Joseph - Part 1

He descended to the dead, and on the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Christian Church, the fellowship of believers, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everyone. Amen. You may be seated. Good to have you with us. Snowy more Deanna is it's still alive.

Uh I haven't buried her somewhere. First of the year we went on vacation and then after that she went down to Arizona to help with the grandkids and uh she was coming this morning but she decided to stay up in Crivets, the big city, and uh uh be with her father. Uh and they're watching right now. I was plowing it all out yesterday. Then another five inches like I'm enjoying the soul.

Uh this morning looking at uh Genesis, the uh thirty-seventh chapter, we're gonna look at the uh life of uh Now Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan. This is the account of Jacob's family line. Of a young man of seventeen was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilha and the sons of Zilpha. uh his father's wives and he brought their father a bad report about their

About the brothers. So uh here we have Jacob who uh God changes his name to Israel, and for a while in the Bible is very long the the name goes back Interchangeably. Who are we talking about? It's the same guy, Jacob or Israel. He has twelve sons who become the twelve tribes of Israel, and to this today Israel. uh of the land of Israel. And uh uh it tells us and all that. The brothers were doing something bad and he comes and squeals off.

And uh it doesn't tell us what they did, but they're just trying to set it up and let us know why his brothers hate him. Because they hated him. And one of the reasons they hated him, he's a tattletale.

And uh they didn't like it. Now Israel And he made him an ornate robe. When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him, he's also a title tale, and could not speak a kind word to him. And then Joseph has a dream. Now this is the unusual thing about Joseph. He has a spiritual

Where he s has these prophetic dreams. Not only does he have prophetic dreams, someone else can dream something and he can interpret the dream and tell'em what it means. So it's unusual giveaway. He says Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. They hate us piling up.

He said to them, Listen to the stream I had. 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. And his brother said to him, Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us? And they hate him all the more the hate keeps building here, because of his dream and what he said. Then he had another dream and told it to his brothers. Listen, I had another dream.

This time the sun and the moon and eleven stars were all bowing down. And when he told his fathers as well as his brothers, his father abused What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you? And his brothers were jealous of him. But uh his father kept the matter in mind. Now theologians aren't exactly sure why.

Now his brothers had gone to graze their fathers' flocks into Shechem, and Israel said to Joseph, As you know your brothers are grazing the flocks near Shechem, he said. So he said to them, Go and see if all is well with your brothers and the flocks, and bring word back to me. Then he sent them, uh sent them off to the valley of Hebron. When Joseph arrived at Shechem, a man wandering in the fields, he found a guy wandering in the fields in Azure.

What are you doing? What are you looking for? He said, I'm looking for my brothers. Can you tell me where they're grazing their flock? And the guy says, Well, they moved on from here. I heard them say, Let's go to Dothan. So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan. But they saw him in the distance. And before he reached them, they plotted to kill him. So the hatred is out of control at this point. You know, brothers always

decide to kill you. This is not good. Here comes that dreamer, they said to each other. Come now, let's kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns, and say that a ferocious animal. Then we'll see what comes of it. So Reuben, one of the brothers or there are eleven brothers. He's upset. He doesn't want the brothers to kill him.

So he tries to rescue out of their hands. He says, let's not take his life. Don't shed any blood. Let's throw him in a cistern here in the wilderness, but don't lay a hand on him. And Reuben said this to rescue him from them and So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the ornate robe he was wearing, and they took him and threw him into the cistern.

So when Reuben returned to the sister, remember he's come back later to get him out of there, and he saw that Joseph wasn't there, he tore his clothes, he freaks out, he went back to his brother and said, The boy isn't there, where can I turn now? And then they got Joseph's robe, slaughtered a goat, and dipped the robe in blood, and took the ornate robe back to their father and said, Look, we we found Is this your s is this Joseph's role?

And uh Israel recognized it and he said, This it is my son. Some ferocious animals devoured him. Surely Joseph has been torn to pieces, and then Jacob. Tore his clothes, put on sack cloth, and mourned for his son for many days. All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. No, I will continue to mourn until I join my son in the grave.

So his father worked for him. These are cold hearted boys. I mean that dad is mortified, he's crying, he's overwhelmed with grief, and they don't say anything. They knew he wasn't dead, uh, but they just wanted to get rid of it.

So meanwhile the Midianites sold Joseph to Egypt, in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard. So we're going to pick that up now next chapter. Chapter thirty nine Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian, who was one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard, brought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him.

The Lord was with Joseph, so he prospered, and he lived in the house of the Egyptian master. When his master saw the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, this is how he knew the Lord was everything. So Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household and entrusted him to his care of everything he owned. From the time he put him in charge of his household till of all that he owned.

Uh the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessings of the Lord was on everything Potiphar had. So Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph's care. Then we have this very odd Verse here Now Joseph was well built and handsome. He's a good looking boy. And uh Mrs. Potiphar noticed, and uh after a while is The wife uh took notice of Joseph and said But he refused. He said, No, no, with me in charge, my faster just my p path.

And my master does not concern himself with anything in the house. Everything he owns is entrusted to my care. No one is greater in the house than I am. Remember that. My fast my Can't talk this morning. My master was withheld nothing from me except you, because you're his as wife. How could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God? And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, come on, pretty boy, let's go for a roll in the hay. He refused to go to bed with her or even be with her.

But one day he went into the house Caught him by his cloak. Come to bed with me. But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house. Ah! When she saw that he left his cloak in her hand and that he ran out of the house, she's really dead. And she called her household servant and said, Look, this Hebrew has been brought to us to make sport of us. He came in here to sleep with me, but I screamed, and when he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.

That Hebrew slave that you brought in tried to make sport of me, but as soon as I screamed for help, he left us closed. When the master heard the story, his wife told him, This is how your slave treated me, he burned with anger. You can imagine. He's really ticked off now. Joseph's master took him and put him in prison, the place where the prisoners were confined.

And while Joseph was there in prison. So anyway, things go from bad to worse. Poor Joseph, he's trying to do the right things. He's you know, his brothers hate him. Uh he was a little obnoxious about He gets in trouble with his brothers. They sell him as a slave. So now he's a slave. a miserable life, but he succeeds greatly as a slave. And he's trying to do the right thing.

The old lady's grabbing him. He's running for his life. Uh and then she gets mad and frames him for attempted rape, and now he goes to prison. Now this is not Brown County lockup. This is miserable. You can't, you know, imagine this is thousands. Just think of prison's fifteen hundred years. This is not a good thing. So he goes from bad to worse. He has done nothing wrong. Only right And now he's in.

is going the wrong direction, despite his dreams. He has these dreams that he's going to be really successful someday and his family's all going to come down and bow to. Like something's going wrong. And now he's stuck in prison. But this is fascinating now, in prison While Joseph was there in prison. The Lord was with him. And he showed him kindness and granted him favour.

So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those he held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. And the warden paid no attention to him. Because j the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did. This is fascinating. No matter how wrong in different directions that Joseph's life he would rise to the top. So he rises to the top, you know. as a slave, he becomes a head slave. Now he's throws in prison and now he rises

of the prison. What's fascinating about this is we don't see anywhere where Joseph complained. Can you imagine how ticked off you would be if you had this kind of situation? God speaks to you, this is going to be great, and then everything goes wrong in your life. But he doesn't complain. Actually, he's one of the few guys in the Bible that there's nothing negative said about it. Uh now he's not perfect. Nobody's perfect, so I'm sure he had his days.

How he must have struggled inwardly as everyone. horribly wrong for him. But what's amazing about him is he rises to the top. He becomes the best in whatever situation he found himself. And it's incredible. I mean he just wow, what a life this guy has. Um I mean his life still sucks. Being the head prisoner probably still isn't very good, but it's better than being the worst prisoner, right?

And the reason for this is eventually uh all the brothers and stuff come as he Bows down to him in Egypt. Eventually all the Jews wound up in Egypt and And then Pharaoh comes along. into slavery for four hundred years. Moses comes along. And says, Let my people go. We have the great story of Moses and stuff. Okay. Anyway, this is how all of this is written, so they can see how did they wind up in Egypt in the first place? Because they were from the land of Canaan, the promised land.

And so eventually Moses leads them back to the promised land which is the first time. In the first place. But by you know, it's just the family who shows up now and by the time they leave there's millions

Did you even know it was a secret? Probably not. That's why they call it A secret. He says I've learned the secret To be content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, living in plenty or in want. And that's when he quotes that famous Bible verse, because I can do all these. They quoted as a victory verse. It's really not a victory verse. It's my life sucks verse.

He says, even when my life is horrible and miserable, I can do all these things. What things? These lousy, miserable things. I've learned the secret. The secret is to be content, no matter what the circumstances. Think about our What does that take us on? bummed out and angry and depressed and ah and just wallow in our misery. When the Bible clearly says, listen, we need to learn to be content. No matter what your circumstances, no matter what your circumstances, you can still be happy.

Don't live in the world of I only wish if if this would change. Pastor, if I just had a new car, I could be happier. I just had a better house. If I hadn't married this idiot and married the other idiot, I'd be so much happier. Oh it's something. I can't be happy because of this, that, and the other. No. You can be happy right now no matter what your life is. And so it's easy for you to say, oh no, no, no, I've I've lived this. Very miserable.

I remember one time we were so poor I we used to look up to admire.

Freaked them out. Which is so bizarre because every doctor has all seen the studies that show people with positive attitudes do better than those who don't have. Right? But he's mad because we're not crying and panic. We've had all kinds of horrible, but I'm telling you, you can still be happy. Because our happiness doesn't come from our circumstances. Our happiness comes from knowing Christ. It changes everything.

If you'll plug into Jesus, you can be happy and content no matter what your circumstances. Amen. First Timothy, Paul writes again, but godliness with contentment. It's great game. He says, For we brought nothing into the world. And we can't take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, We'll be content with that. So he says even with the boast of basic needs. You can still Happy.

Chapter thirteen, verse five. Keep your lives free from the love of money. It doesn't say money, it says the love of money. You can have money. Problem is when you're in love with it. Money, money, money. Keep your life free from that. And be Content with what you have. How? How can we still be content? Because God has said, I will never never will I leave you, never will I forsake you. God is always on our side. I've mentioned this study.

people were. And the thing that really stuck out to me because of what I do with couples is they said, now this is these aren't Bible colleges, these are typical They said, Of these people not a single one But they said of this group, not a single one. This is nation. These are non Christian people by and law. Not one of them had had a relationship failure and they were stunned. How is that possible? How could that be? And I thought, I know how, because they were happy in the first place.

Listen, they they said the correlation was so strong, they said you could literally predict the marital outcomes of people based on their pictures as children. Now this isn't about smiles, you may not have any teeth at all. This is just about being happy. Learn to be happy. These people would just succeed because they didn't need something else or somebody to make them happy. If you're waiting for your husband to make you happy, you're probably just gonna stay miserable.

You wait for your wife to make you happy. Good you can be happy even if you marry the wicked witch of the West. You can still, and this is shocking to be honest. Some of you looking at me like I dropped in from Mars. I can still be happy even if I Yes, yes, yes. Why? Because God is on our side. We need to be like Joseph. Succeed and no matter what. Say Pastor, I got a sucky job. Well be like Joseph. Be the best at that sucky job of all the other psychic people there.

Show up early, leave late, work harder, do all the things nobody else wants to do. Be the best. Well I I I can be the best if I just get the job I want now. If you're not the best now, you're not gonna be the best if you get the job you think you Be the best, succeed, enjoy your life, even if it stings. Look I get it. Right, we know this is life. But we learn learn to plug into God in our lives and realize that He is the source of the If you think marriage is going to make you happy

More miserable. Learn to be happy now. Even if you're single. Even if you don't have everything you want. Even if you got a lousy job. Even if you got a jerk of a boss. If you got a real jerk of a boss, be really nice to him. Anybody working for me, better say amen. Get a little quiet over here.

Be like Joseph, man, learn to be happy and Well yeah, but what but then I'll just be stuck in a sucky job. No, that's what you don't understand. When you start being the best you can be, that's When God shows up and starts to lift you up. This is why we gather at church and we praise and sing, and even when things are lousy, and I promise you, there's some people's lives right now in this place, you know what I'm talking about, you're having a hard time. Your life really hard.

That's why you sing. You should sing all the more. Come to church. You should be the happiest person in the church, singing the loudest. Unless he can't sing. Why? Because that releases God's power and favor in your life. When you can come in the middle of your troubles and struggles and still sing and worship God and get involved. God notices. It makes a difference. This is why Joseph keeps rising to the top. But he's stuck in prison.

It's not going well. We're gonna pick it up next week, see what happens. It's the most amazing transformation. Recorded in the Bible. Probably the most amazing transformation in the history of mankind. What happens to in the midst of his misery in this prison. But today's message is to learn The Bible says we should be constantly thanking God. We should be generous people and thankfully.

Just whiners and complainers. Look, I know sometimes life is hard and we all want to whine, but that's not helpful. Learn to be the best in whatever situation you find yourself in. Watch what God And I promise you any employers have It would get your attention. You have an employee who really can't stand you but is really nice to you and works really hard and you notice that everybody knows.

Here's the good news. There's so many depressed, miserable people, if you just be happy, everybody will notice. It's not like we're competing with the von Traut family singers. You know. Everybody's singing happy all day long. Most of us are surrounding think about all the people you work with. Amen, be the man. It's a powerful test.

Okay. Oh we're gonna have our our celebrate communion this morning. The Sacrament of Communion, this is when we celebrate what Jesus has done in our lives. This celebration is why we can be happy no matter what is going on in our lives. And I'll tell you what, it's in that situation where God shows up. The Bible says Jesus Christ died on their cross. He made it possible for us to connect with And be filled with faith.