriate time.’
CONCLUSION
We do not have time to do this today, but if you continue to read through GENESIS, you will find that Joseph remained dependent on God, and he never lost his way in the midst of power and wealth. He kept his God-given vision alive, served others well and remained totally focused on the Lord God.
Why did he do this? Because he knew he had a special purpose given to him by God, and it had not yet been fulfilled. Joseph had focus and concentration. Joseph had patience and he sought God in his life.
Today’s average Christian turns away from thinking whether or not they have a special purpose. Today’s average Christian does not do anything to actively pursue God in their lives and we are far from focused.
We are like the lady who kept staring at the orange juice carton during breakfast. When her husband finally asked her why she was staring it at so long, and she said, “On the front, it says ‘CONCENTRATE’.”
We have been so blessed by our Lord that we only seem to be able to concentrate on what we want at the moment. We have been so blessed that we have all but forgotten what true patience means.
What would we have done if we had been hit with as many diversities as Joseph had suffered? Would we have hated our brothers for selling us into slavery? Would we have given in to Potiphar’s wife because it would have been the easiest thing to do at the moment? Would we have griped and moaned about being in prison for so long?
Joseph did none of these things. He refused to act in the flesh and stood firm in his conviction to God.
Through the example of Joseph, we can recognize the importance of seeking God, especially when things are going well in our life. Prosperity and success will test our character much more than hardship!
When you are in great trouble and your back is against the wall with nowhere else to go, you know you need help, and you know it must come from the Lord. But when everything is going really great, and you have no real problems in your life, most people forget all about God or living a Godly life.
Prosperity and wealth, even though they are blessings, have corrupted more men than hardship and despair. It is prosperity that makes us lose sight of our vision and then we start relying upon ourselves to bring us the good life. If you do not believe that, look at our nation today.
The real lesson found in the story of Joseph is that even in times of blessings, power, and wealth, Joseph waited patiently and in faith on the Lord.
But sometimes, we just don’t see the Lord working in our lives at all, do we? And when we go a period of time without seeing Him helping us or blessing us, what do we do? Generally speaking, we have a tendency to quit trying as hard to be faithful. We stop waiting on Him, don’t we?
For many years God had not spoken to Israel. For 400 years, God’s voice and presence had not been in the temple due to Israel’s idolatry. But during all those years, the work of the Priests had continued. They had done the sacrificial offerings and burned the incense, and kept doing all the things that had been commanded by God, even though He had chosen to let them prove their faithfulness in silence.
When we see no outright evidence of God working in our lives, we need to keep dong what God told us to do the last time He spoke to us. Keep doing it, and keep in faith that at the appropriate time, He will speak to us again.
Perhaps God is not talking to us at this time because He is sitting there patiently waiting for us to prove our faithfulness to Him – and to ourselves.
In ISAIAH 40:31, we are told,
‘They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall rise up and fly like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.’
Are we waiting on God while remaining faithful, or are we beginning to get unfocused and thereby getting unfaithful in our everyday thoughts and lives? God is an on-time, in-time, right-time, God – if we will only have faith and trust in Him and just keep on keeping on until the answer comes.
Don’t give up on your patience in God! When it seems that God is nowhere around, He is near! When it seems that your service has been for nothing – God’s best is yet to come!
May I have the Victory Singers come back on stage please?
If you are faithful to wait upon the Lord, He will be faithful to you by giving you your purpose in life.
Do you remember the dreams Joseph had where the bundles of grain bowed down to Joseph?
In GENESIS 43:24-26, we find Joseph’s fulfillment.
‘The brothers were then led into the palace and given water to wash their feet and food for their donkeys. They were told they would be eating there, so they prepared their gifts for Joseph’s arrival at noon. When Joseph came, they gave him their gifts and bowed low before him.’
The dreams did come true. His brothers ended up bowing down before him. How many of us would have been able to exercise that restraint in our lives?
INVITATION
* - Sermon courtesy of Andrew Wommack Ministries July, 2005, newsletter article entitled, "Lessons From Joseph" (with permission)
