AMP Lesson - The Dreamer Patient Faith

Germiko Hill

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Introduction

Hi everyone.

As most of you know I’m Germiko Hill. I’m a Pastor right now in Canada where I do a lot of work with student ministry. It’s been awesome spending time with you all tonight and I look forward to getting to know each of you more.

We’ll tonight I get to spend time with you talking about God’s word, which I believe is the best thing ever. Tonight I get the chance to start a new series with you in Genesis. This series will specifically focus on the life of Joseph. Before we jump into the passage for tonight I want to show you a few videos. There’s a few things in these video’s that tie them all together.

Let’s take a look. (Make it or Break it)

We’ll the thing that ties these video’s together is luck. Luck is defined as, “good fortune; advantage or success, considered as the result of chance.” So we look at video’s like the one we saw and we think that if the guy makes it he’s lucky and if he doesn’t land, well then his luck as run out.

You know what, nearly everyone, even Christians who say they don’t believe in it, talk about luck like it’s the most logical explanation for why we succeed in things. We wish people good luck, say that “we’re down on our luck”, and talk about having bad luck.

Luck is all about chance. It assumes that things that go on in life are out of anyone’s control, and from a human perspective that’s actually what people want. Do you think luck explains why some people get all the breaks and others don’t? What if there is such a thing as a sovereign God? The word Sovereign means that someone is exercising supreme authority or rule.” So if there is someone who exercises supreme authority or rule and is in complete control, that doesn’t leave much room for luck does it?

We’re going to see in and that there is a far better explanation for the outcome of Joseph’s story than just pure luck.

Background

Just before we jump into this passage I think it’s important to stop and look at what has happened so far in Josephs life to get him to the point in our story.

Genesis literally means “beginnings”. So the book of Genesis really explains how a sovereign God began our world, how he formed the nation of Israel. We also see how God selects a family through which Jesus would come through (Abraham’s family) and how God chose to bless the world through them. We see already that nothing happened by chance, God is in control and we see Him working out His master plan.

We see God begin by promising a miracle son to Abraham and Sarah, and he makes them wait 25 years to deliver on that promise. Waiting is extremely hard, especially when it’s something that you’ve always wanted and particularly when it’s something that’s physically impossible. What’s something that you had to wait for? (waiting for my bike at 16). But we see for Abraham that at the end of his life he was able to say, to paraphrase, “God is so great, I can trust Him and wait.”

We then read about Isaac, who was the miracle son of Abraham and Sarah. We see that when Isaac was 40 years old that there wasn’t anyone around suitable for him to marry! But then we see God miraculously provide for him a wife (Rebekah), again proving that a Sovereign God was and is in control and that His plan was good. Because God’s plans are not late, but they are always worth the wait.

From what we read, Isaac and Rebekah did a terrible job parenting their twin boys, Jacob and Esau! We see each parent pick a favorite child and selfishly manipulate the other to get what they wanted for their favorite child. How any of these of brothers survived without killing the other is either pure luck or another way we get to see God in complete control and working out his master plan in his perfect time.

We the see God turn Jacob, one of the twin brothers, from a lier and a polygamist into a great and respected patriarch.

And this change only has one explanation, God who is in control and is working out his amazing sovereign plan.

And so finally, we get to , and we see the story focus on Jacob’s favorite son, Joseph. Pretty funny that in biblical times we see parent’s choose their favorite among their kids. I’m the oldest in my family, I have 2 other brothers, and each of us claim to be our mother’s favorite, which she claims not to have any, I even brought her a Christmas ornament that has on it “First Born, Mom’s Favorite”, which get’s put on the tree each year so I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.

But as we read through this chapter, it’s important to know that God’s name isn’t mentioned once in the entire chapter. And for this family it seems like everything is spiralling out of control. We’re going to read the first 11 verses of this chapter and I want you to try to see if you can find the 4 signs of trouble in Jacob’s family.

English Standard Version Chapter 37

37 Jacob lived in gthe land of his father’s sojournings, in the land of Canaan.

2 These are the generations of Jacob.

Joseph, being seventeen years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. And Joseph brought ha bad report of them to their father. 3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was ithe son of his old age. And he made him ja robe of many colors.1 4 But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him.

5 Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more. 6 He said to them, “Hear this dream that I have dreamed: 7 Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, kmy sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and lbowed down to my sheaf.” 8 His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to rule over us?” So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.

9 Then he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers and said, “Behold, I have dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” 10 But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and myour mother and your brothers indeed come nto bow ourselves to the ground before you?” 11 And ohis brothers were jealous of him, pbut his father kept the saying in mind.

2 These are the generations of Jacob.

I. Four signs of trouble in Jacob’s family ()

h [, ]

One of the signs of trouble relates to Jacob, two relate to Joseph and the last relates to the older brothers.

[Someone want to read for us again ?]

i ch. 44:20

1. The first sign of trouble in Jacob’s family was that Joseph was a tattle-tale. - Joseph was a tattle-tale. ()

j ver. 23, 32

[Someone want to read for us ?]

1 See Septuagint, Vulgate; or (with Syriac) a robe with long sleeves. The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain; also verses 23, 32

These guys were career shepherds, a job which came with a lot of responsibility, and also had a ton of free time. What would you expect if you had to spend all day watching sheep eat grass. And with all this free time and with no one to look after them we see that Joseph’s older brothers pretty much gave up on being model citizens. We don’t know what they did wrong, but what we do know is that when they got home Joseph ratted them out.

We don’t know what Joseph’s motives were for telling on his brothers, maybe he was a really good guy who had a conscience or maybe he wanted to make himself look better than his brothers, we don’t know! But whatever it was we know that it didn’t sit well with his brothers. And this is where his problems began.

k ch. 42:6, 9

[Someone want to read for us ?]

l ch. 43:26; 44:14

2. The second sign of trouble was that Jacob played favorites. ()

m [ch. 35:18]

[Someone want to read for us ?]

n ver. 7, 9

Let’s play a quick game. I’m going to have 2 options flash on the screen, all you need to do is to shout out which option is your favorite. For example, it’ll say, “Nike or Adidas,” I would shout out Adidas because that’s my favorite. Ok, let’s give it a shot.

(Quick Game)

Now let’s change the category. I don’t want you to answer these questions out loud at all. Which is your favorite? Mom or dad? Grandma or Grandpa? Sister or brother?

p [, ]

Something feels wrong about answering these last questions doesn’t it? It should! Families are supposed to be places of unconditional love, aren’t they? And the problem that we have here is that Jacob didn’t love all of his children or his wives unconditionally. He played favorites. It’s one thing to have a favorite candy or brand but it’s totally wrong to have a favorite family member. This is the second sign of family trouble.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016. Print.

3. Joseph announced his superiority to the family?

[Someone want to read for us ?]

It’s pretty obvious for us now that Joseph was fairly naive at this stage of his life. In his first dream he saw these sheaves (which are like bales of grain) bow down to him. And Joseph thought it was a great idea to announce this dream to his brothers. Not only that but he decided to share another dream that he had with them. In his second dream Joseph dreamt that the sun, moon and eleven stars, which represented his whole family, bowed down to him. Everyone understood that these dreams meant that they would bow down to them someday, but as you would expect they were terrible offended by it.

Again we don’t know exactly how Joseph presented this information to his brothers. Maybe he really wanted to rub it in their faces, maybe he really just wanted them to know this cool thing that he dreamt. Joseph clearly hadn’t learned that the path to greatness is never found by announcing how great you are. And it would be wise for us to take note of this and to learn from Joesph’s mistake.

The fourth and final sign of trouble in Jacob’s family was that the older brothers didn’t confront the sin in their own hearts.

4. The older brothers did not confront the sin in their own hearts. (, &11)

[Can someone read and someone else read & 11 for us?]

Did anyone notice that the word hated was used 3 times? Joseph’s brothers hated him for his dreams and they were jealous of him. Both of these are heart-level sins. We might want to think that their sins were excusable or that the bigger problems were with Joseph and Jacob, but let’s ask a key question: Are heart sins a big deal to God or is he more concerned about the stuff that becomes public?

We see Jesus answer this in - “18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person.” It’s pretty obvious from this verse that God is seriously concerned about our hearts. Guys our hearts are the source of our sins, so we have to fight sin in our lives on this level. It is no less sinful just because it remains hidden for a time. People see our outward appearances, but God knows and sees our heart.

Josephs brothers’ heart sins of jealousy and hatred would eventually lead to betrayal of Joseph and cover-up lies. We need to take the sins of our hearts very seriously, to make sure we don’t repeat these things. Guys if we don’t confront these sins in our hearts and stop them then we can easily find ourselves doing things just like what Joseph’s brothers where about to do to him.

18 But awhat comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person.

You see, we find out as we continue the story that Joseph was sent by his dad to “check on” his brothers. For him to do this he had to walk nearly 100 miles to a place called Dothan. During this trip we see Joseph’s luck run out. Things went from bad to worse in his life. His brothers put together a plan to kill him. But Joseph’s older bother Reuben was able to convince the other brothers not to kill him, but instead to throw him into an old dry well. They ripped off a special colourful coat that his father gave him and dipped it in blood, so they could convince their father that Joseph had been killed by a wild animal. To make sure that their brother disappeared forever they even sold him to some traders.

a ch. 12:34;

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016. Print.

This family was in shambles. And this was because everyone in this family was thinking about themselves. And because of that things quickly spiraled out of control.

Even if we could fix all of this families problem with good, godly counsel there is a far greater lesson to be learned. To see the bigger picture of Josephs story we have to take a giant step back until we can see the framework of God’s sovereignty surrounding the issues in Jacob’s family. What does that mean? God’s sovereign plans are always good, even when they include sinful people and horrible, hurtful crimes. Nothing happens by accident - not even Joseph being abused by his brothers and sold into slavery. God doesn’t cause bad things to happen but there are times were he lets things happen so that we can see him step into our lives and our stories in incredible ways.

Though he was in pain, Joseph learned what it meant to trust God and live for Him every step of the journey. We can see that he was hurting emotionally and physically. But even in the midst of this pain, his actions scream this truth, “God is so great, I can trust Him and wait”. Through faith, Joseph seemed to be anchored to an immovable God. And we can see some traps that Joseph avoided because he waited on God.

1. He did not blame God.

Even though he didn’t get new dreams to reconfirm his future greatness, he didn’t blame God or question. He didn’t ask God “Where are you now?”. He had no idea what God was doing in his life, but his faith helped him live in a way where he trusted God and didn’t blame or question him. His life echoed the truth in this lesson, “God is so great, I can trust Him and wait.”

2. He never got depressed

Even without answers for where God was taking him, he never seemed to get depressed. And we know this because as we read , he still gave his best and made the most of the situation as a slave in Egypt. Trusting God to keep him out of the darkness of depression.

3. He fought fear and worry

Apparently, Joseph trusted God because he fought fear and worry. In our story we don’t read that Joseph asking question to God like “Will I ever see my Dad again?”. We can believe that he probably prayed about these things, but God is silent about these things at this point in his life.

Amazingly, Joseph was able to live out the truth of long before it was written. Someone want to turn there quickly and read that for me? “7 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices!”

7 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;

When Joseph felt that God was silent because wickedness was getting the upper hand, the testimony of Joseph’s actions said, “God is so great, I can trust Him and wait.” Guys Joseph waited in faith for God to turn the page of his story and show him what was in the next chapter of his life.

fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,

Connection

over the man who carries out evil devices!

Do situations in your life ever turn out differently than expected? Has God ever written unexpected twists and turns into the story of your life like He did for Joseph? I’m sure he has, I know he has in my life. What is a good response to surprise trials that God allows in our lives? Do we just chalk it up to “bad luck”?

Guys a lot of committed Christian students really struggle with loneliness because they try to live in a way that pleases God. Generally, fun-seeking, rule-breaking, non-Jesus-following friends don’t usually want to hang out with people who listen to their conscience and talk about God. If we were the authors of our story, we would definitely erase that part. But we know God is sovereign, that he has complete control of our lives.

And we know that when he includes tough things like loneliness in our stories its always with a bigger purpose. He is the author. We are just the characters in the story. So while, we may not understand why we are hurting at the time, He wants us to be able to trust him in our loneliness and say, “God is so great, I can trust Him and wait.”

All of us probably know someone who has struggled with something really difficult in their lives, a trial. You might be the person who is struggling right now. What kind of trials have caught you by surprise? Like have there been situations in your life that have you scratching your hear asking, “God, what are you doing, or why are you letting this happen?” I don’t want to you share any names, but just throw out maybe something that may have caught you by surprise?

[Examples - {stuggles at home with an unsaved parent, not making a team, family member getting cancer, pet that dies, divorce, failing a class, misunderstandings with friends? - PERSONAL - losing my step-dad in a bike accident.]

Choice

We all get surprised by many hurts throughout our lives, but do we need to understand why God is allowing us to experience hurts and struggles in order to trust him? No, we don’t. Because if we believe that God is sovereign and good, then we know He has complete control over our lives. Guys, patient faith will free us to be able to say from our heart, “God is so great, I can trust Him and wait.”

Our feelings will fight against this choice. It’s part of our human nature to want to control every detail of our lives. You see, we might struggle with feelings of fear, anxiety, doubt or depression but we are not victims of our feelings. We can always choose to trust God, even while we cannot see what He’s doing.

h ver. 1

Guys there will be a day in our lives where God will shine light on the situations that we face and it will all make sense. But until we get to that time, we need to wait and Trust Him.

So as we finish up our time tonight, there maybe some of you who need to pray a prayer of surrender. Telling God that you want to give Him total control of your situation. Telling God that you want to trust Him, even though you do not know how your trials are going to turn out. I would encourage you to pray that prayer of surrender, asking God to help you out in your current struggle. Commit yourself to Him.

Or maybe you’re in a different spot. Maybe God has brought you through a recent trial and life feels pretty good. While others are praying and committing their struggles to God why don’t you do something a little different. Thank God for what he’s done for you. And also take some time to pray for someone who is currently struggling. You may not know their current situation; that’s okay. Pray for them to have the strength to trust God and to wait. You prayer might just be what God uses to help them to get through.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016. Print.

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