Sermon Illustrations

DESPISED BECAUSE OF HIS BEHAVIOR

(Vv. 8-11)

Joseph was despised not for doing evil but for doing good. Joseph typifies the Lord in many ways. Sidlow Baxter observes that he was the beloved son, that he was the rejected servant, and also the exalted Savior. The way that he was despised for doing well certainly pictures the Lord Jesus Christ.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION: Jealousy is made up of the word lousy. Jealousy certainly is lousy… I see jealousy and selfishness almost as being “first cousins”. They are words that are so much alike to be different. A jealous person is probably a self-centered person. He envies someone else; because he thinks whatever is happening to someone else should be happening to him. I remember when I was a boy a man came to take pictures of me and my brother and he put my brother on the horse and I had to stay on the ground. No matter what the man tried to do to get me to smile, I would not. After we got the pictures back, I tore them in two after which my dad “tore me in two”. I was probably five years old but remember it as though it were yesterday.

This same terrible plague can invade our churches with members becoming jealous of someone that they should not be jealous of. We should have such a heart that we will commend those who excel or benefit in areas that we do not; we should learn from the Lord not to be jealous.

Source: From W. Alderman’s Sermon: The Dreamer

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