Can We Find Anyone Else Like This Series

Can We Find Anyone Else Like This?

Grant van Boeschoten

December 9, 2007

The word transform is made up of two root words, trans and form.

Trans means across.

Ex. Trans Canada Highway, the highway that stretches the whole way across Canada.

Form means “external appearance of a clearly defined area”.

Ex. A chair is a form, a ball is a form.

Put the two words together and you get transform, one external appearance that stretches across to another.

We are constantly talking about transformation in our Church, because it is the vision of this Church to transform the Eckville Region. It is in one condition and appearance now, but when we have achieved our vision it will look brand new, and the condition will be fresh, Holy and full of God.

Eckville will be a model for how God can take a town and transform it for his glory. People will get saved as the story of the transformation is told to them.

For us in the church today though, we need to understand how a transformation can happen. How do we get from where we are today, to where God wants us to be?

How do you transform your family from the condition that it is in today, to the Holy Place that God had in mind when he created your family.

Our story today is one of transformation. It is also about a broken family that finds hope, a broken family that is restored by the hand of God, and the obedience of a man named Joseph.

Joseph had 11 brothers, 10 of which hated him. That is a rough beginning. One of the reasons why his brothers did not like Joseph is that Jacob, Joseph’s father loved him more than the others. Why?

Jacob had two wives, and one he loved much more than the other. He worked seven years fulfilling a contract that he made with Laban to marry Rachel. But on the wedding night Laban deceived him and Jacob woke up in the morning to find Leah at his side.

So he worked for another seven years for the woman that he had always wanted, Rachel. But Leah still bore Jacob sons. Rachel had difficulty conceiving children and so she only had 2 boys in comparison with Leah who had 6. The wives also each had a maid who both gave birth to 2 boys each. But Joseph was Rachel’s first born boy, and Jacob’s favorite.

Jacob made for Joseph a special coat, and all of the other brothers were very jealous. A deep hate began to stir in that family and the brothers could not even speak peaceable to Joseph.

One night Joseph had a prophetic dream from God. In this dream Joseph and his family were out in the fields at harvest time, binding together bundles or sheaves of grain. Miraculously, the sheaves take on human strength and Joseph’s sheave stands up right on its own while his parent’s sheaves and his brother’s sheaves bow down to Joseph’s.

Joseph wakes up from his dream very excited. He tells everybody what he dreamed and no interpreter is necessary, everybody can see the meaning of the dream. Joseph will rise to a place in life where even his family will bow down to him.

Believe it or not, Joseph’s family were not as nearly as excited as Joseph was about the dream. They were, in fact, a little bit upset with him for having such a ridiculous dream from God.

Joseph’s brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us? Are you indeed to have dominion over us?”

And they hated him even more because of his dreams and his words.

Then Joseph had a second prophetic dream which reinforced the first. In this dream the sun the moon and 11 stars bowed down to Joseph. The interpretation was the same as the first, Joseph would rise to a place in life where his family would bow down to him.

Not surprisingly, the brother’s hate grew towards Joseph and even his parents did not understand what Joseph was dreaming.

NEXT SLIDE: Confirmation

A quick side note to the story is that often times when God gives you a vision he will confirm it. He gave Joseph a second dream to confirm the first. It is not a bad thing to search for confirmation from God. Gideon put out his fleece, Moses asked for a sign and Shepherds were told exactly where to look to see if what the angels said to them was true.

Joseph’s family was quickly becoming a dysfunctional family. There was one father and 4 different mothers, and a whole assortment of kids who had to figure their way through it all. And Joseph had the call of God on his life.