Sermon Tone Analysis

Text: Genesis 39:1-23

Theme: When the Lord is with us we will prosper.

Date: 11/20/2022 File name: Patriarch_Lessons_07.wpd ID Number:

In his new book, So Help Me God, Vice President Mike Pence tells of the conversation between him and President Trump where the President pressured him to overturn the results of the 2020 election by rejecting electoral votes from the states.

When he refused to do so, Pence says President Trump told him “you’re too honest.”

That is cynicism at its worst and what so many people hate about Washington and politics.

Assuming that the Vise President’s recollection is accurate, an adherence to moral and ethical principles regardless of the cost is the very essence of integrity.

Personal integrity is one of the most important characteristics of professing Christians.

It is the quality of being consistent in our actions, values, methods, measures, and principles.

It is moral uprightness.

The Patriarch Joseph provides us with a valuable lesson in living a life of integrity regardless of the cost.

Joseph, as many of you are aware, grew up in a dysfunctional family.

Today we would call it a “blended family” since there were twelve brothers born of four different mothers to the Patriarch Jacob.

And the brothers always seemed to be fighting about something.

One thing that united these brothers, however, was their intense dislike of the second youngest brother named Joseph.

Joseph is clearly his father’s favorite because he is born to his beloved wife Rachel.

Jacob doesn’t even attempt to hide his favoritism.

Jacob dotes on Joseph, and gives him the gift of a coat of many colors.

Because of their resentment toward him the older brothers conspire, first to kill him, but their greed overcomes them, and the sell Joseph to some passing merchants who are bound for Egypt.

The brothers then rip up the coat of many colors, dip it in goat’s blood and tell their father that Joseph must have been devoured by a fierce animal.

They watch callously as Jacob goes into a deep mourning.

As we pick up the story in Genesis 39 we find that Joseph has arrived in Egypt where he is sold to a high-ranking Egyptian military officer.

“Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, had bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there.”

(Genesis 39:1, ESV)

From Joseph’s experience we learn six practical lessons.

I. WHEN THE LORD IS WITH YOU, YOU WILL PROSPER

1. this is a theme that is repeated throughout the Scriptures

a. the presence of God in one’s life causes one to flourish

b. four times in our text for this morning we are told the Lord was with Joseph

2. now I know what some of you are thinking, because you know my opinions on the prosperity gospel

a. you’re saying, “Wait a minute pastor.

How can the Bible say that Joseph was flourishing?

He’s been sold into slavery by his own brothers.

He’s taken hundreds of miles from his home and everything that’s familiar to him.

He is resold in an Egyptian slave market.

Now he finds himself in a strange household in an unfamiliar culture, and the Bible says that “God prospered him?”

3. Joseph flourished because he had two things going for him

A. 1ST, THE LORD WAS WITH HIM

1. when the Lord is with you, you will prosper no matter what your situation

2. unfortunately, society measures success, and prosperity, and flourishing in different ways than God does

a.

our society says that the more wealth you have, the more things you’ve accumulated, the more influence you have, the more important you are — these are the marks of a successful life — of a flourishing life

3.

Joseph had none of those things, but the Bible tells us God prospered him — vs. 2

“The LORD was with Joseph so that he prospered ... “

a. every task Joseph was assigned, every responsibility he was given he succeeded at

b. have you ever stopped to consider that maybe it was because Joseph didn’t have wealth or influence or power that God prospered him?

“Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.”

(James 4:10, ESV)

ILLUS.

When I look back over the course of my life, and see those Christian friends, and acquaintances who have prospered in the material things of this world, I am struck by the fact that they are people who have a true humility before the Lord.

c. life’s circumstances have taught Joseph to be humble before the Lord

1) because he had been humbled, God had exalted Joseph

4. when the Christian chooses to live out the life of a bond servant to Christ, that believer may not have everything the world considers prosperity, but our Lord Jesus Christ will prosper you

B. 2ND, JOSEPH CHOSE TO BLOOM WHERE HE WAS PLANTED

ILLUS.

For those of you who like to know these things, “bloom where you’re planted” is a 15th-century French proverb.

The 16th-century Geneva pastor, Francis de Sales (1567-1622), wrote: “Truly charity has no limit; for the love of God has been poured into our hearts by His Spirit dwelling in each one of us, calling us to a life of devotion and inviting us to bloom in the garden where He has planted and directing us to radiate the beauty and spread the fragrance of His Providence.”

In other words, Bloom where you’re planted.

Radio personality, Paul Harvey, regularly used it and made popular to modern listeners.

1. the popular phrase means to be fruitful, make the best of life when it throws lemons at you, and do what’s right, even when it’s hard

a.

I am convinced that too many Christians forfeit God’s blessings and contentment because they are continuously discontent

1) too many believers are like the Hebrews during their desert wanderings — constantly murmuring about this and that and everything else

2) such murmuring is a symptom of a deeper spiritual issue — discontentment

b.

I am equally convinced that believers receive blessings proportionate to their faithfulness to the Lord in their present situation

2. by God’s providence you are exactly where God wants you to be in life — are you blooming right were you are?

a. you say, “But pastor, you don’t know how difficult my situation is” Or, “You don’t know that guy I’ve got to work with,” Or, “You don’t know the family dynamics I’m living with,” Or, “You don’t understand the health issues I’ve got”

1) and I respond, “You’re right, I don’t understand, but we have a Lord above who does, and if you will be faithful to him in your present situation — if you’ll bloom where you’re planted — God will prosper you just like He prospered Joseph“

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”

(Hebrews 4:15, ESV)

C. 3RD, BLESSINGS DON’T ALWAYS COME IN THE WAY WE EXPECT

1. prosperity and blessings from the Lord can come in many different packages

a. too many Christians have swallowed the lie of the prosperity preachers that God’s prospering us in only measured with dollar signs

1) not so!

b.

Joseph was blessed of the Lord even while he was a slave and had nothing to call his own

1) he was blessed of the Lord because he had a relationship with the Lord

2. Joseph’s life could have gone South in so many different ways

a. God’s providential hand of protection is repeatedly seen in Joseph’s life

1) his brothers could have killed him as to their original plan — God providentially intervened

2) he could have been sold as a slave into the Turquoise mines of Sinai — but God providentially intervened and puts it into Potiphar’s mind to purchase him

3) Potiphar could have made Joseph a field worker rather than a household servant — but God providentially intervened and put Joseph in a place where his administrative skills are noticed and soon he is the chief steward over Potiphar’s entire estate

4) Potiphar could have had Joseph immediately executed at the accusation leveled against him by Potiphar’s wife but God providentially intervened and Joseph is merely imprisoned where, once again, his administrative skills are noticed and soon he is a prison trustee

b.

Joseph’s prosperity included the protection of the Lord

1) we may not know until we get to heaven how many times God supernaturally intervened in our lives protecting us from ourselves and others to bring us to where we now are in life

3. there is no greater blessing in life than to know that God will never leave us nor forsake us

... When the Lord Is with You, You Will Prosper

II.

WHEN THE LORD IS WITH YOU, OTHERS WILL SEE IT

“The LORD was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master.”

(Genesis 39:2, ESV)

1.

Joseph was a person who applied himself to the fullest

a. he worked hard and gained the favor of Potiphar

2. Joseph was a slave who had a servant’s heart

ILLUS.

When the New York journalist, H. M. Stanley, went to Africa in 1871 to find and report on Dr. David Livingstone, he spent several months in the missionary’s company, carefully observing the man and his work.

Livingstone never spoke to Stanley about spiritual matters, but Livingstone’s loving and patient compassion for the African people was beyond Stanley’s comprehension.

He could not understand how the famous missionary doctor could have such love for and patience with people Stanley considered backward, inferior pagans.