Genesis Week 44 • Writing Your Testimony

- Welcome to the Willow Ridge Sermons podcast.

We're so glad you chose to listen today.

In today's episode, we'll journey through Genesis 39 to 41,

following Joseph's story from captivity to favor

in Pharaoh's court.

Joseph's life shows us how a steadfast character

can testify to God's presence, even in hardship.

We'll see how God's faithfulness shines

through Joseph's trials and triumphs,

reminding us that our testimony can inspire hope

and trust in God's provision, no matter the circumstance.

Join us as we learn what it means to have a testimony

that reflects true faith and goodwill.

Thanks for listening.

Good morning.

- Good morning.

- All right, I know that we need a little bit more

excitement than that in here.

All right, that was a lot of announcements,

a lot of exciting things.

Good morning.

- Good morning.

- There we go.

If you have your Bibles, and I hope you do,

I want you to invite you to join us in Genesis chapter 39.

Genesis 39 · chapter mention

And here's why we're gonna need your excitement.

We're gonna move fast today.

I was talking to Berger about this,

and remember all the way back a long, long, long time ago,

when we talked about Noah and the flood,

that story kind of encompassed a lot within there.

So I had to move through a lot of scripture

to get to where we're going.

And today is that, is we're gonna be looking at Joseph

and in a specific season in the life of Joseph.

So we're gonna quickly cover three chapters this morning,

but excited for the challenge to do so

in the faithfulness of God's word.

I wanna echo what Pastor Dave said.

If you are a first time guest, you are special to us,

and we are so glad that you were here.

I would ask, Dave, ask one thing,

I'm gonna ask one thing.

So we've got two things we'd love for you to do.

At the end of the service, my wife and I will be back here,

back at this table to my left.

We would love for you to come back there

and introduce yourself to us

and let us introduce ourselves to you.

It's not that we think that we're anything special,

but we think you're pretty special,

and we're so glad that God has brought you here.

And we just wanna learn your name, thank you for being here.

And then by chance, if you have any questions

about our church, we would love to be able

to answer those for you.

Kind of let you know, guys, where we're going.

Another reason for us to push through for 41 this morning

is next week we are gonna begin our Christmas series.

Really excited about this.

We're gonna look at some of those individuals

that helped tell the Christmas story,

and then looking at them to learn about who God is

by their acts of faith and their acts of faithfulness.

And so this morning, as we get started,

I wanna read Genesis 39, 21.

It says, "But the Lord was with Joseph

"and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor

"in the sight of the keeper of the prison."

Would you join me in prayer?

God, I thank you so much for this time

that we could be here.

God, I thank you that it is not just that we have gathered,

but you are here with us.

God, I pray that all that is said and done

will bring glory and honor to your name.

Lord, take out of this what is me.

Lord, and may this all be filled with you.

Lord, would you speak to our hearts?

Lord, if there's anyone here who does not know Christ

as their Lord and Savior, God, I pray that today

will be their day of faith.

And it's in Jesus' name we pray, amen, amen.

I'll never forget, I had been saved for about five months

and a friend of mine, a guy by the name of Ryan Hearn,

he pastors a church up in North Carolina now.

He came to me and he said, "Hey, I'm trying to get,"

USC Aiken was the school that we were at

getting our undergrad, and he said,

"Listen, I'm trying to get an FCA started back up here

"at USC Aiken."

At that time, there was not an on-campus ministry

at USC Aiken.

And he said, "What I would love for you to do

"is on week two," he said, "I'm gonna speak week one.

"I'd like for you to speak on week two."

And I was like, okay.

That's when it hits that I've sat in

and heard a lot of messages in my life.

While I hadn't been saved long, I'd grown up in church,

but I had no clue about what it would look like

to begin to put something together.

So I looked at him, wanting him to give me an outline

of say these things, and I said,

"What would you like for me to talk about?"

And he said, "Share your testimony."

And there was some good confidence within that moment

of me being able to share my testimony,

because what I'd known, what I'd experienced

within the church was that my testimony

was simply telling my story.

And there was an authentic moment within that,

that I could say, "I believe that this is something

"that I'm capable of doing and able to do,

"and the Spirit of God worked through that with me."

I don't remember a whole lot of things

that I said that night, but I know that I felt

the Spirit of God working and moving in my life

and in the testimony and in my story as well.

And maybe you've had that moment in time

where someone has come up to you and said,

"We would like for you to share your testimony."

I think oftentimes when we hear that,

when we hear, "I'd like for you to share

"your story of faith, your testimony of faith,"

we kind of fall into like a two-category piece

for our testimony.

And these two categories are good,

they're right, they're definitely needed in a testimony.

The first one is the testimony of faith in your past.

We communicate what God saved us from.

Like you talk about, maybe your testimony

was you were five years old and you were going

to Sunday school and you got saved at BBS,

and that's where you're at or where you were.

Maybe your testimony of your past,

maybe you're a little wilder, a little more reckless,

maybe you were older in life,

lived through some different things, right?

But either way, part of your testimony,

is the past of what God saved you from,

like regards to how young you were or how old you were,

when you got saved, you had a past

that God needed to save you from,

and that's what God did.

You had a testimony within your testimony of faith,

there's your salvation moment, right?

There's when God saved you, right?

Like it may be 5/22/52/72/92, right?

When God saved you, there's that point in time

and moment in your life for some of us,

like we can narrow it down to this exact day and time

for those of us, it's more of a season stretched out

of what God was doing in your life,

so when God saved you, but also like how God saved you.

Let me kind of explain that, all right?

What I mean by how God saved you,

like you're only saved through Christ, right?

Like what Jesus has done,

he's the way, the truth, and the life,

no one else comes to salvation except through him,

but like what was that like?

How did God reveal himself to you?

Who did God use?

Were you someone at youth camp?

Were you someone at a revival?

Were you someone, were you sitting down over a cup of coffee

with one of your friends and they shared the gospel

of your story, but I found that so many times

that our testimony is kind of bound to those two categories.

A testimony of faith of your past

and a testimony of your salvation moment.

We kind of share these and that's good,

and God uses that, but there's a testimony

of faith of today as well,

and I think that's the important part

that oftentimes that we forget

is your testimony of right now,

of what has God, since you've been saved,

what has God been doing in your life?

Right, so I remember when I shared my testimony,

when I shared my story of all that God had done,

I mean, there was definitely some carelessness,

some recklessness that existed in my life,

and I remember a friend of mine

that was going to FCA with us at the time

was a part of this, he said, you know,

this stuck with me, he said,

he said, "My testimony's boring."

I said, "Well, how is your testimony boring?"

He's like, "You know, I was just kind of one of those kids.

"I got saved when I was five.

"I've never not known who Jesus is.

"Like, it's just always been there,

"and I've struggled with sin and all of these things,

"but there's just been this life lived of following Jesus."

It's like, man, that's not boring at all.

Like, that's evidence of the goodness

and the grace of God, of who God is

and what God has done, but continuing on

to what God is doing in your life as well.

So a testimony in the past,

testimony in your salvation is important,

but then there's the testimony

of what is God currently doing in your life?

How is God molding you and shaping you

and who he's called you to be more

in the reflection of who Christ is?

And when we look at this in the life of Joseph,

this is the piece that I wanna draw us to a little bit,

is for you and I to understand

that it's not that our testimony has been written,

it's that our testimony is being written.

And what does that look like in your life?

So let's start, we're gonna read all of chapter 39,

and then pause for a little bit there.

It says, "Now, Joseph had been brought down to Egypt."

Remember, Pastor Dave, from two weeks ago,

talking about Joseph's been sold

into slavery by his brothers.

"And in Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh,

"the captain of the guard, an Egyptian,

"had bought him from the Ishmaelites

"who had brought him down there."

This is gonna be an important part

that I want you to focus in on.

The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man,

and he was in the house of his Egyptian master.

Again, we see this, his master saw

that the Lord was with him,

and that the Lord caused all that he did

to succeed in his hands.

So Joseph found favor in his sight and attended him,

and he made him overseer of his house

and put him in charge of all that he had.

From the time that he had made him overseer in his house

over all that he had, the Lord blessed

the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake.

The blessing of the Lord was on all that he had

in house and field.

So he left all that he had in Joseph's charge.

Because of him, he had no concern about anything

but the food he ate.

Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance.

And after a time, his master's wife

cast her eyes on Joseph and said, "Lie with me."

But he refused and said to his master's wife,

"Behold, because of me, my master has no concern

"about anything in the house,

"and he has put everything that he has in my charge.

"He is not greater in this house

"than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me

"except you, because you are his wife.

"How then can I do this great wickedness and sin,"

very important, "against God?"

And he said, and she spoke to Joseph day after day.

He would not listen to her, to lie beside her

or to be with her.

Verse 11, "But one day, when he went into the house

"to do his work, and none of the men of the house

"was there in the house, she caught him by his garment,

"saying, 'Lie with me.'

"But he left his garment in her hand

"and fled out of the house.

"And as soon as she saw that he had left his garment

"in her hand and had fled out of the house,

"she called to the men of her household

"and said to them, 'See, he has brought among us

"'a Hebrew to laugh at us.

"'He came in to me to lie with me,

"'and I cried out with a loud voice.

"'And as soon as he heard and lifted up my voice,

"'I cried out, and he left his garment beside me

"'and fled out of the house.'

"Then she laid up his garment by her

"until his master came home,

"and she told him the same story, saying,

"'The Hebrew servant whom you have brought among us

"'came in to me to laugh at me,

"'but as soon as I lifted up my voice and cried,

"'he left his garment beside me and fled out of the house.

"'As soon as his master heard the words

"'that his wife spoke to him,

"'This is the way your servant treated me,'

"his anger was kindled.

"And Joseph's master took him and put him into prison,

"the place where the king's prisoners were confined,

"and he was there in prison."

Verse 21, important, "But the Lord was with Joseph

"and showed him steadfast love

"and gave him favor in the sight

"of the keeper of the prison.

"And the keeper of the prison put Joseph in charge

"of all of the prisoners who were in the prison.

"Whatever was done there, he was the one who did it.

"The keeper of the prison paid no attention

"to anything that was in Joseph's charge

"because the Lord was with him.

"And whatever he did, the Lord made it succeed."

What I want us to talk about this morning

is the reality that right now, that you and I,

we are writing our testimony.

Right now, whether you think about this

intentionally or not, that you and I

are writing the story of our life.

That you and I have a very set of specific circumstances

and details that vary from person to person.

We have very specific differences

in who we are and our personalities.

We have some very specific differences of things

that have happened and taken place in our life.

But you and I are writing our testimony.

And there will be people that refer to us,

that look at who we are by evidence of what they see,

of what they understand, of what they believe us to be.

And in many instances, this is our testimony.

And there are things in your life

that if allowed, will determine, will influence,

and will impact your testimony for the positive

or for the negative.

And my hope for you and for I, that in who we are,

in the writing of our testimony, of what we will see,

is that our character that matches the testimony.

A character that matches testimony.

That if I were to say to you,

share your testimony of Christ with me,

that what you talk about in your past

and what you talk about in your salvation moment

matches with who that you really are.

And it's the desire that I have for you,

and it's the desire that I have for me.

And Joseph is one of my favorite characters

in all of scripture, because this is what we see in him.

We saw through, and the lineage of his family before him,

of the mountaintops and the valleys,

of the times of in between,

where the situations in their life

would determine the testimony

of what people said about them.

But that's not what we find,

that's not what we see here with Joseph.

Joseph has character in his testimony,

because it's very evident what we said,

underlined in my Bible, in God's word,

because the Lord was with Joseph.

The power of Joseph's testimony is not found in,

man, this is just a really good guy.

But the power of his testimony

is found in the God who's with him,

and who's evident in his life.

The question is this, go back to the friend of mine

who said, man, I wish my testimony was like yours.

Your testimony and my testimony may be similar,

may be different.

I will tell you what I believe makes a powerful testimony.

It's not at what age did you get saved.

It's not at what depth of depravity

did you find yourself in.

It's not in what struggles did you overcome.

But what I believe makes the power of the testimony is this,

is who does the testimony point to?

And in this what we see, in the testimony of Joseph,

the Lord was with him.

In Matthew chapter five, Jesus tells at the beginning

of the servant on the mount,

to go out into the world

and to let our light shine before others.

To go and do good, to love, to care,

to be all of these things

so that people will brag on who we are and what we've done.

It's not at all what he says.

He says we go and we do these things

so that others may see our good works,

others may see our testimony and give glory to God.

So Joseph has character because the Lord was with Joseph.

The second thing we see about Joseph's testimony here

is others should see your testimony, not just hear about it.

I think it's very interesting that in two instances,

both in the master of the house, Potiphar,

and those in charge of Joseph in the prison,

both, the Bible says, saw that the Lord was with him.

It's not just what he said, it's not just what they heard,

but it's what they realized with their own eyes.

It passed eyesight.

It passed the test of faithfulness.

When we understand as we write our story of our testimony,

is that our testimony is a story about God, not about you.

What did Joseph say to Potiphar's wife?

You remember?

Joseph talked about the faithfulness

of what her husband had entrusted him to.

Joseph was very clear in laying out

the character of who he was.

You see, Joseph was a man of his word.

Joseph was a man of integrity, but in this, he said,

if I were to do this, this that you're asking of me,

this even that you're demanding of me in this moment,

that I would sin against God,

more so than what I would lose on this earth,

is what I would cause against my creator,

but that your testimony is not the story about you,

but the story about God in your life.

And so what we see from 39 that will continue to ring true

in 40 and 41 this morning is to let your testimony

drive your character and not your situation

to drive your character.

Joseph could have chalked it up to a weak moment.

Joseph could have walked, chalked it up to,

you don't know what it's like to have this continual

day after day pursuit in my life,

but Joseph determined in himself that it's the testimony

of the faithfulness of God who was with him

and not the testimony of the situation

that he found himself in.

You see, Joseph's surrender was not to the moment.

Joseph's surrender was to his God.

You see, Joseph was the victim.

Joseph was the one taken advantage of.

Joseph was the one spoken falsely against,

but yet those who responded in anger was not the victim,

but the attacker, the deceiver,

and Joseph responded in faith.

The thing that we see in Joseph's life that we find

within our testimony of how God is working

and how God is moving is you may not have found yourself

in situations like Joseph finds himself,

but you're gonna find yourself in a situation

where you are standing and you begin to look at

and you begin to sense and you begin to think,

man, God, I'm just trying to do all that you have

for me to do, and while my testimony rings true with that,

the situation that I find myself begins

to speak differently to that.

And what's important about the testimony of what we see

of how God is working and moving in the life of Joseph

is that a testimony of faith in Joseph's life

and a testimony of faith in your life and in mine

seeks to trust God before it seeks to understand or act.

God, I'm gonna trust you.

God, I don't know why I'm here.

God, I don't know why my brothers did this to me.

Of all of the people who could have bought me,

I don't understand how I ended up in this house.

God, when I found myself in this house,

I sought to do all that you would have for me to do.

God, I was faithful.

The character was there, and instead of shaking his fist

and questioning God about why he is where he is,

what we will see is that Joseph trusts

that God's in control.

Let's start chapter 40.

Sometime after this, so Joseph's in prison.

Sometime after this, the cupbearer of the king of Egypt

and his baker committed an offense against their lord,

the king of Egypt.

And Pharaoh was angry with his two officers,

the chief cupbearer and the chief baker,

and he put them in custody in the house

of the captain of the guard in the prison

where Joseph was confined.

The captain of the guard appointed Joseph to be with them,

and he attended them, and they continued

for some time in custody.

And one night, they both dreamed.

Dreams are important in the life of Joseph.

We saw this all the way back when Pastor Dave shared

in Genesis 37 a couple weeks ago.

It says, "And they both dreamed, and the cupbearer

"and the baker of the king of Egypt,

"who were confined in the prison, each his own dream,

"and each dream with its own interpretation.

"And when Joseph came to them in the morning,

"he saw that they were troubled.

"So he asked Pharaoh's officers who were with him

"in custody in his master's house,

"'Why are your faces downcast today?'

"And they said to him, 'We have had dreams,

"'and there is no one to interpret them.'

"And Joseph said to them,

"'Do not interpretations belong to God?

"'Please tell them to me.'

"Verse nine, 'So the chief cupbearer told his dream

"to Joseph and said to him,

"'In my dream there was a vine before me,

"'and on the vine there were three branches.

"'As soon as it budded, its blossoms shot forth,

"'and the clusters ripened into grapes.

"'Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes

"'and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup

"'and placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand.'

"And then Joseph said to me,

"'This is its interpretation.

"'The three branches are three days.

"'In three days, Pharaoh will lift up your head

"'and restore you to your office,

"'and you shall place Pharaoh's cup in his hand

"'as formerly when you were his cupbearer.

"'Only remember me when it is well with you,

"'and please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh,

"'and so get me out of this house,

"'for I was indeed stolen out of the land of Hebrews,

"'and here also I have done nothing

"'that they should put me into the pit.'"

Verse 16, "Then the chief baker saw

"that the interpretation was favorable,

"and he said to Joseph, 'I also had a dream,

"'and there were three cake baskets on my head.

"'And in the uppermost basket,

"'there were all sorts of baked foods for Pharaoh,

"'that the birds were eating it

"'out of the basket on my head.'

"And Joseph answered and said,

"'This is its interpretation.

"'The three baskets are three days.

"'In three days, Pharaoh will lift up your head from you

"'and hang you on a tree,

"'and the birds will eat the flesh from you.'"

Right?

He did not get the good interpretation.

Verse 20, "On the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday,

"he made a feast for all his servants,

"and lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer

"and the head of the chief baker among his servants.

"He restored the chief cupbearer to his position,

"and he placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand.

"But he hanged the chief baker

"just as Joseph had interpreted to them.

"Yet," verse 23,

"Yet the chief cupbearer

"did not remember Joseph,

"but forgot him."

What should your testimony look like?

Well, argue and look and see from God's Word.

In the life of Joseph,

hopefully you can begin to see and understand

that there's some connections

between Joseph's testimony and yours.

There are people who seek to do you harm.

You find yourself the victim in certain situations.

There are things that are out of your hand.

There are things that are out of control,

out of your control.

There are times when you've been passed over.

There's times when you've been forgotten about.

There's times where you wonder,

"Why in the world am I walking through this?

"Why in the world am I experiencing this?"

But we'll find, and what we'll see

in the life of Joseph in this,

is a testimony that trusts,

a testimony that trusts.

If you're here this morning,

and you're a follower of Jesus Christ,

I wanna ask you a question.

Do you trust God?

Do you trust God?

That answer for you, I'm gonna be willing to say is yes,

you do.

You do trust God, well done.

Here's another question, though, that I wanna ask you,

a question that I've wrestled with myself

throughout the course of this week,

is this, do you trust God enough to wait on God?

Do you trust God enough to wait on God?

You see, in order for Joseph to trust God,

Joseph needed to wait on God.

You know, it's easy to wait

when there's an end to our waiting that we know.

Christmas is coming.

I love Christmas.

I love everything about Christmas.

I'll talk about Christmas stories

over and over and over again.

I already had someone, Aaron,

I had someone come up to me this morning

to show me some new inflatables.

Why do you shake your head no?

You need to trust that this might be what God has for us.

I remember being a little kid, man, and just knowing,

knowing that Christmas morning was coming,

and knowing that the items on that list,

the things that I'd asked for,

that kept me up at night was gonna come to an end,

and I could not wait.

For Joseph to wait was a waiting without a deadline

that Joseph was aware of.

Paul writes in Romans 5 about waiting.

He uses a little different words though than that.

He says, "Not only that, but we rejoice in our suffering,

"knowing that suffering produces endurance,

"and endurance produces character,

"and character produces hope."

You see, what we find is that as we wait,

as we endure, as we persevere,

as we're looking forward to this season to end,

and for God to work, and for God to move,

what we find is that God is doing something,

not only there, but God is doing something here.

Joseph shared his story.

Joseph has been a man in prison of character.

Joseph has said, "I didn't deserve this,

"I didn't deserve that," but he doesn't grow bitter,

he doesn't grow angry, he doesn't grow spiteful,

but instead he grows patient.

My plea for you this morning,

as you begin to look at your own life

in these seasons of suffering that you walk through,

is do not let the troubles of this world

drive you from God, but let the troubles of this world

drive you to God.

In the 20 years now that God's given me

the wonderful privilege to serve in leadership

within his church, what I've noticed time and time again

is men and women walking away from faith,

walking away from the church,

not just because this terrible sin pattern

infiltrated their life and they became a person

who one day they weren't before,

but is instead on the other side of that,

that in walking through a hardship,

and walking through a suffering,

and walking through a difficulty of life,

whether it be death, loss, financial hardship,

marriage difficulties, rebellious children,

instead of clinging to God, they run from him.

They run from him.

When the temperature of life begins to crank up

and the battle of this world begins to ensue,

instead of holding on to the one who will be faithful

to get them through, they shake their fist

and they run at him.

But it's why Paul writes to Timothy in 2 Timothy,

and he reminds him that this life,

it's not a walk in the park and a picnic to be had,

but it's a race, it's a battle, it's a fight,

and that our responsibility of what God calls us to

is not to think in and of ourself that we have to win,

but to finish, to finish,

because Christ is the one who will win on our behalf.

So Joseph, he waits, and he waits, and he waits.

Chapter 41, after two whole years,

just pause there.

Just pause there.

I don't know your season of struggle,

I don't know the battle where you find yourself,

I don't know the suffering that you find,

but I feel the weight of your story,

and I feel the weight of Joseph's.

After two whole years

of being innocent but imprisoned,

of sharing but people forget,

over helping but it's not credited toward him,

after two whole years,

Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing by the Nile,

and behold, there came up out of the Nile seven cows,

attractive and plump, and they fed in the reed grass,

and behold, seven other cows, ugly and thin,

came up out of the Nile after them,

and stood by the other cows on the bank of the Nile,

and the ugly, thin cows ate up

the seven attractive, plump cows,

and Pharaoh awoke, and he fell asleep

and dreamed a second time,

and behold, seven ears of grain,

plump and good, were growing on one stalk,

and behold, after them sprouted seven ears,

thin and blighted by the east wind,

and the thin ears swallowed up the seven plump, full ears,

and Pharaoh awoke, and behold, it was a dream.

In the morning, his spirit was troubled,

and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt,

and all its wise men, and Pharaoh told them his dreams,

but there was none who could interpret them to Pharaoh.

Remember, two years later,

then the chief cupbearer said to Pharaoh,

I remember my offenses today,

when Pharaoh was angry with his servant,

and put me and the chief baker in custody

in the house of the captain of the guard.

We dreamed on the same night, he and I,

each having a dream with its own interpretation.

A young Hebrew was there with us,

a servant of the captain of the guard.

When we told him, he interpreted our dreams to us,

giving an interpretation to each man

according to his dream,

and as he interpreted to us, it came about.

I was restored to my office, and the baker was hanged.

Verse 14, then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph,

and they quickly brought him out of the pit,

and when he had shaved himself and changed his clothes,

he came in before Pharaoh, and Pharaoh said to Joseph,

I've had a dream, and there's no one who can interpret it.

I've heard it said of you, that when you hear a dream,

you can interpret it.

Look at verse 16.

Joseph answered Pharaoh, it is not in me.

God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.

Then Pharaoh said to Joseph,

behold, in my dream I was standing on the banks of the Nile.

Seven cows, plump and attractive,

came out of the Nile and fed in the reed grass.

Seven other cows came up after them, very ugly and thin,

as I've never seen in all of the land of Egypt,

and the thin, ugly cows ate up the first seven plump cows,

but when they had eaten them,

no one would have known that they had eaten them,

for they were still as ugly as at the beginning.

Then I awoke.

I also saw in my dream seven ears

growing on one stalk, full and good.

Seven ears withered thin and blighted in the east wind,

sprouted after them, and the thin ears

swallowed up the seven good ears,

and I told it to the magicians,

but there was no one who could explain it to me.

Then Joseph said to Pharaoh,

the dreams of Pharaoh are one.

God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do.

The seven good cows are seven ears,

and the seven good ears are seven years.

The dreams are one.

The seven lean and ugly cows that came up after them

are seven years, that the seven empty blighted ears

by the east wind are also seven years of famine.

It is as I told Pharaoh,

God has shown to Pharaoh what he is about to do.

There will come seven years of great plenty

throughout all the land of Egypt,

but after them will arise seven years of famine,

and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt.

The famine will consume the land,

and plenty will be unknown in the land

by reason of the famine that will follow,

for it will be very severe.

And the doubling of Pharaoh's dreams

means that the thing is fixed by God,

and God will shortly bring it about.

Now, therefore, let Pharaoh select a discerning and wise man

and set him over the land of Egypt.

Let Pharaoh proceed to appoint overseers to the land

and take one fifth of the produce of the land

during the seven plentiful years,

and let him gather all the food of these good years

that are coming and store up grain

under the authority of Pharaoh for food in the cities,

and let them keep it that food shall be a reserve

for the land against the seven years of famine

that are to occur in the land of Egypt

so that the land might not perish through the famine.

Now, he lays it all out.

Lays it all.

Here's the dream, here's the interpretation,

here's the action.

Verse 37.

This proposal pleased Pharaoh and all of his servants.

And Pharaoh said to his servants,

can we find a man like this in whom is the Spirit of God?

Let's just pause there.

Like, man, like sometimes the answer's right

before your face and you ain't realizing it, right?

Verse 39.

And Pharaoh said to Joseph,

since God has shown all of this,

there is none so discerning and wise as you.

You shall be over my house,

and all my people shall order themselves as you command.

Only as regards the throne will I be greater than you.

And Pharaoh said to Joseph,

see, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.

Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his hand

and put it on Joseph's hand,

and clothed him in garments of fine linen,

and put a gold chain about his neck,

and made him ride in his second chariot.

And they called out before him, bow the knee.

Thus he set over all of the land of Egypt.

Moreover, Pharaoh said to Joseph,

I am Pharaoh, and without your consent,

no one shall lift up hand or foot

in all of the land of Egypt.

And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zathnapanea,

and he gave him in marriage Azuneth,

the daughter of Potiphar, priest of On.

So Joseph went out over the land of Egypt.

From slave to prisoner,

from prisoner to second in charge.

When you look at your testimony,

may we have a testimony that expects.

We have a testimony that expects.

Now the key is what do we expect?

What do you and I expect?

In the moments, in the seasons,

in the places where we find ourselves,

what do we expect?

What did Joseph expect?

Vindication, no.

Restoration, no.

Wrongs to be made right, no.

Retaliation, no.

Vengeance, no.

What I believe of what we find with the character

and the response and the expectation is this,

is that Joseph simply expected for God to work

in God's time and in God's way.

See Joseph didn't come with a bunch of

but if you love me's,

but Joseph came with a heart of saying but I can trust.

But I can trust.

But I can trust.

Notice that Joseph in the moment,

brought before Pharaoh,

didn't say how can I leverage this for my good?

But instead he leveraged it for God's good.

God is writing the story of Joseph

and Joseph through his character of who he is,

is writing the story of his testimony.

Think about your testimony this way.

What is God doing?

Where do you find yourself?

And in this moment how are you reacting?

And how we react when we're surrendered to God

of who God is and what God is doing

is to say God you're in control.

And Joseph came with an expectation that God would work.

And Joseph came with an expectation

that when God leads him to, he'll respond and he did.

And he did.

Let's close out chapter 41,

starting in verse 46.

Joseph was 30 years old when he entered the service

of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh

and went through all the land of Egypt.

During the seven plentiful years,

the earth produced abundantly.

And he gathered up all the food of these seven years

which occurred in the land of Egypt

and he put the food in the cities.

He put the food in every city,

the food from the fields around it.

And Joseph stored up grain in great abundance

like the sand of the sea until he ceased to measure it

for it could not be measured.

Before the year of the famine,

two sons were born to Joseph.

Azunah, the daughter of Potiphar,

priest of On bore them to him.

And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh

for he said, "God has made me forget all of my hardship

"in my father's house."

The name of the second son he called Ephraim

for God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.

The seven years of plenty that occurred

in the land of Egypt came to an end

and the seven years of famine began to come

as Joseph had said.

And there was famine in all the lands

but in the land of Egypt there was bread.

And all the land of Egypt was famished.

The people cried out to Pharaoh for bread

and Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians,

"Go to Joseph, what he says to you, do."

So when the famine had spread all over the land,

Joseph opened all the storehouses

and sold to the Egyptians.

And the famine was severe in the land of Egypt.

Moreover, all the earth came to Egypt,

to Joseph to buy grain

because the famine was severe all over the earth.

Joseph doesn't have a testimony of I gotcha.

Joseph doesn't have a testimony of I told you so.

Joseph has a testimony of goodwill, of goodwill.

You know, we kind of take these cliches sometimes

but oftentimes they ring true.

We hear the cliche, don't get bitter but get better.

And it's true.

Joseph had every moment to allow his heart to be hardened

and instead he trusted God.

He did it from a good heart

but more importantly he did it from a godly heart

because God was with him.

And in his land of affliction

and what we're gonna see after our Christmas series

of how it spreads beyond there,

Joseph being a man of God will choose to do good

not to those who, not simply to those who just deserve it

but to all.

I wanna close with a story.

This past Thursday I was invited to attend a lunch

and at the lunch it was for a missions organization

that my brother-in-law serves on the board.

And he said, "I mean I would just love it if you could come,

"if you could sit at the table with me

"and hear the stories about what God is doing

"in and amongst this missions organization."

And my brother-in-law, this missions organization,

they focus their work in Central Eastern Africa.

My brother-in-law's been over there on mission trips

largely to South Sudan and Sudan.

Pastor got up there, I forget his name,

he was a Sudanese pastor.

And he got up and he shared part of his story.

And if you're not familiar with Sudan

and the area, the country that's there,

it is a part of our world that the norm is civil war.

Destructive civil war.

Horrific civil war.

Where there appears to be no end in sight.

And he says, "Our people have gone through

"great years of war and then few years of peace.

"And when the war breaks out, the church moves

"and there's refugee camps in Uganda that they travel to."

He said, "So the war will break out,

"we don't know how long the war will come,

"but we know what comes with war

"on the minimum of what we can expect is famine.

"On the extreme of what we can expect is war criminals

"tearing through our villages,

"raping and killing everyone there."

So the church, when war breaks out,

they pack up in Sudan and they move.

They move to Uganda.

There was a local pastor who was there.

An older gentleman who his life had only known

war, famine, refugee camp.

War, famine, refugee camp.

His name's Pastor John.

War broke out near his village.

Everyone surrounds, begins to prepare to mobilize

to get from where they are to Uganda,

to find safety, to find refuge, to find peace.

John says, "I'm gonna stay.

"I'm gonna stay."

Because you see, there are men and women and children,

as many as mobilized and who left were limited

in their capabilities of leaving and always stayed behind.

And he said, "I don't just need to be the pastor

"for those in the refugee camp.

"I need to be the pastor for those here."

Years went by.

War tore through the villages.

War tore through his village.

Many people lost their life.

And just like we heard in the story of Joseph in Egypt,

famine began to consume.

He said women were going out into the trees

and would climb the trees

and take whatever leaf they could find off,

put it in water, add a little salt, boil it,

and even though that leaf was not edible,

they would eat it anyways,

just in a hope to fill their stomach with something

so the pain would go away.

This is where Pastor John found himself.

He got in contact with this pastor

who's sharing the story,

and he shared the dire need of the village

that he found himself in.

And he said, "What we need, we need food.

"We need food.

"Could you please get us some food?"

He said, "I'll do my best."

He began to pray.

There began to be an opportunity.

There was an NGO who was working,

bringing things back and forth.

The NGO committed to take this food

out of the zone that was safe and into the war zone

so that Pastor John's village,

primarily Christians, could have food.

They show up there, they show up with the food.

They take the food, they store it inside of the building

that is their church.

The men and the women and the children,

they cry, they celebrate, they praise God.

The next day, Pastor John walks into the church.

He says, "I want you to take half of the food out.

"You see, we're gonna deliver this food.

"Now, I've been hungry based off of my standard,

"but I've never experienced famine,

"anything remotely close to what these men

"and women would experience."

So I could imagine what their reaction was,

which was, why, absolutely not.

Why would we take what God had provided for us

and take it somewhere else?

Pastor John said, "Because through the war zone,

"I've heard of another village.

"It's a Muslim village.

"And their imam has shared of the devastating poverty

"and famine that is there.

"And how can we keep all of this

"when they are so hurting as well?"

So against the wishes of many, they loaded up the food,

and they took it to the mosque.

The imam came out, said, "What are you here to do?"

He said, "The war criminals have taken everything from us.

"And we see that you have things

"that you've probably taken from other people.

"There's nothing here for you to take.

"Go away."

Pastor John said, "No, brother.

"I'm not here to take away.

"I'm here to give."

And they unloaded the boxes and boxes and boxes of food.

Christians who were hungry within themselves,

handing over food to Muslims.

Said the imam began to weep, began to cry.

And he made this statement.

He said, "In the middle of our battle,

"no one thinks about the people of Sudan."

He said, "The people," and began to name

the different Muslim countries of this world.

"They've turned their back on us

"because they've said that we're not worthy to be helped.

"But you, a Christian, seek to help us."

He said, "As we unload the food,

"here's what I want you to do."

He said, "I want you," this is the imam

speaking to the pastor.

He said, "I want you to go into the mosque.

"I want you to open your Bible,

"and I want you to tell the men who are in there

"your story of Jesus Christ."

And John walked into a mosque,

opened God's word, proclaimed the truth of the gospel.

And on that day, praise God,

people stepped out of the law of Islam

and into a relationship with Jesus Christ.

You see, what John knew

was above all that he needed to wait,

above all he needed to obey,

above all his situation could not determine his character,

but he could trust the God who held him in his hand,

and that's his testimony.

What's your testimony?

Who do you follow?

What has he saved you from?

How has he saved you in the name of Jesus Christ?

And then no matter what season you find yourself in today,

how is he working and moving in your life?

Would you pray with me?

God, I thank you for the story of Joseph.

Lord, a man sold into slavery.

Lord, a man cast aside

a man whose falseness, falseness about him

was spread greatly,

but in all things sought to endure,

to persevere, to cling to his Lord,

to share the name of his God,

to care for others, to grow in his faith,

all for your name, for your renown,

for your kingdom, for who you are.

God, I pray for each and every one of us

that the core, the essential nature of our testimony

will be a life surrendered to you,

Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior,

and that God, regardless if we find ourself

in the prison or in the palace,

will trust you, will seek to do good,

will expect you to work in your will and your time.

Lord, that we'll trust.

Lord, that we'll not grow bitter,

but we'll grow more like Christ.

God, thank you for your patience with us.

God, may our testimony be, may our story be

one that impacts the world.

Lord, I thank you for Pastor John.

I thank you for his church.

I thank you that in the midst of war,

that Lord, their response is how do we love,

how do we share, how do we glorify the name of Jesus?

And it's in his name we pray, amen, amen.

- That's it for this week's message.

Be sure to check back next week for another episode.

In the meantime, you can stay up to date

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and online at willowridgechurch.org.

Thanks again for listening.