Good morning, CHURCH!

Welcome to FFM where we love God, and we love people.

Are you ready to be equipped today?

Let me see your Bibles.

Let’s pray.

Let’s go to the book of Jeremiah 29:11 NKJV for this week’s wisdom Vaccination.

We should call this the National anthem of hope.

This Week’s Wisdom Vaccination Jeremiah 29:11 NKJV

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

This verse is one of the most well-known verses in the Bible.

God’s got great plans for ME.

I need your plan of comfort street.

We all want God to do something great for ME.

Of course He does have great plans for us. He is a God that Rescues.

The verse is part of a letter that the prophet Jeremiah wrote to the Israelites who were in exile in Babylon. Around 597 B.C.

Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had invaded Judah, destroyed Jerusalem, and taken many Jews into captivity.

The Israelites were in a foreign land, under the rule of an oppressive empire, and facing despair.

Many false prophets were giving the people false hope, claiming that their captivity would be short.

But I would say the great message we should take from Jeremiah 29 is that they are in the plan of God.

Not that the plan of God is to get you back into comfort as quickly as possible.

Earlier in the chapter (Jeremiah 29:4-10) while false prophets were telling them that God is going to rescue them quickly , God, through Jeremiah, tells the Israelites that they will remain in exile for 70 years.

God’s instructions for them were to settle down or make roots where they were.

He told them to build homes, plant gardens, get married and seek the peace of the city in which they now live (Babylon).

Why?

Because they will be there for a while.

It’s all in His plan.

Jeremiah 29:4-10 NKJV

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all who were carried away captive, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon:

5 Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit. 6 Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters—that you may be increased there, and not diminished. 7 And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the Lord for it; for in its peace you will have peace. 8 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are in your midst deceive you, nor listen to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed. 9 For they prophesy falsely to you in My name; I have not sent them, says the Lord.

10 For thus says the Lord: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place.

Our first thought is often to get relief from the situations we are in and sometimes God wants us to bring Him into the situations that we are in so that others will come to know that He is the Most High God as the scriptures refer to Him quite often.

Today’s message title is:

God our rescuer and redeemer. Pt. 2

God Rescues Joseph

We’ve heard so many messages over the years about Joseph who goes from the prison to the palace.

God take me from whatever is the prison of my life to the palace where I’m wealthy and in power.

Let’s look into God’s rescue of Joseph or is it God’s rescue of Israel.

Who is Joseph?

I’m going to tell you who Joseph was, and we’ll use the cliff notes version because you’ve heard this story before.

Joseph is the 11th and favorite son of Jacob in the Hebrew Bible.

His father Jacob is the son of Isaac and Rebecca and grandson of Abraham and Sarah.

His grandpa Isaac was the only son or one of a kind son of Abraham and Sarah according to God.

So, Joseph is the great grandson of Abraham. (Father Abraham)

Joseph comes from the lineage of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

And the covenant of God with Abraham.

Let’s look at the covenant promise.

Genesis 17:2-8 NKJV

And I will make My covenant between Me and you and will multiply you exceedingly.” 3 Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying:

4 “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. 5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations.

6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. 7 And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you.

8 Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”

So, we see that the lineage that Joseph is a part of is supposed to be: *Fruitful

*Kings shall come from them

*Elohim shall be their God

*They shall possess the land of Canaan

Back to Joseph.

Joseph was the favorite son of Jacob because he was the first born of Rachel in Jacob’s older years.

Joseph was hated by his brothers because his father favored him.

In Gen. 37 he had a pair of dreams that made them hate him even more.

Gen. 37:7 NKJV

There we were binding sheaves in the field. Then behold, my sheaf arose and also stood upright; and indeed, your sheaves stood all around and bowed down to my sheaf.”

In verse 37:9 he dreamed yet again.

“Look, I have dreamed another dream. And this time, the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars bowed down to me.”

This pair of dreams leads to him being thrown into a pit by his brothers.

But he doesn’t die in the pit because his brothers decide not to kill him but to sell him to and Ishmaelite.

The Ishmaelite takes him to Egypt.

Once in Egypt Joseph is sold to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard.

Genesis 39:2-5 NKJV

The Lord was with Joseph, and he was a successful man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. 3 And his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made all he did to prosper in his hand. 4 So Joseph found favor in his sight and served him. Then he made him overseer of his house, and all that he had he put under his authority. 5 So it was, from the time that he had made him overseer of his house and all that he had, that the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake; and the blessing of the Lord was on all that he had in the house and in the field.

- God was with Joseph

- He was successful

- He found favor

- He was promoted

- Given great authority

- The Egyptian’s house was blessed because of him

And this is about where we start to claim being the Joseph of our family.

Y’all cast me aside but the Lord blew me up!

Y’all thought I was down for good but favor ain’t fair!

But the story ain’t over.

Because Joseph was so good looking and successful, Potiphar’s wife took a liking to him and wanted to sleep with him.

Joseph runs away and says, “I can’t sin against God.”

Potiphar’s wife lies on him and Potiphar throws Joseph into the prison where the Kings prisoners are kept.

Genesis 39:21-23 NKJV

But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy, and He gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. 22 And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph’s hand all the prisoners who were in the prison; whatever they did there, it was his doing. 23 The keeper of the prison did not look into anything that was under Joseph’s authority, because the Lord was with him; and whatever he did, the Lord made it prosper.

Once again, we see:

- God was with him

- He was shown mercy

- He had favor

- He was promoted

- He was given authority

And again, we start to dance and shout.

Lord put that Joseph blessing on me!

In the prison Joseph ends up interpreting a pair of dreams from the butler and beaker.

The butler would be restored to Pharaoh and the baker would be killed.

Joseph told the butler to remember him with Pharaoh as the one who interpreted his dream.

Later, Pharaoh has a pair of dreams that no one can interpret so the butler finally remembers Joseph and Pharaoh sends for Joseph to interpret his dreams.

The dreams turn out to be about 7 plentiful years of harvest followed by 7 years of famine.

Pharaoh then selects Joseph to run the land and put a plan in place to store up plenty to cover for the time of famine when it came.

Genesis 41:37-41 NKJV

So, the advice was good in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of all his servants. 38 And Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom is the Spirit of God?”

39 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Inasmuch as God has shown you all this, there is no one as discerning and wise as you. 40 You shall be over my house, and all my people shall be ruled according to your word; only in regard to the throne will I be greater than you.” 41 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.”

And now the organ and the drummer go to work, and the place gets turned up.

God is the same yesterday, today and forever!

He’s no respecter of person!

If He did it for him, He can do it for me!

Let’s summarize Joseph’s journey:

A pair of dreams led him to a pit.

Promoted to Potiphar’s chief servant.

He interprets a pair of dreams about the butler and baker in prison.

He interprets a pair of for Pharaoh.

Pharaoh promotes him to the palace.

Pharaoh gives him power to be second in command to only him.

(He gets the Kings signet ring, the best clothes, gold chain, the second-best chariot to ride in and everyone bowed the knee to him.)

My question to you all is this?

Does Joseph see this as the big payoff for all he’s been through like we do?

Now if we were to look a little closer at this big payoff for all of Joseph’s hardships what do we see.

Remember, Joseph was part of a covenant lineage with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

- Was the covenant that you would serve a pagan King (Pharaoh) who thinks he is God?

- Was the covenant that you would lead Egypt to prominence?

- Was the covenant that you would have Egypt as an everlasting possession or were you supposed to possess Canaan?

- Was the covenant that you would serve foreign Kings or that Kings would come from you?

But as we look at the story to this point, we find Joseph serving a blasphemous pagan King who thinks that he is God.

So, at this point in the story Joseph is serving the King who is a false God and not the one true God that his father, grandfather and great-grandfather served.

So, while we are celebrating that this is what we want God to do for us when we go through hard times, Joseph is not seeing this as the payoff of the covenant blessing.

Don’t get me wrong, this is all a part of God’s plan to rescue Israel and to fulfill Genesis 3:15 but this is not the big payoff.

Not every come up is God’s ultimate blessing for your life!

We know Joseph doesn’t see it like we’ve been looking at it because of what Joseph did a little earlier in the story.

Genesis 41:45 NKJV

And Pharaoh called Joseph’s name Zaphnath-Paaneah. And he gave him as a wife Asenath, the daughter of Poti-Pherah priest of On. So, Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt.

Zaphnath-Paaneah is an Egyptian name meaning something like “Revealer of secrets.”

So, Pharaoh gave joseph a pagan name.

And he gave Joseph an Egyptian wife. His daughter Asenath.

So, what does Joseph do?

Genesis 41:50-52 NKJV

And to Joseph were born two sons before the years of famine came, whom Asenath, the daughter of Poti-Pherah priest of On, bore to him.

51 Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: “For God has made me forget all my toil and all my father’s house.”

52 And the name of the second he called Ephraim: “For God has caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.”

Joseph gives his sons Hebrew names.

Joseph hasn’t forgotten who his is.

The firstborn he named Manasseh: God has made me forget the pain of what happened in my father’s house.

The second Ephraim: God has prospered me in the land of my affliction.

Joseph sees Egypt as the land of affliction.

Joseph sees his rise in prominence not as the big payoff and a chance to prosper the enemy.

Joseph sees it as the favor of the Lord on his life even in the midst of affliction.

And he sees it as a part of the plan of God to rescue his family.

God is a Rescuer and Redeemer.

What can we take away from the story of Joseph.

- Even if I find myself in trouble, God is with me

- God will even bless his enemies because of the favor on me

- Ultimately God is looking to rescue us from our oppressors

- If my success is prospering the ungodly, it’s not my final destination

- My identity is in the Lord and not in worldly success

If you’re watching online or here in the room, I have a very important question to ask you.

What is Holy Spirit saying to you right now?