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.
Joseph’s brothers were out watching the flock, and Jacob sent Joseph to go and see how they were doing. This wasn’t the first time that Joseph went to check up on his brothers. It is mentioned earlier in chapter 37 that Joseph had given a bad report once before.
It is not necessarily that Joseph was a snitch; it probably was more so that his father could trust him. Joseph had sound character and he was a young man of integrity.
So Joseph is sent by his father to Shechem, which is the place where Abraham built his first altar to God. But when Joseph gets there he cannot find his brothers and so he asks around and finds out that they have gone to Dothan.
Joseph journeys to Dothan and as he approaches his brothers see him coming off in the distance. “Here comes the dreamer” they say and the hate begins to stir as each brother adds fuel to the fire with his words.
Their complaining and hatred soon turn into a plan to kill Joseph. “Let’s kill him and throw him into a pit, and then we will see what has become of his dreams.”
Reuben, who was the firstborn of all the boys, said “I don’t think that this is such a good idea to kill him. Why don’t we just tie him up and throw him into a pit. That way we don’t have to actually kill him, we don’t have to have his blood on our hands.”
This seemed like a good idea to everybody so when Joseph came along they stripped him of his coat and threw him into a dried up and deserted well.
The guys sat down to eat and the Bible doesn’t say where Reuben went, but it was certainly away. Reuben had planned in his heart to come back and rescue Joseph when the timing was in his favor. He wanted to do the right thing, but he would not stand up for Joseph in the presence of his brothers.
How many of you know that The time to do the right thing is right now! And doing the right thing might bring you embarrassment, and it might bring you down in the eyes of wicked people. But if you miss your moment to do the right thing, it may never come again.
The brothers were sitting down to lunch and Reuben was away somewhere. It just so happens that a caravan of slave traders was making their way through Dothan and the brothers said to themselves, “Why should we be responsible for the death of our own brother, that’s just wrong. Instead, let’s sell him into slavery and we won’t have his blood on our hands.”
So they sold Joseph to the caravan for 20 pieces of silver, and at the age of 17, Joseph’s life took on a path that he never saw coming.
Reuben returned from somewhere to find that his brother had been sold into slavery, and he found out that he had missed his moment to do the right thing, and he might never get the opportunity to fix what had gone so terribly wrong.
The brothers took Joseph’s coat and splattered animal blood all over it. And when they returned home the told their father Jacob that his favorite son had been devoured by a wild beast, and Jacob went into deep mourning for Joseph.
Could this family be reunited? Who has the power to fix what went wrong. Who has the authority to restore a family that was controlled by hate and jealousy?
The answer is God. God had the power to fix what was wrong with that family 4000 years ago and that same God has the power to fix the dysfunctional families of today. He works through us. He finds people that are obedient and faithful and willing to be used, and God still has the power to restore families today.
Joseph’s family was in disarray. His brothers were living with extreme guilt on their lives, not one of them owned up to their lie. His father and mother were living in depression, the wonderful, godly, precious little boy Joseph had been killed by a wild beast.
In reality Joseph was being shipped off to Egypt as a slave. He was sold into the house of an Egyptian, named Potipher who was captain of the guard. Here is where we see what type of character Joseph had. Here is where we see how strong his faith in God was.
Here is where we also learn an important lesson in life. Life can be a series of valley and mountain top experiences, but it is your time in the Valley that prepares you for the Mountain top.
It is your time in the valley that prepares you for the mountain top.
Joseph was in a valley, but he remained faithful to God. In fact the Bible even goes so far to say that “The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a very successful man.”
Joseph was sold as a slave, but his attitude was, “Whatever you do, do it as unto the Lord,” and he was the best slave that he could be. He was an honest worker, he was a faithful man, he worked with his master’s interest in mind and God caused everything that he did to prosper.
He did so well that Potipher took notice and promoted him to overseer of his house and he put Joseph in charge of everything that he had.
Joseph’s life is the story of transformation, and one of the important lessons that we need to pull from him is this;
Be a person of excellence when you are in the valley and when you are on the mountain. Be a person of excellence when the circumstances around you are horrible, when you are at the bottom of the pit, when it looks as if things could not get any worse; Consistently be a person of excellence.
Joseph’s surrounding’s did not determine his character, instead they proved it. Anyone can be excellent when the eyes of the world are on them, but it takes a person of excellence to have that consistency through all seasons of life.
For a church to transform a city, it must be a people of excellence day in and day out. For what we are when we are in a valley will prepare us for the mountain top.
We can’t lower our standards, we can’t lessen our expectations, we can’t afford to be less than what God has called us to be. We must be excellent in season and out of season if we want to be part of transformation.
Joseph was excellent in the house of Potipher, and he was elevated to a Mountain Top experience in his life. Potipher had so much trust in Joseph that he only cared about the food that he ate. He didn’t care about finances, he didn’t care about the other slaves, he didn’t care about anything but food, because his trust in Joseph was so strong.
Now Joseph was handsome and good looking. And after a time his master’s wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, “Lie with me.”
But Joseph refused and said to her, “Look, Potipher has placed so much trust and confidence in me, he has put everything under my supervision and how could I betray that trust by taking the one thing that he has held back from me, you. How then could I do this great sin and wickedness against God?”
And Potipher’s wife began to hound Joseph, day after day she tried to seduce him and day after day he said no.
One day however, when Joseph went into the house to work he found himself alone in the home with no one but the seducing woman. She came to him, grabbed onto his robe and said, “Lie with me.” And Joseph did the only thing that he could do, he ran away. But that woman wouldn’t let go of his robe and so as he ran she pulled it off of him and she held on to it as he fled the scene.
And Potipher’s wife did what many people do when their lusts and passions aren’t fulfilled, she blamed somebody else. Her false love turned to violent anger. “Rape!” she cried out, and she held onto to Joseph’s robe until her husband Potipher got home, and when he heard his wife accusing Joseph of rape he was enraged and had Joseph thrown into prison.
The process of transformation is not always glory to glory you know. It’s not always moving from one mountain to the next. Often times there is a test called a valley in the middle, and your character once again is given the opportunity to prove itself.
Joseph is thrown in the king’s prison, and he once again finds himself with all the pieces of his life thrown out the window. Everything that he worked so hard for was for nothing, one wrongful accusation had landed him in the worst possible place.
Joseph was a foreign slave in prison with the sentence of rape hanging over his head. Branded a sexual offender, and his chances of release were slim to none.
But remember, it is your time in the valley that prepares you for the mountain top. And your surroundings do not determine your character, they reveal it.
And Joseph was a man excellence in the valley and on the mountain top. He was man of integrity when life was good and his integrity remained intact when everything seemed lost.
Joseph continued to be a man of excellence in the prison, and the prison guard saw that the Lord was with Joseph. The Chief Jailer committed to Joseph’s care all the prisoners who were in the prison, and whatever was done there Joseph was responsible for it.
You know, it takes a special kind of person to be able to rise to the top no matter what the situation is. It takes a person with character and integrity and faith in God.
It’s not difficult to praise God on the mountain top, but in the valley how many of us still believe that God is supreme and in control. You might be thinking about the situation that you find yourself in today, you might be saying, “If God really loved me this wouldn’t be happening.”
Those are not words of action though. They are not words of faith. They are words that will bring death to you. Either you believe that God is everything that he says or you don’t. He doesn’t change.
God is God at the top of the mountain and God is God when you are stuck in the King’s dungeon, accused of sexual offense and sentenced to life.
Joseph continued to be a man of excellence in the King’s prison. Some time after this two of the King’s officers were thrown into prison and they both had a dream from God on the same night. When Joseph saw them the next morning he noticed that they both were troubled.
“What’s the matter?” he asked. “We have both had troubling dreams and there is no one who can interpret them.”
Do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me.
And the two men told their dreams to Joseph, and with the help of God Joseph correctly interpreted both dreams. One man was restored to his position in the Kingdom as Pharoah’s chief cupbearer and the other, a baker, was hung to die.
The thing that I think is important is that Joseph did not take undue credit. He asked the cupbearer to remember him once he was released, but he did not take credit for what God had done.
That is what Humility looks like. You are available to be used by God to do miraculous things for God, but at the same time, God gets the credit.
The American Heritage Dictionary defines humble as being “Marked by meekness or modesty in behavior, attitude, or spirit; not arrogant or prideful.”
It is no sin to do great things for God, but it is wrong to be prideful about it.
Humility is a character trait of a transforming church.
Psalm 147:6 (NLT)
6 The Lord supports the humble, but he brings the wicked down into the dust.
God supported Joseph, and even thought the cup bearer forgot to keep his end of the bargain, Joseph’s character remained intact.
Two years passed and God gave Pharaoh a prophetic dream. Pharaoh was troubled because he could not figure out what the dream meant and no one could help him.
It was then that the cup bearer remembered his time in the king’s prison 2 years earlier, and how he had a dream and Joseph and correctly interpreted his dream. So he told his story to the King and Joseph was called for. He had a shower and a shave and he appeared before the King, or Pharaoh as he was called.
Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I hear that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.”
Joseph answered, “It is not I; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.”
And God did. Joseph with the help of God correctly interpreted this prophetic dream. God was going to bring a massive famine on all the land for 7 years, but he was going to first bless Egypt with 7 amazing years of crops.
Joseph gave the interpretation, and then Pharaoh asked for his advice. Joseph laid out the plan for how Egypt would be able to survive this coming devastation, and the plan was perfect and the plan was exactly what Pharaoh needed to hear.
Pharaoh said to his workers, “Can we find anyone else like this – one in whom is the spirit of God.”
And Joseph was promoted from prisoner to Prime Minister.
Pharaoh took of his signet ring of authority and placed it on Joseph’s finger. He gave him authority over the land of Egypt and Joseph went from the darkest valley of his life to the Highest Mountain top.
Did you ever stop to think that sometimes the trials and the hard times that you are going through, the valleys, are times in your life that God is able to test your character. They are times of training where God prepares you for a wonderful and awesome role to play.
The question is, will you be faithful through the valley, through the hard times.
• Will you hang on to the promises of God when the world is falling in all around you?
• Will you continue to trust in God when it seems as if your trust has only got you in trouble?
• Will your integrity remain in tact, or will you allow the circumstances to convince you to violate your conscience and the word of God.
We need to have this understanding in life, the valley’s are our chance to learn, to grow and to prepare for the mountain top.
Joseph was a man of excellence in Potipher’s home, in the Pharaoh’s Prison and now he continued to be a man of Excellence as Prime Minister of Egypt.
For 7 years he gathered grain and prepared Egypt for the famine. When the famine came Egypt was well prepared, in fact, Egypt was so well prepared that they had food for sale for the surrounding nations as well.
Joseph’s father heard about the grain in Egypt, and because of the famine he needed to buy some. And so 10 of Joseph’s brothers were sent to Egypt to buy grain. Of course, they did not realize that Joseph was still alive, much less Prime Minister of Egypt, so they did not recognize him when they came to buy the grain.
Joseph, on the other hand, immediately recognized his brothers. He did not reveal who he was though right away. Over a period time and tests, Joseph found that his family was not the same as he had remembered. The hate was not there and his brothers had turned into honest men.
There was now a choice before Joseph. Would he cling to the past or would he reunite his family. The truth is that Joseph had been making that choice for the past 13 years. This is not the type of decision that is made on the spot.
Forgiveness is the type of decision that is lived out everyday in your life. Living in forgiveness frees you up to love and to live and to get on with your life.
Joseph lived in forgiveness, and when the opportunity came, he did not hold the offence over his brother’s head. But he provided for them a home in Egypt. His father’s entire family relocated to the place that God had prepared for them through Joseph for that point in time.
Jacob cried as he was reunited with his son that he thought was dead. He wept with joy as he saw how the hand of God had used his very own son to do such amazing things in Egypt.
It is a family that was reunited through forgiveness and hatred that was turned to love.
And it is a story of transformation. How did Joseph go from favored son to slave. From slave to head of Potipher’s house. From Potipher’s house to prison. And from Prison to Prime Minister.
He had these character qualities.
1. He was a man excellence.
a. Excellent in the valley and excellent on the mountain top.
Ephesians 6:5-8 (NLT)
5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ.
6 Try to please them all the time, not just when they are watching you. As slaves of Christ, do the will of God with all your heart.
7 Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.
8 Remember that the Lord will reward each one of us for the good we do, whether we are slaves or free.
2. Joseph was humble, did not take God’s credit.
James 3:13-18 (NLT)
13 If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom.
14 But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying.
15 For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic.
16 For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind.
17 But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere.
18 And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.
Pharaoh asked his servants, “Can we find anyone else like this?” and I am asking the same question today.
Are there people like this in our church? People who live consistent lives for God, whose surroundings will not corrupt their character, but rather the surrounding, will prove their character.
Can we find anyone else like this, people who are going through valley’s because God has got a mountain top that he is preparing you for. And that valley as lonely and as cold and as frightening as it is, will be worth the pain and endurance that it takes to make it through.
Can we find anyone else like this, people who live in Forgiveness everyday, they are not taken out by offence, but they live above offence as they practice the principles of forgiveness.
Can we find anyone else like this – one in whom is the Spirit of God.
Yes, we can. They are here, they are among us. We are being shaped, formed, put through the fire, so that we can be a part of the transformation that God is planning for our town.
We will be a people who are excellent in the valley, and when that Mountain Top Comes, we will be proven and prepared for what God has in store.
