Lessons Learned from Joseph

For the past several weeks, we’ve been learning about the life of Joseph in our study of Genesis. Most people know the story – he was a favored son who was sold into slavery by his brothers and later saved the ancient world by interpreting a dream for Pharoah. Whether you have a relationship with Jesus or not, it’s a great read. Joseph's story begins in Genesis 37 as a teenage dreamer. There are many lessons to take from his life (Gen 37, Gen 39-48). We’ll only discuss five of them here and the first one we see happened when he was just 17. 

1. You can’t share your dreams with everyone, not even those closest to you (Prov 14:16 NLT). You have to pray and be discerning about who you can trust with where God is taking you. Joseph shared his dreams with his brothers and because he was already the favored child, they were jealous and wanted to kill him. Was he oblivious to their jealousy or was he rubbing their noses in his dreams? We’ll never know, but we do know that when it was convenient, their own insecurities and hatred led them to selling Joseph into slavery. Of course, God orchestrated it so Joseph ended up in Egypt, where He was taking him to be elevated in time. However, the brothers’ actions were selfish and lacked compassion. One way or another, God would have moved so that Joseph’s dreams came true, but God gives us all the right to choose the path we will take, and the one Joseph’s brothers took was a sinful one. 
2. Don’t complain – do the work. Instead of complaining about his plight and focusing on what he no longer had, Joseph focused on doing the work. He learned the language and developed his leadership skills. He learned to organize and keep things in order. While he was waiting for what God would do with his life, he was busy preparing. He didn’t try to elevate himself, He waited for God to elevate Him. 
3. There is power in forgiveness (Luke 6:27-37). Even though Joseph was separated from His family for more than twenty years (part of that time in prison), he forgave his brothers for selling Him. He was not bound by the betrayal of his brothers. He didn’t hold anger against Potiphar’s wife who lied on him. He was free, even when he was in bondage. Joseph went on to live a fruitful life in a foreign land and God prospered everything he touched. By not holding on to anger, Joseph was able to take hold of his actions and respond, not react, to the things that happened to him. 
4. A man’s gifts will make room for him and bring him before the great (Prov 18:16). Throughout Joseph’s life, his gifts of organization and his godly wisdom brought him into leadership roles. We see it with Potiphar, the jailer and finally, Pharoah. Joseph diligently and faithfully did the work for whatever position he filled using his gifts and doors were opened unto him. 
5. God is ultimately in control. Joseph knew this and that God’s hand was on His life. Whether in Potiphar’s house, the jail, or as second in command of Egypt, Joseph always remembered God was with him and had His hand on Joseph’s life. Joseph refused to sin with Potiphar’s wife because, it was a sin against God even in slavery. Joseph knew God was with Him even when he was wrongfully jailed. He understood that his abilities were God given abilities. While God doesn’t control our actions, He controls the outcomes. At every turn, Joseph was obedient and he was elevated even in captivity. 

Remember that no matter what is going on in your life or what situation you face, God is a promise keeper. Remember to wait on His timing and not to make it happen yourself as we saw with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It never works out well - there are always adverse consequences (some that will last for millennia). Our sin comes out of our choosing in our own knowledge and selfishness, and not following God’s leading. Let's learn the lessons and live a more fulfilling life. 

God is Still Good

God is good! No matter what we are facing, He IS good (Psa 103:8). That is hard sometimes to grasp because the world can be a treacherous place and bad things happen to threaten our happiness and comfort. We tend to think of anything that makes us unhappy or sad as bad. But if we think about our lives, there are always things that cause great pain at the same time as things involving great joy (thanks Pastor Craig).

I recently lost someone who has been like an aunt to me most of my life and I will miss her dearly, but at the same time I just celebrated my mom's birthday. The fact that I am suffering this loss doesn’t make God any less good. If fact, the fact that I am grieving speaks to the love that I felt. When I consider the experience, I wouldn't wish away the years I had with her to prevent the pain of losing her. 

I recently heard the story of Katherine Wolf (thanks Desperate for Jesus), who provides some interesting perspective around suffering well. And finding joy in what we do Have, not what we don't.  This speaks to learning to be content regardless of our circumstances.  Even when it's painful or we have circumstances we can to choose to be joyful. The scriptures tell us to rejoice in all things (1 Thes 5:16-17; Phil 4:4). We have to remember He is working all things together for the good of those who love Him (Rom 8:28). He cannot lie (Tit 1:2), which means he is trustworthy. He does what He says He will do.

This is a clear reminder that God IS good.....not because we deserve it, but because that is who He is. We can trust Him! 

Are you selfish?

If someone asked you, “Are you selfish?”, how would you respond? I like to think I’m not very selfish and when I really take a look at myself, I have to admit I’m very selfish about somethings in my life. My time is one of those things. I love “me” time and I guard it like a sentry at Buckingham Palace. Some would say, there’s nothing wrong with that. And I would normally agree, but I will guard my time to the expense of what God may be calling me to do. 

We are called to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength; and then to love our neighbor as ourselves (Mark 12:30-31). And I find that I may be lacking there. I know, I’m not perfect and I will make mistakes or sin. But I thought I was further along than I am, until I did a bit of self-reflection. I realized that sometimes I “love” God when it is convenient for me or when my priorities are met. I found that sometimes I lose sight of the fact God created me for His glory and not the other way around. 

I sometimes put my own stuff ahead of His calling on my life. For example, I sometimes find myself playing video games, when I should be spending time with Him. Does that sound like a big thing? Not necessarily, but at the end of the day, that is me putting my own desires ahead of Him. I’m not saying He never wants us to have downtime or play time or whatever we need to be rested and able to pour out to whoever He brings our way. But I am saying, our motives matter. If the only one I’m concerned about is myself (which I’ve found is sometimes the case), I’m operating in an incorrect posture because we should be seeking the good of others (1 Cor 10:24). I know that’s hard because we live in a society that teaches us the opposite (Thanks Pastor Craig) – it’s all about us. But it’s not – it’s all about Him. 

To be clear, God does not want us to overdo it. He wants us to rest in Him – He will give us rest (Matt 11:28-30; Psa 127:2). He wants us to be healthy – our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19-20). He wants us to be ready to pour out or serve others – when we love others, God lives in us (1 John 4:12). In my selfishness, I don’t always make the best decisions for myself. Just like everyone, I want to do what I want to do and that doesn’t always line up with God’s expectations and directions to me. I have to remember that the old me was crucified with Christ and now Christ lives in me (Gal 2:20).

So, I’m dealing with myself on what I am “loving” more than God and what I’m going to do about it. It’s definitely a process and I’m starting with time and then I’m moving to the next area. I invite you to join me. Think about the area(s) of your life, where you are putting your own desires and stuff ahead of God and his purpose for you, then take it to him to help you with it. You are not alone (Deut 31:6). We all have at least a little bit of selfishness and need the power of the Holy Spirit to help us.

The Cost of Sin

We were born in sin (Psa 51:5). All of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23). God created us in His image but we exchange our understanding for His. That is sin – anything contrary to His nature. Ever since The Fall (Gen 3), we have been looking at God through the lenses of our own faithlessness. We don’t surrender to Him because we don’t really believe He is faithful and will provide for us. Somewhere along the way, we really began to believe that we were providing for ourselves. That if God didn’t come through, we could use our gifts and talents to take care of ourselves. We forgot that the Word is true – we can do nothing without Him (John 15:5). 

Have you ever imagined what sin really costed us? It costed us separation from God (Isa 59:2). Beyond the consequences that come with sin. it costed us our image. We were created in God’s image – set apart from everything else on earth, but sin took that away from us. It costed us our innocence. How many animals have died since creation to give us clothes to wear and cover our nakedness? How much has greed and love for money costed us? How much has selfishness costed us? How many lives have been lost to envy and hate and fear? How many have suffered because we were dependent upon ourselves for our livelihood and not dependent upon God to provide?

I wrote before that we don’t obey God because we don’t really trust Him. So, what did you give up on because you didn’t believe God could provide for you outside of your works? God is a provider and He owns the cattle on a thousand hills – he can keep you fed. What did you tell God “no” to because you didn’t really believe He would come through? God is a promise keeper. If He calls you to something, He provides a way to accomplish it, even when you can’t see it. Where was he sending you that you didn’t go, because you didn’t believe He would prepare the way before you? God goes before us to prepare the way. What are you not trusting God with because in actuality you don’t trust Him to take care of you? God takes care of His own and cares about what we care about. 

At the heart, sin is the result of our lack of faith in God (Psa 37:3-5). That is the root of it all. God is GOOD to us. We may not like the outcome, but I would bet if you look back over your life in Christ, you can point to the things that brought you closer to God and it won’t be the easy things. It’s the things that stretch and cause us pain that make us stronger (Rom 5:3-5). God uses them to build our character and our faith, showing us that He is our source, our redeemer, our protector, our everything. He also uses them to remind us that this is all temporary. We are not meant to stay here. We are visitors and He is coming back to take us home with Him – to the place that He is preparing. 

In the meantime, it is important for us to remember, Jesus suffered and died. We will suffer, too. We are not exempt from pain and problems. They will come, but He will be with us and deliver us (Psa 34:19). 

God is Holy

When you think about God being Holy, what do you think of? Some of us think about God judging us or His wrath. Some of us think of Him having an ego and being distant and not caring for us when life gets hard. But, if God is distant and doesn’t care about us or if all He does is judge us or release His wrath on us, why are we still here? Why hasn’t He destroyed us? Why does He allow us to remain? If the wages of sin is death, we all deserve to be destroyed. (Psa 103:8-12)

Jackie Hill Perry ministered tonight as part of the Desperate for Jesus (#DFJ2024) conference and she asked that question. It caught me off guard, because I’ve asked myself why would God put up with us or why does He love us so. I felt ridiculous, because the answer was staring me in the face. God is Holy – He is different than everyone and everything else (Isa 5:16). He is separate. His very nature is set apart from all things that were created – He is by nature GOOD. Not what we think of as good, by giving us the things we selfishly want or desire. He is GOOD and He is always being GOOD (Psa 100:5).  He works on the things in and around us that matter most – building us to be like Christ and trust Him like Christ trusted Him even until death. 

While we were created in God’s image, we can be tempted and give into the things that influence us. We have such limited understanding, we often reflect the miniscule knowledge from our experiences on God, not understanding what an insult that is to Him. God cannot be compared to anything else we know. He is far above anything we can think. His will is not consistent with ours (Isa 55:8-9).  He is the standard. That is why our minds must be renewed. The renewing of our minds is necessary for us to be transformed into the image of Christ (Rom 12:2) – back to the original. 

Because God is Holy, He cannot lie (Num 23:19), therefore He cannot lie to us. Because He is Holy, His Word is true. Because He is Holy, He is Merciful and that is why we are not consumed. There is none like Him (1 Sam 2:2). We take Him for granted, but He still shows us mercy that we do not and can not deserve. You may ask why I say that. When was the last time you looked at God as the standard and saw your weaknesses and sin? How did you stack up? Exactly! 

As you think about God’s Holiness, it should give you great comfort that He can be trusted (Heb 10:23). That He cares about the things you care about. Because Jesus is Holy, He loved us all enough to die for us to pay for our sins that we could be reunited with the Godhead. Even knowing the tremendous costs, Jesus (King of Kings and Lord of Lords) humbled Himself and stepped out of eternity to become a man to die for us – willingly. Because of God’s Holiness, we are not destroyed. Jesus paid the price and was destroyed in our place. Then, He got up with all power in His hands. He is Holy and Righteous and because He is, we are adopted and chosen (Eph 1:4-5). 

Praise God for His Holiness. Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts (Isa 6:1-5)!

God's Will, Not Mine

Over the past week, I’ve really given some consideration to what it means to live in God’s will vs. my own. What I realized is that what we’re really talking about is obedience vs. rebellion to God’s authority. We are born in sin and our very nature is the opposite of God’s will.  Sure, we may be “good” people according to worldly standards, but we still have utterly wicked hearts (Jer 17:9-10) and are essentially all about ourselves. Given the right set of circumstances, without Jesus, we are subject to do anything. Even with him, we will on occasion step out of who we are in God in rebellion to seek our own. For every act of rebellion against God there are negative consequences, the biggest one is the separation it causes between us and our Heavenly Father. Rebellion is sin and wages of sin are death (Rom 6:23). We get a glimpse of the consequences to our rebellion to God’s authority in Gen 3 with the Fall of Mankind.

So, God’s Will is obedience to Him and His word and to act when He tells us to……to have such faith that we don’t worry about what the future holds and take the step that is directly in front of us knowing God has already worked out the details. When we move like He tells us to move, we show we trust Him with everything. Without faith it is impossible to please God. Faith is saying “yes” when we don’t even know what we’re saying yes to, because we trust His leading and His love for us. 

When we strive to know Him better and we are transformed as we study His word and learn what His will is for us (Rom 12:1-2), our will changes to be more in line with His will (Psa 37:4). Our obedience is directly related to our level of trust in God and our belief that He loves us and has our best interest at heart, as well as, our understanding that He knows better than we do. When we disobey, we are really saying we know better than God does – just like the teenager who explains to their parents they don’t know anything the teenager is going through. Just like parents have lived what teenagers are facing and have good advice for how to navigate, God clearly already knows everything we are going through and will go through the rest of our lives. 

So, we have choices to make about whether we will seek to do God’s will – love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, body, etc., and love our neighbor as ourselves, or will we seek to do our own will – be all about ourselves and what we can get?  God is faithful (1 Cor 1:9) and He keeps His promises (Heb 10:23), but there are consequences when we go our own way and if we die in our sin, the ultimate consequences of death and hell. Accepting Jesus as personal savior, studying God’s word and following it is the best way to stay in God’s will. His will is that none would be lost (2 Pet 3:9), but that is a choice we get to make. We get to choose Him or not. Can you imagine what He can do with a willing heart and an obedient spirit? Open doors beyond measure and Him getting the glory as you walk out His calling on your lives, since we remember and acknowledge we are nothing without Him (John 15:4-5). 

Choose His will over your own and watch what He will do with your life. 

Faith and Works

How many times in your life have you let fear keep you from moving into something you believed was for you? How many times have you let life’s circumstances deter you from making a change? How many times have you allowed what others said to keep you from taking a risk? There have been many times I’ve taken a risk and it didn’t pan out, but I tried. Maybe those were the right choices, maybe not, However, I know I tried. 

It is impossible to please God without faith (Heb 11:6). So, we must believe in Him and believe that He will do exactly what He says (2 Pet 3:9-11; Rom 4:21). One thing I’ve learned over the years is that I can trust God to take care of me (Matt 6:26). From my first move to Florida to my latest move to Kansas City (which was not in my life plan), I have trusted that God had my best interests at heart. When obstacles come, I know that I will make it through them because I am His child and I am in Christ Jesus. 

Pastor Craig addressed faith this morning in his message based on the movie “Air,” about Nike signing Michael Jordan. It was very insightful to see how faith in the Lord can provide guidance for the way through. A couple of the types of faith mentioned during the message resonated with me. 

The faith to believe there is a way to accomplish something was one of them. I believe I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Phil 4:13) because God’s word says so. I don’t question whether I can – I really only question whether I truly want to. Don’t get me wrong – there are some things God has called me to that I didn’t want to do, but I did them to be obedient to Him. In the same way, there have been things I didn’t know how to do, but I believed He would guide me and He always has. 

Another type of faith was the faith to take a risk. When I accepted the position in Kansas City, I had never been to the area and knew nothing about it but what I’d found on the internet. I had no idea whether I would like it or not. I just knew I was supposed to be here. I had no idea how it would turn out, where I would live, how the job would go, nothing. I only knew two things – God was calling me to it and I was going to be obedient. Within that knowledge was also the fact that I knew if God was calling me to it, he would provide what I needed to do it (Prov 2:6-8). 

Remember, you can trust God, you can stand on His word and His direction. The problem is making sure you’re standing on His direction and not your own. Many times, we decide we want a certain thing and we step into it without waiting on or listening to God to move (Prov 3:5-6). God should be our first call not our last resort. If we listen and obey, we won’t have to make the sacrifices in the future (1 Sam 15:22). God is good, but we must operate in faith to please Him. Make sure your works (actions, decisions, etc.) align with His word (James 2:26).