1 Genesis 39: Preaching and Teaching: Preparation of God Dreams

God Dreams-The Path!

The Path to God dreams :

Last week I wanted you to embrace God’s dream for you and your life.

This week I want you to embrace God’s path.

The greater the dream the greater the cost.

There is a path to the God dreams that God has to take us down so that dream can be realized.

Novak Jocavik-I have a very addictive personality so when I get into something I really get into it. Like I loved seminary, I got addicted to books. I got into Novack because no one like him even when he won.

He has won the most grand slam titles, but for a Tennis player he came from unlikely place.

There would regularlay be bombs going off at night and they would have to go down to the basement. One time the mom passed out while these bombs were going off.

Most tennis players grow up in Privilege, he grew up in a war, as a matter of fact there is a wall up where he used to hit his tennis balls, it is still up today and it has bullet holes in them. he tells the story of he would routinely wake up at night and their family would have to go down to the basement because bombs were flying. But it was in this very crucible that he was preparing for his dream to become the greatest tennis player of all time.

Are you ready to embrace not only your God dream, today are you ready to embrace God’s path.

We love Justification-The Bible tells us that when we accept him we get the righteousness of God. In 1998 when I trusted in Christ God no longer saw my sin he saw the blood of Jesus.

There are three main aspects of salvation: Justification, but another aspect is Sanctification.

But most of our life we are living in Sanctification-

One preacher said it like this, Sanctification is when Jesus beats the hell out of you to make you look more like Jesus.

We want the end before the means. We sound a lot like Allen Iverson when it comes to God’s path.

Allen Iverson-Practice-We talking about practice.

God is about to do he work of Sanctification on Joseph.

Are you willing to embrace God’s path today?

Today we are going to look at the path Joseph had to go down to realize his God dreams.

The greater the dream the greater the cost.

Today I want to give us three ways to embrace God’s path.

The Path to God dreams:

1. must be fueled by His presence (1-6).

Our Fuel (His presence) > than our circumstances

Genesis 39:1 (NASB95)

Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an Egyptian officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the bodyguard, bought him from the Ishmaelites, who had taken him down there.

Joseph finds himself in a less than ideal circumstance.

Have you ever found yourself in an un ideal circumstance .

He was bought, what this means is that he was a slave.

HE WAS A SLAVE

Many times we think our circumstances have to change, God has to get me out of this, but God was right there in the middle of this hard, terrible circumstance with Joseph.

God can work in any circumstance.

This should give us great hope.

You might be going through something right now that is less than ideal.

Genesis 39:2 (NASB95)

The Lord was with Joseph, so he became a successful man. And he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian.

If you want to circle a verse, circle this one. Joseph knew something that we need to know.

The Lord = was wIth him-in the worst possible situation-’As a slave’

Creation and Blessing: A Guide to the Study and Exposition of Genesis I. The Purposeful Blessing of the Lord is the Evidence of His Presence (1–6)

The point to be made from this statement, and supported from verse 3, is that this was not any ordinary prosperity—it was phenomenal and unexpected, because even Potiphar had to admit that the Lord was with him, causing him to prosper.

This prosperity was great than any

amount of money someone could have,

any amount of success,

this prosperity was the very presence of God with a young man.

We need to redefine what real prosperity is.

Implications

God is with you even in your difficult scenario us right now

If things in your house are not going great you can still be successful.

If you have a health issue you can still be successful

You have an overbearing boss

Why because the Lord is with us

Jesus was reflecting the very image of God because he was with the Lord

Your kids have wandered far from the lord

HE IS STILL WITH YOU

Results of being fueled by the presence of God

Others will see God

Sometimes I talk about sharing our faith. This can be super intimidating.

I am one of those weird people who loves witnessing. This week we had a car problem, lately we have had a lot of car problems. So I drove in the van and took and Uber ride and I got to talk to my UBer driver about the gospel.

I asked him 0-100%

This is one way to make Jesus famous

But there is another alternative.

We can be with Jesus so much that people just know God is with us.

Another alternative is be so in the presence of God that you glow-Moses

When Moses came off the mountain there was no doubt he had been with Jesus.

Joseph right here and no there was no doubt that he had been in the presence of God.

Genesis 39:3 (NASB95)

Now his master saw that the Lord was with him and how the Lord caused all that he did to prosper in his hand.

The presence of God was so evident with Joseph in the worst possible circumstance that even a pagan could not deny it and only celebrate it.

Do others see the presence of God in you?

Results of being fueled by the presence of God

We will be faithful where we are at

If Joseph could be faithful as a slave we should be able to be faithful in our circumstance.

Are you faithful in your circumstances right now?

Do you take responsibility for yourself or do you focus more on the circumstance?

We did not know what we were doing planting RCC, we still may not know what we are doing. At one point we were meeting in a park with hot hot temps in the summer. But one thing we have attempted to do is be FAITHFUL through the process.

Results of being fueled by the presence of God

Others will be blessed on behalf of you

Genesis 39:4–6 NASB95

So Joseph found favor in his sight and became his personal servant; and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he owned he put in his charge. It came about that from the time he made him overseer in his house and over all that he owned, the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house on account of Joseph; thus the Lord’s blessing was upon all that he owned, in the house and in the field. So he left everything he owned in Joseph’s charge; and with him there he did not concern himself with anything except the food which he ate. Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance.

Look at the progression:

Found favor as a slave, became a leader, became a leader over all the house of a very powerful man.

He put him in charge of everything.

Why did the Lord bless Joseph-

So he could be a blessing to others. This is the very essence of God dreams.

God wants us to bless others on our behalf.

You know that person that drives you absolutely crazy-God wants to bless them.

American Dream the blessing stops with us, in God dreams the blessing never stops with us.

I have love prayer meetings at this church

Ramona has some workers who are far from God, and they came to CECe funeral, and I remember afterwards she was so happy that they came and heard the gospel, God dreams.

Maybe the most important verse in Genesis is Genesis 12:2-3 “And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.””

Abraham lived this verse out, but now Joesph was living it out to. was living this verse out:

You too can live this verse out today.

Creation and Blessing: A Guide to the Study and Exposition of Genesis I. The Purposeful Blessing of the Lord is the Evidence of His Presence (1–6)

The youth could begin to see the hand of God working in his life by means of the favor he achieved with his master. This prosperity not only began the advancement of Joseph, it also prepared Joseph for the temptation to follow.

Application:

Are you fueled by the presence of God?

How is your time with God?

we can get so comfortable with the presence of God that we become aware. I go to church my whole life

Now let’s look at the second way to embrace God’s path.

The Path to God dreams:

2. must expect testing (7-20).

Who in here likes tests?

I think we actually like testing in the things that we enjoy.

Remember how Joseph’s dream was almost destroyed before it was even started, now it was about to be tested.

But in the same way God is looking to test us as believers.

Remember God’s ultimate Goal is to make us look like Jesus.

If Joseph was going to live out his God dream he was going to have even greater character.

We have a lot of false notions about testing.

One is God won’t give us more than we can handle.

God will give us more than we can handle and he will do it so we will trust in him and rely on him for everything

Notice what it says at the end of v.6

Genesis 39:6 “Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance.”

Now there are a lot of beautiful woman in the Bible but there are only three men who it says they were beautiful. David, his son Absalom and Joseph.

His gifting was going to be his struggle

Temptation will come

Gen 39:7 “It came about after these events that his master’s wife looked with desire at Joseph, and she said, “Lie with me.””

We see so many examples of men and women, even Godly men and women who fall to sin all the time.

But Joseph shows us the correct way.

Gen 39:8-9 “But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Behold, with me here, my master does not concern himself with anything in the house, and he has put all that he owns in my charge. “There is no one greater in this house than I, and he has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great evil and sin against God?””

What did Joseph know

All our sin is against God first and foremost

This sin was first and foremost against God. This is a huge thing to understand. When we sin it is primarily first and foremost against God. Look at how that changed his attitude in everything he did.

When we view sin in this proper lens it leads us to

Wanting to be faithful to God.

How faithful are you being to God right now?

Are you FAT?

When we are faithful to God then we want to be faithful to others including our master/bosses, coaches, and more.

We don’t graduate from sin and temptation.

Gen 39:10-12 “As she spoke to Joseph day after day, he did not listen to her to lie beside her or be with her. Now it happened one day that he went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the household was there inside. She caught him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me!” And he left his garment in her hand and fled, and went outside.”

Joseph made his mind up that he was going to listen to God’s voice over anyone else’s!

Have you made this decision?

I wonder if the reasons Joseph made this decision is because he knew the word of God.

Proverbs 5:3-5 “For the lips of an adulteress drip honey And smoother than oil is her speech; But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death, Her steps take hold of Sheol.”

Commentate this verse as I read it.

Genesis 39:13-20 “When she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled outside, she called to the men of her household and said to them, “See, he has brought in a Hebrew to us to make sport of us; he came in to me to lie with me, and I screamed. “When he heard that I raised my voice and screamed, he left his garment beside me and fled and went outside.” So she left his garment beside her until his master came home. Then she spoke to him with these words, “The Hebrew slave, whom you brought to us, came in to me to make sport of me; and as I raised my voice and screamed, he left his garment beside me and fled outside.” Now when his master heard the words of his wife, which she spoke to him, saying, “This is what your slave did to me,” his anger burned. So Joseph’s master took him and put him into the jail, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined; and he was there in the jail.”

Creation and Blessing: A Guide to the Study and Exposition of Genesis Theological Ideas

Resisting temptation did not bring Joseph immediate reward. Rather, he was thrown into prison, without a hearing and without justice. His rapid advancement in prison assured him that God was pleased with him, but the immediate results of his obedience were unpleasant. This observation adds an important qualification to the theological idea that God rewards obedience.

We have to make our mind up!

If you look at this from man’s perspective his dream is just about done. I mean first his brothers and now this.

Walking with God is not easy. There is a reason that not many people do it for a lifetime.

God is not in as big of a rush as we are.

He used at 80.

Novac made his mind up to take the path less traveled!

As I shared about Novac earlier. When he became a pro their were two players who were by far the best in the world. Rodger and Rafa, and Novak was like the third wheel. He beat them some and vice versa. IN a grand slam final he is playing Rodger and he loses to Rodger and after that game Novak knew he had to change his diet. He did not change it for a season he chnaged it for his life. He made his mind up that he was willing to everything he had to, in order to become the best tennis player in the world. HE MADE HIS MIND UP. Before a morning match he drinks hot lemon water. Will we make our minds up and say Gof I am not going to compromise. Just like Joseph I am all in.

Application:

Will you make your mind up to listen to the voice of God?

The last way to embrace God’s path.

The Path to God dreams:

3. is sustained by the presence of God (21-23).

Who in here grew up in Church?

Can’t we get inoculated by the presence of God. We have been around it that we forget it’s awe. Most Christians don’t come to church thinking: WOW I can’t wait to be in the presence of the Lord. I can’t wait to see what God is going to do.

What obstacles had Joseph had to overcome so far.

His brothers wanted to kill him

He was far from home

He was falsely accused.

How was he going to persevere and see his dream lived out. Not only are our God dreams fueled by the presence of God they are sustained by the presence of God.

What obstacles in your life have you had to overcome?

What obstacles are you facing right now that you are going to have to face so that your God dream does not die?

Joseph did it right and he did not see the results-

Falsely accused, look at what happens next.

Joseph did everything right it should all work out right.

He was accused and sent to prison.

He was in jail. Who would not be thinking okay God I am done. This as low as it gets. God I had dreams, I was going to be a great leader set apart from you. And here I am in jail.

Maybe there are some people here who have been through so much that they are just done with God.

God as a young kid I started a relationship with God and now I do not even know if you are real?

God I told you I would follow you wherever you take me but it is just too hard?

God how could you..

Remember what Genesis 39:2 “The Lord was with Joseph, so he became a successful man. And he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian.”

The presence of God

We see it true again

Genesis 39:21 NASB95

But the Lord was with Joseph and extended kindness to him, and gave him favor in the sight of the chief jailer.

What happens when the Lord is with us: he extends kindness.

See we want the presence of the Lord without spending time with the lord.

You see if you are serious about spending time with the Lord he will change you from the inside out. This change is something you have to say yes to here in church, but do you really want this.

In this impossible situation God was there.

We see God continually exalting him and putting him positions of leadership.

God does not call the equipped-If you are already ready

God equips the called-that means you don’t have to have it all together, if you will just spend time with him, and pursue him wholeheartedly he will shine through your life.

Today I gave us three ways to embrace God’s path:

We embrace it by:

being fueled by his presence

expecting testing

being sustained by the presence of God

Will you embrace not only God’s Dream

Will you embrace his path

Christ Connection:

In this story two powerful men of leadership put Joseph in charge.

The master put Joseph in charge of all his household

The jailer put Joseph in charge of all things.

God had given him so much favor that they were not even worried about checking on him.

Genesis 39:5 “It came about that from the time he made him overseer in his house and over all that he owned, the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house on account of Joseph; thus the Lord’s blessing was upon all that he owned, in the house and in the field.”

Genesis 39:22-23 “The chief jailer committed to Joseph’s charge all the prisoners who were in the jail; so that whatever was done there, he was responsible for it. The chief jailer did not supervise anything under Joseph’s charge because the Lord was with him; and whatever he did, the Lord made to prosper.”

Today we have the same choice as the master and the chief jailer, instead we are not putting Joseph in charge, we have the privilege of putting Jesus in charge.

Is Jesus in charge of your life?

If you really want to have God dreams he has to be in charge?

Maybe you are here and you have never put him in charge.

Maybe you have a relationshiop with Jesus right now, you are saved by his grace but you are really not letting him run the show.

If we want to be dream makers we have to allow him to be in charge.