Triumph Over Trials

Waiting On The Promises Of God - Joseph’s Triumph Over His Trials

Pastor Pierre D. Mayo

Reference Verse: Genesis 40:23 Pharaoh’s chief cup-bearer, however, forgot all about Joseph, never giving him another thought.

Introduction: How often do you find yourself looking for someone to give you a flicker of hope in your time of need. I know I’ve been in situations where it seemed that all was coming to an end and I was pressed up against a wall that no one could help me get from between my problem and the wall. Joseph was a young man who had been given a great gift of being able to interpret dreams and this very gift he had got him in trouble with his brothers, Joseph being the 11th son of his father and was the favorite out of all the sons. Isn’t that how it is when jealousy sets in, those close to you end up hurting you.

The story of Joseph is one of a typology to the story of Christ.

It is one that follow a line in sequence (Study on your own time)

So what happens when your faith is being tested? do you crumble and fall short or do you dig in and hold on to your faith in the Lord? We are going to look at what Joseph did and how his faith took him to new levels in his walk with the Lord and with Pharaoh.

Looking at Joseph journey we see how he was cast out of his family by his siblings and frowned upon because of his favor with his father, but Joseph also had a dream that could have challenged his brothers and pushed them over the edge to kill him. But instead they sold Joseph for 20 pieces of silver which was about $20.00 dollars. That means Joseph was worth less then the going rate for a slave which was 30 pieces of silver.

And you thought you had it bad!

Be careful to not allow your words or actions to put you in harms way. Be wise.

Genesis 37:5–11 NLT

5 One night Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers about it, they hated him more than ever. 6 “Listen to this dream,” he said. 7 “We were out in the field, tying up bundles of grain. Suddenly my bundle stood up, and your bundles all gathered around and bowed low before mine!” 8 His brothers responded, “So you think you will be our king, do you? Do you actually think you will reign over us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dreams and the way he talked about them. 9 Soon Joseph had another dream, and again he told his brothers about it. “Listen, I have had another dream,” he said. “The sun, moon, and eleven stars bowed low before me!” 10 This time he told the dream to his father as well as to his brothers, but his father scolded him. “What kind of dream is that?” he asked. “Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow to the ground before you?” 11 But while his brothers were jealous of Joseph, his father wondered what the dreams meant.

Ecclesiastes 3:7 NLT

7 A time to tear and a time to mend. A time to be quiet and a time to speak.

Proverbs 18:21 NLT

21 The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences.

God allows us to face certain challenges to grow us up! Joseph was facing real challenges and it caused him to grow up and mature in the Lord.

God places test in our lives to humble us and causes us to look to Him as our source and supplier of our needs.

Genesis 39:2–4 NLT

2 The Lord was with Joseph, so he succeeded in everything he did as he served in the home of his Egyptian master. 3 Potiphar noticed this and realized that the Lord was with Joseph, giving him success in everything he did. 4 This pleased Potiphar, so he soon made Joseph his personal attendant. He put him in charge of his entire household and everything he owned.

Don’t run ahead of your training, the test that God has placed you in, is one to help develop you in such away that you may benefit yourself the body of Christ and be a blessing to the world.

Development is a matter of ones growth in there faith when you look at Joseph you can see his faith develops through each test and trial.

Praise God when your tested for when you Persevere and endure the test, then your faith will grow.

Listen by perseverance the tortoise and the snail reached the ark. So don’t say what you can’t do, you can do all things through Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior who gives you the strength.

hypomone is the greek meaning for endurance, steadfastness, fortitude.

In other words we wait expectantly knowing we will receive our due reward.

Romans 5:3–4 NLT

3 We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. 4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.

James 1:2–4 NLT

2 Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

Like a child during the Christmas Holiday, they know what tomorrow brings but they don’t know what’s wrapped in those pretty boxes, they know they can’t open them until that day but that doesn’t change the enthusiasm they have, why? Because those boxes have hope in them. Hope that what they asked for mom and dad have gotten it. They have Joy in them. The excitement of knowing that what they’ve been wanting all year long is right there, right in front of them, just a simple pulling of the paper away and pure satisfaction. But they have to wait until that big day. It’s hard but what do they do? Endure and be obedient, not opening up the gifts until that day.

Genesis 41:33 NLT

33 “Therefore, Pharaoh should find an intelligent and wise man and put him in charge of the entire land of Egypt.

Genesis 41:38 NLT

38 So Pharaoh asked his officials, “Can we find anyone else like this man so obviously filled with the spirit of God?”

God causes us to show the world who He is in a divine and selfless order.

What we see is a promotion from a earthly position and spiritual position. Joseph’s maturity is one that is pleasing to the natural man and to God. The devil will always try to stop you in your success with the natural and spiritual but never loose hope stay the course and obey God.

Promotion comes from God in His timing and in his plan when you look at Joseph you see him faced with all these test and one after the other he is being developed for the next assignment that God has for him.

Question. Are you allowing God to develop you for your next assignment........

Joseph had favor with his father greater then his brothers and he was rewarded for his faithfulness and his commitment to his father. Joseph had favor with potiphar his master who was so pleased with him that he put Joseph in charge of all that belonged to him. when Joseph was thrown in prison he was put in the position to administer for the prison and then finally being the interpreter of dreams God finally promoted him to handle all the affairs of the land for Pharaoh.

The plans that God has for you are ones that are much greater then any of us can imagine, so don’t frown on your test or your small beginnings but rejoice in them and know that the Lord has a purpose for all that you face and ask him to help you endure just as Joseph did.

Things of this world will try to sway you and turn you from God your faith will be tested and your walk with Christ will be stretched, but will you overcome?

Your daily prayer should be; God help me as I am faced with these test, trials and temptations that I may be able to reach from the bottom of this pit to your out stretched arm and know that you are with me and that you have a plan, one that will guide and direct my path just as it has for so many before me. Amen.

Genesis 45:4–5 NLT

4 “Please, come closer,” he said to them. So they came closer. And he said again, “I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into slavery in Egypt. 5 But don’t be upset, and don’t be angry with yourselves for selling me to this place. It was God who sent me here ahead of you to preserve your lives.

Genesis 45:6–8 NLT

6 This famine that has ravaged the land for two years will last five more years, and there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. 7 God has sent me ahead of you to keep you and your families alive and to preserve many survivors. 8 So it was God who sent me here, not you! And he is the one who made me an adviser to Pharaoh—the manager of his entire palace and the governor of all Egypt.

God will always restore what the enemy tries to take, know that God’s plans are perfect even when we are not, so you must forgive.

Close: Joseph was in his test for 13 years!! I’m sure he became disheartened and questioned was this fair? After all he had the dream that God had given him and who has ever been given a promise by anyone that you believe them to hold to there promise. God is not a man that he should lie and Joseph had interpreted the dreams of others before so when the time came for him to make his big debut before Pharaoh he was mature enough, and humble enough and ready to stand in the place that God had prepared him for. This was a promise of not his greatness but one that would show God to be great for all to see. As the famine of the Land was one that would’ve killed off the children of Israel and that in turn would’ve have made God a liar!

Your trials are always bigger then you, there is a place that God is trying to take you so that the destiny of those he will put in your life maybe impacted for good. Hold on to God and know His complete and perfect will is being done in your life even when you can’t see the whole picture in front of you.

Hebrews 11:21–22 NLT

21 It was by faith that Jacob, when he was old and dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons and bowed in worship as he leaned on his staff. 22 It was by faith that Joseph, when he was about to die, said confidently that the people of Israel would leave Egypt. He even commanded them to take his bones with them when they left.

Joseph’s dreams did come true and those around him did bow before him, not that he no longer desired such things as now he was a man who was faced with many life or death responsibilities and he realized now that it was not for his glory but for the Lords.

As one who learns to trust God and face the music when it plays the song that we don’t want to hear we are still able to enjoy it and willing to walk the path that God allows before us.

Joseph was arrogant but God developed him into a humble, meek, Godly man.

Joseph was immature but God showed him how to be a focused, faithful, mature and diligent man.

Joseph was impatient but God took 13 years to prepare a man to lead and save a nation. Who knew him not but then realized that God was with him and to save a nation who had turned on him but later bowed to him and thus saving God’s people.

Joseph was a man with tested faith but now is remembered as a man of great faith!

Two frogs fell into a can of cream,

Or so I’ve heard it told.

The sides of the can were shiny and steep,

The cream was deep and cold.

“Oh, what’s the use?” croaked number one.

“Tis fate, no help’s around.

Good-bye, my friend!

Good-bye, sad world!”

And weeping still, he drowned.

But number two, of sterner stuff,

Dog-paddled in surprise.

The while he wiped his creamy face,

And dried his creamy eyes.

“I’ll swim awhile at least,” he said,

Or so I’ve heard he said;

“It really wouldn’t help the world,

If one more frog were dead.”

An hour or two he kicked and swam,

Not once he stopped to mutter,

But kicked and kicked and swam and kicked,

Then hopped out, via butter!