The life of Joseph/ Trials to Triumph
Selected Scripture from Genesis 39-41
We are going to read Genesis chapter 39, 40, 41…just kidding.
We are going to look at parts of each of these chapters. Maybe this week you could take as your reading this account of Joseph.
We are going to look at the life of Joseph.
His trials and what God did with those trials to make him be the person he was.
What he needed to go through so that God could use him at the right time.
Introduction-
Have you ever wondered why stuff just keeps happening? I have had that talk with some friends this week.
Have you ever been to a breaking point and said “I cannot take anymore”
Uttered the words “Nothing good can come out of this”
Of course you have- We all have said them in the midst of a storm.
The life of Joseph is one example of God making something good out of something bad.
You read chapters upon chapters of things that just bombard this man and his family and you think this has got to be the plot of a movie.
From the time his brothers plotted against him (Chapter 37) to kill him because they were jealous of his daddy’s love- His coat of many colors. His faked death by a wild animal by his brothers. His brothers jealous of his dream that God gave him yelling, “Here comes the dreamer.”
“Abducted and taken by force to Egypt to be a slave.”
“Pharaohs wife accusing him of seduction after almost ripping his clothes off of him.”
“Being put in prison on those false charges.”
“Spending years in a prison for something he did not do. With people who were suppose to get him out.
Either God has a bad sense of humor or God has a plan for us even in our trials.
I believe He has a plan- Plan A, God’s Best, well thought out plan for you and for me.
Job, Joseph, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Moses, all faced trials that appeared to them at the time as God turning His back to find out that God never left, He was there all the time.
You know what makes the Bible powerful?
Few find it not because God doesn’t want to reveal it to us, but because we refuse to look and believe it.
The Bible is powerful because it has the power to convict.
The power to equip.
The power to provide wisdom.
The power to change your life even in a bad situation.
The power of His Holy Spirit to provide comfort, peace, strength, despite what you are going through.
God goes to a lot of trouble to show us that He desires a relationship with us, not just knowing of God, but knowing God personally.
How do you imagine God?
Someone who keeps you safe?
Someone who supplies your needs?
Someone who does for you only what you ask Him to do? A Genie if you will.
Someone who gives a lot of rules and take the fun out of your life?
The bible is the written Word of God- Each example, each parable, each story is a reflection of the relationship that God wants to establish with you.
Commentary-
“We can learn Greek and Hebrew and Aramaic so we can read the Bible in its original language, we can study and practice archeology so we can recover and understand more about the civilizations with whom God dealt in the past. We can study every bit of data there is to know about God, His Church, and His Word, but if we do not know God, we have accomplished nothing.”
We must seek Relationship- God desires us to know Him. Knowing that even when we go through trials and sufferings, He has not turned His back on us.
We must see God’s Nature- We don’t turn our backs on God- we turn our backs on the counterfeit things of this world.
We must see His attributes- We serve an all powerful God. We must see a Holy God.
We can trust that His words and His love for us never changes.
We can know Him personally- Because God has chosen to reveal Himself to us.
We must see our need for God- I must rely on the merit of Christ rather than myself. I am not God, He is to be my God.
If you understand this, you will look at your situations differently. Instead of being glad that is not me as you read of these men and their trials, you would see that if God has brought these men through these trials He will bring us through them because He does not love them more than He loves you and me. Amen.
Hudson Taylor
Who opened up the mission work of Christ in China wrote these words;
“It is not easy to keep first things first and make time for prayer. Yet without this there cannot but be failure and unrest. The soul that is starved cannot rejoice in the Lord.”
“Taylor had learned that there is no substitute for real spiritual blessing. “I saw him and I sought him, I had him and I wanted him.”
King David “My soul thirsts for you, my soul shall be satisfied.” Are you thirsty for God?
Hudson Taylor, King David, Joseph all learned a lesson that no matter what you are going through that you will not be satisfied with anything less than God’s best for your life- even if right now you would go through hardship.
Joseph had an unbroken fellowship with God.
His circumstances kept changing but his relationship with God was constant.
He had fellowship with God when he was a favorite son in his father’s house.
God communicated with him through dreams revealing his future.
He grew up with a vision about his life and future.
Soon the circumstances changed in his life.
He became a slave in Pothiphars house (chapter 39) and later a prisoner in jail. (Chapter 40-41) But his fellowship with God was unaffected.
God was with him all the time. (Chapter 30-50)
So what can we take away from God’s Word today? Write it down
Favor with God is more important than favor with man
Genesis chapter 39:6-
“But he refused. With me in charge, he told her, my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God.”
Joseph had favor with God no matter where he was. In his father’s house, Potiphar the Kings house, the prison and with the prison guards,
He had favor because he had relationship- it was not based upon what he was going through wither he was going to be faithful to God.
He saw disobedience to God as sin and even if no one saw him, he was going to be faithful.
Illustration-
I have a pastor friend that shared a heart story. He told of his daughters disabilities, he told of his struggle in ministry, he shared that at times he seemed to be pushing a boulder always up hill. He said to his brother, who is also a minister- “God must be mad at me” “God must not trust me” the brother quickly praying for words to give his younger brother- (paused) “It is not that God doesn’t trust you, it is that He does trust you with this suffering.”
The times we are living in are at best chaotic and we do not now know what the future holds- but we can know the one who holds our future and the one we need to put our future into. As people of God, it is more important than ever to make sure we ar right with the Lord and have his favor than having the favor of man in these times- I. Favor with god more than with man.
Joseph was faithful
Genesis chapter 39:4-
“Joseph found favor in his eyes and become his attendant, Potiphar put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph.”
Joseph could be trusted when no one was watching-
He never questioned if he had made the right choice to be faithful. It was constant and not based upon circumstances.
Joseph may not of known his future, but he knew who held his future.
Faith is an amazing thing- it grows the more you exercise it.
Faith is the substance of things hoped, evidence of things not seen.
The Lord sometimes blesses others just because you are there- because of your faith.
Joseph was Forgiving
If there was anyone who could have had a bad attitude and lived life with a chip on his shoulder, it would have been Joseph.
He begged his brothers not to harm him and they send him to Egypt as a slave… they didn’t listen.
He told Potiphars wife that he would not sleep with her… so she lied and said that he attempted too.
In prison, he seemed to be forgotten by God and by those that he had helped.
He chose to forgive and not let bitterness run his life.
He was not going to let resentment eat away at his heart but chose to keep his eyes on a God that could be trusted.
Hatred, Envy, Temptation, prison, lying, gossip… the stuff great movies are made of- He remained faithful to God and did not give up that His God would deliver at the proper time.
Joseph had the Spirit of God
Pastor…the Spirit of God fell at Pentecost many years later than Joseph.
Pastor…the Spirit of God did not fill people yet, when God wanted to use a prophet or person, the Spirit of God fell on them so that they could accomplish the work He needed them to do.
There is a supernatural dimension to his life!
This man did not do things in his own power.
He did not think up a way to save a whole nation from starving by himself.
He did not forgive his family of killing him daily with their abuse and misconduct. He had help. Supernatural help.
It took courage and it took God’s anointing to do that!
You do not practice personal integrity like that without God’s help. We live in this world, we cannot do it without God’s help.
People look for integrity, character, ethics.
They call people heroes who are able to make hard decisions and run into burning buildings. Why? Because they do what most others wont do. They don’t act like most others. They do not only think of themselves and what is good for them.
That was forged in Joseph from knowing God and having a relationship with him- not knowing of him!
Closing,
To close we have to go to the very last chapter in Genesis.
50:15-21 Read from Bible
What if Joseph held a grudge?
Words to his brothers who betrayed him- “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God?
You want to live a life like Joseph?
You have to love your God like Joseph loved his God.
We will never see what God is doing in a situation until we let God play it out.
We will never see the accomplishments He intends until we trust Him to see it through.
It is easy to be angry, rage at wrongs, not forgive, want second chances but never give one.
We would be just like the world.
We are called to be like Christ. Different! Peculiar!
(19) “But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”
There are a lot of voices today telling people what they ought to do and they themselves are not doing it.
God is looking for a few to stand in the gap- to be sensitive to what God is doing and be a help not a hindrance.
What is God speaking to you this morning?
Be more Christ-like?
Be more involved?
Be more sensitive?
Maybe, He is just telling you this morning that He loves you, and it will be okay.
He is offering you His peace during a troubling moment and telling you it won’t last forever.
Amen.
