The Life Of Joseph/ Trials To Triumph

The life of Joseph/ Trials to Triumph

Selected Scripture from Genesis 39-41

We are going to read Genesis chapter 39, 40, 41…just kidding.

We are going to look at parts of each of these chapters. Maybe this week you could take as your reading this account of Joseph.

We are going to look at the life of Joseph.

His trials and what God did with those trials to make him be the person he was.

What he needed to go through so that God could use him at the right time.

Introduction-

Have you ever wondered why stuff just keeps happening? I have had that talk with some friends this week.

Have you ever been to a breaking point and said “I cannot take anymore”

Uttered the words “Nothing good can come out of this”

Of course you have- We all have said them in the midst of a storm.

The life of Joseph is one example of God making something good out of something bad.

You read chapters upon chapters of things that just bombard this man and his family and you think this has got to be the plot of a movie.

From the time his brothers plotted against him (Chapter 37) to kill him because they were jealous of his daddy’s love- His coat of many colors. His faked death by a wild animal by his brothers. His brothers jealous of his dream that God gave him yelling, “Here comes the dreamer.”

“Abducted and taken by force to Egypt to be a slave.”

“Pharaohs wife accusing him of seduction after almost ripping his clothes off of him.”

“Being put in prison on those false charges.”

“Spending years in a prison for something he did not do. With people who were suppose to get him out.

Either God has a bad sense of humor or God has a plan for us even in our trials.

I believe He has a plan- Plan A, God’s Best, well thought out plan for you and for me.

Job, Joseph, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Moses, all faced trials that appeared to them at the time as God turning His back to find out that God never left, He was there all the time.

You know what makes the Bible powerful?

Few find it not because God doesn’t want to reveal it to us, but because we refuse to look and believe it.

The Bible is powerful because it has the power to convict.

The power to equip.

The power to provide wisdom.

The power to change your life even in a bad situation.

The power of His Holy Spirit to provide comfort, peace, strength, despite what you are going through.

God goes to a lot of trouble to show us that He desires a relationship with us, not just knowing of God, but knowing God personally.

How do you imagine God?

Someone who keeps you safe?

Someone who supplies your needs?

Someone who does for you only what you ask Him to do? A Genie if you will.

Someone who gives a lot of rules and take the fun out of your life?

The bible is the written Word of God- Each example, each parable, each story is a reflection of the relationship that God wants to establish with you.

Commentary-

“We can learn Greek and Hebrew and Aramaic so we can read the Bible in its original language, we can study and practice archeology so we can recover and understand more about the civilizations with whom God dealt in the past. We can study every bit of data there is to know about God, His Church, and His Word, but if we do not know God, we have accomplished nothing.”

We must seek Relationship- God desires us to know Him. Knowing that even when we go through trials and sufferings, He has not turned His back on us.

We must see God’s Nature- We don’t turn our backs on God- we turn our backs on the counterfeit things of this world.

We must see His attributes- We serve an all powerful God. We must see a Holy God.

We can trust that His words and His love for us never changes.

We can know Him personally- Because God has chosen to reveal Himself to us.

We must see our need for God- I must rely on the merit of Christ rather than myself. I am not God, He is to be my God.

If you understand this, you will look at your situations differently. Instead of being glad that is not me as you read of these men and their trials, you would see that if God has brought these men through these trials He will bring us through them because He does not love them more than He loves you and me. Amen.