How Should We Now Live part 3
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INTRO:
How many of you are enjoying the journey so far?
For those of you who are new or online we are looking at people in the Bible, and answering the question, “ how shall we live?
As we look at them and what they went through, it helps us navigate this life.
They lived in messed up cultures just like we do today.
This helps us engage with God - to see us thru - AMEN
This is not a time where we feed you more and more information. You can get that from Google - One thing Google cannot do is engage you with the living God- AMEN
We had some foundational scriptures over the last few weeks.
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Is this important ? YES - Jesus is a constant that we can trust forever.
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
Is this important? Yes- You can trust it- It is your life manual
33 “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
How many of you know that peace is an extinct commodity in this world. We overcome by going to the source of peace, and the one who has overcome the world.
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
This gives us the definites - This removes the clutter and gives you a straight line. No opinions here just truth.
These are WE BELIEVE scriptures
There are many many more
like
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
You would think that these basic scriptures would be believed by 100% of Christians - but they are not. That is why so many struggle.
TRANSITION
But be assured of this - What you really believe you will live, and teach.
Today lets Look at the life of Joseph. ( His name means May God Add or Increaser)
Q - What comes to mind when you think of Joseph?
Coat of many colors?
Today - Lets keep it in the context of How shall we then live?
Joseph’s story for the most part is found in Genesis chapters 37-45
It is the rags to riches story - or some say Pit to Palace
Here is a little about his life
Scared, Alone, an outcast from his own family, rejection, despair, slavery. Prince
Lets backtrack a little bit
Joseph is the son of Rachel , whose father was Jacob. Rachel had another son and his name was Benjamin. A together Jacob had 12 sons. Joseph was number 11
These became the twelve tribes
Joseph seems to be the spoiled young brother, Dads favorite? Cute and most liked.
Scripture says he was handsome
He is not liked by his siblings and is picked on constantly.
But - He is the one who gets the cool coat.
Now remember we are talking about 12 boys. Can you imagine.
My mom who is probably watching this can verify this;
I come from a family of 4 boys - If mom didn’t cut that pie up just right it was a war. If someone got a bigger piece than you that was just a meltdown waiting to happen.
Joseph also was a stinker - Gen 37:2
2 This is the account of Jacob and his family. When Joseph was seventeen years old, he often tended his father’s flocks. He worked for his half brothers, the sons of his father’s wives Bilhah and Zilpah. But Joseph reported to his father some of the bad things his brothers were doing.
He was a taddle tail - that's what we would of called him - Nothing worse than a snitch at least for a bunch of boys
Being a Daddys boy and a dreamer did not help Joseph much with the family
3 Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other children because Joseph had been born to him in his old age. So one day Jacob had a special gift made for Joseph—a beautiful robe.
4 But his brothers hated Joseph because their father loved him more than the rest of them. They couldn’t say a kind word to him.
5 One night Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers about it, they hated him more than ever.
He had a couple of dreams, that make things worse for him; He says his family will bow down to him. OH OH
The only light in these dreams was a portion of scripture that says His father pondered the dreams
For Joseph this goes from bad to worse
Joseph is called to go check on his brothers and they see him coming and throw him in pit
24 And they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.
He is lucky they didn’t kill him. ( these are his brothers)
He then gets sold into slavery
Now this is very interesting because it happens to be a caravan of Ismaelites
Who is Ishmael - Abrahams son from Hagar. The godly blessing comes from Isaac - Josephs grandfather. Talk about a spiritual application. Then h is sold to the Egyptians. You would think in the natural that the line of Joseph was going to end.
So how is this all going to work out?
Is God going to bless this line or will it perish. Just when you think it is getting slightly better
It goes from bad to worse again
He gets sold to Potipher and - He gets promoted, everything seems to be getting a little better then Potiphers wife hits on him.
6 So he left all that he had in Joseph’s charge, and because of him he had no concern about anything but the food he ate. Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance.
7 And after a time his master’s wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, “Lie with me.”
Here we see Joseph has a choice.
Honor God and Potiphar or dishonor Potiphar and God
Life is all about choices.
He chooses wisely but ends up in a deeper prison.
Just when you think Joseph should just curse God and Die (like Jobs wife told Job) we come full circle to the phrase we talked about at the beginning
Genesis 39:21 (ESV)
21 But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.
Think about this ? Was Joseph a blessed man? How can you be blessed when life has dealt you a bad hand.
It is all in how you see it.
Poker players know you can win with a bad hand.
With us we don’t need luck we just need Jesus. AMEN
ILLUSTRATION
Are you blessed? Yes why? because God is with you
Because we are in the OT lets look at a couple of passages
10 fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
13 He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock, in the land that he swore to your fathers to give you.
TRANSITION
How do you live in Gods Blessing when you look back and the cards you were dealt were not favorable?
How do you make good decisions, how do you not succumb to bitterness and hate?
The key to Josephs life - the success or any part of it is summed up in a phrase that needs to be apart of yours
Genesis 39:2–6 (ESV)
2 The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master.
3 His master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord caused all that he did to succeed in his hands.
4 So Joseph found favor in his sight and attended him, and he made him overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had.
5 From the time that he made him overseer in his house and over all that he had, the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake; the blessing of the Lord was on all that he had, in house and field.
6 So he left all that he had in Joseph’s charge, and because of him he had no concern about anything but the food he ate...
The Lord was with Joseph
WOW
SO how shall we then live? We must understand God is with us - In the good times and the bad and can turn anything around
We must ask the question- Is the Lord with us? Is he walking with you?
David says many times in Psalms - “ The Lord of Hosts is with us”
Have you ever felt like you were at a bottom of a pit or in prison?
Have you ever gone through something totally unfair and there was nothing you could do about it.
I want to say something that may not be easy to hear.
CRISIS MOMENTS CAN BE TURNED INTO OPPORTUNITIES BY GOD
CAN YOU BE BLESSED WHILE OTHERS ARE CURSING YOU? Scripture says yes
11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
CONCLUSION
Here is how the story goes
Joseph was given the gift to interpret dreams and the courage to speak them out.
Remember last time he had anything to do with a dream it didn’t go well but Joseph knew they were from God-
15 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I have had a dream, but no one can interpret it; and I have heard it said about you, that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.”
16 Joseph then answered Pharaoh, saying, “It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.”
So How shall we then live - Speak the truth. There will be times when God will have to speak through you. What you need is courage to stand.
Hang on to every word of God
Hang on to every promise of God - There will not be a missing tribe in Israel. NO - They will all have a throne in heaven. They will be blessed - They will sit on thrones as we saw in the book of revelations.
Here is a powerful scripture ! We must memorize it.
28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
But we must ALSO Choose Wisely -
Was a fling with Potiphars wife going to be worth it in the end. NO
Joseph honored God
We must live a life honoring to God with Integrity, Loyalty and Trust
Joseph was so aware of God, he called his kids very special names
51 Joseph named the firstborn Manasseh, “For,” he said, “God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s household.”
52 He named the second Ephraim, “For,” he said, “God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.”
Then at the end of his life he reflected on it and came to a conclusion
20 “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.
And not only did he say this but maybe one of the most overlooked passages of scripture
Genesis 50:24 (ESV)
24 And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”
Prophetic word. A continuing promise.
Live like Gods promises will go on.