The Life Lessons from Joseph

There's no greater name. Amen. If you in your Bibles turn to Genesis

37 Genesis chapter 37, I did preach from this passage about five

Genesis 37 · chapter mention

years ago. I just every once in a while I'd like to remind you

that I do keep track and date all my messages when I've preached

anyway, just in case you writing them in the side of somebody

else. I don't know. A lot of people used to write down dates in

the margin of their Bible when the preacher preached that particular

text. Then they would like to remind the preacher every once in

a while when he touches on that same text. So I just thought

I'd preemptively strike let you know that I do keep track. But

as far as the series in Joseph, it was in 2014 when we preached

this a long time ago and I'm sure enjoyed studying for this and

look forward to studying here in the next few weeks. There are

so many lessons we can glean from the life of Joseph. Let's read

the first few verses here in Genesis 37, verse 1. And Jacob dwelt

Genesis 37:1

in the land wherein his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan.

These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being 17 years old,

was feeding the flock with his breast brethren, and the lad was

with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's

wives. And Joseph brought unto his father their evil report. Now

Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was

the son of his old age, and he made him a coat of many colors. And

when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than

all his brethren, they hated him and could not speak peaceably

unto him. And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it to his brethren,

and they hated him yet the more. And he said unto them, hear,

I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed. For behold, we were

binding sheaves in the field, and lo, my sheaf arose and also stood

upright. And behold, your sheaves stood round about and made

obeisance to my sheave, bowed down to his sheave, and his brethren

said unto him, shalt thou indeed reign over us? Or shalt thou

indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for

his dreams and for his words. Verse 9 and he dreamed yet another

dream, and told it to his brethren, and said, behold, I have

dreamed a dream more. And behold, the sun and the moon and

the 11 stars made obeisance to me. And he told it to his father

Father and to his brethren. And his father rebuked him and Said

unto him, what is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and

thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves

to thee, to the earth? And his brethren envied him. But his father

observed the saying. His father observed the saying. Let's

pray. Heavenly Father, again we ask for your help. And as we study

this passage, and Lord, may you illuminate our understanding.

I pray God that you would lead and direct. Help me to say exactly

what you'd want me to say. Help us to glean from this passage

in Jesus name, Amen. We've said many times, Romans, chapter

Romans 15 · chapter mention

15 and First Corinthians, chapter 10 mention to us that the

1 Corinthians 10 · chapter mention

Old Testament was written primarily for New Testament saints.

In that regard, it's the Bible says there in Romans 15 for whatsoever

things were written aforetime were written for our example, for

our learning, that we might hope and so understand that even

King David only had about 12 of the old Testament books. So if

you think about it, there was never even a prophet or a patriarch

the Old Testament that had a complete Old Testament. No, no, no.

The Old Testament was written primarily for us. For New Testament

saints, the Old Testament is the foundation for the New Testament.

Why I always encourage you if you're a New Christian. Yes, read

the Book of John very first thing and get familiar with the life

of Jesus. Maybe read through the Gospels first before you go back

to Genesis. But as growing Christians, you should read the Bible

through from Genesis to Revelation. That's how it was intended

to be read. Don't pogo stick around, don't just get up in the

morning, maybe I'll read there, you know, and so it will help

you because the New Testament writers wrote in light of that, you

already know your Old Testament. There are three thousands

of references in the New Testament to the Old Testament. And

so the writers, as they're inspired by the Holy Spirit and as

they write, are writing the New Testament in their mind and by

way of the Holy Spirit, they are writing, understanding and knowing

that you already have read the Old Testament and are familiar with

it and they are just building upon that foundation. So it's very,

very important. The Old Testament instructs us, gives us

hope, it warns us and helps us how to live day by day. Because we

can see the children of Israel's lives and we can see Samson's

life and we can see and on and on and on Gideon and so many examples

in the Old Testament, David and the ups and downs and the goods

and the bad. I still think it's amazing how we ended up with

a true Old Testament, an accurate Old Testament. Because if

you were a Jew copying Old Testament history, Jewish history,

because it's basically Jewish history, From Genesis chapter 12

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

on, it's Jewish history. Why didn't the scribes just change some

of it? There's a lot of stuff in there. You know, if you're the

typical historian, you'd have just left out some of that bad stuff.

But no, it was left there for us, for our learning, for our example.

And so we see this in the life of Joseph. What an example, what

a way in which we can learn by such a wonderful, wonderful historic

story. I want to start out by saying Joseph was born into a dysfunctional

family. And what a dysfunctional family it was. I mean,

if you've read through from the time of Jacob and Isaac, you

just again, you find yourself going, what in the world happened

here? I could tell you primarily, and I'm not going to preach

on this tonight, but a lot of it had to do with polygamy, about,

about them having four families in one family. You know,

four wives, two wives and two handmaids. But four wives. And God

just, God said you should, you know, marriage is one man, one woman

for a lifetime. So we see the life of Joseph. He is born into a

dysfunctional family. Again, Joseph's father's name is Jacob.

Jacob. Even his name means trickster or deceiver. We covered

this a little bit here a couple weeks ago. And after a wrestling

match with God. Go read it. In Genesis 32, God changed His name

to Israel. Israel, which means one who strives and prevails with

God. Or it also could mean father of nations. Jacob tricked

Esau out of his birthright. Jacob tricked Esau out of the blessing

of his father Isaac. I'm not going to go back. And you need to

go, go back and read some of this. At the age of 75, after tricking

Jacob, tricking his dad. And anyway, at 75, he fled to Uncle Laban's

house. I'm doing a quick summary in the country of Haran.

Haran is where Abraham came from. And there he found Rachel.

He saw Rachel and said, woohoo, that's I want her. He went

to Uncle Laban and said, I want Rachel. He said, well, serve

me. Seven years. He served him seven years. And then Laban tricked

the trickster. Laban. Uncle Laban, when he got up the next morning

after he thought he had married Rachel, he had married Leah,

the older daughter. Man, that would have been something. Wake up

in the morning Morning, and he goes to his uncle and says, what

in the world have you done to me? He serves Uncle Laban seven more

years for Rachel. I always like to point out that he didn't

have to wait seven more years. They waited a week. He got married

to Rachel and then served for seven years. What a place. And what

a. How do I say it? What a starting point for a family to be

tricked that way. And I can tell you, it never got any better.

It just didn't. It just continued to be such. Such a dysfunctional

family. There, at Uncle Laban's house in Iran, Leah, the

wife, his first wife, had six sons and one daughter, Bilhah and

Zilpah, the handmaidens of Rachel and Leah. Between the two

of them, they had four sons, and Rachel was barren. Rachel cried

out to God, and God gave her son Joseph. It was about that time

that Joseph decided to go home. If you remember the story,

he heads out without Laban's permission, and Laban chases him

down. There's another again, just dysfunctional, like crazy. As

he approaches and he's going back home, he sends out gifts to

his brother Esau, hoping that Esau would be satisfied, that his

anger would be quenched by all the gifts he sent out beforehand.

But when they finally got together, they hugged and kissed

each other. As I said Sunday, apparently Esau had forgiven. I'm

not sure that the future generations forgave him. We studied

that in Obadiah, Rachel had one more son, and Benjamin. And while

she was having that son, she died. So before I get to that 20

years, Jacob was at Uncle Laban's house on his way back home

to the promised land. He lands in Shechem, and there his daughter

is assaulted. There, in Shechem, the brothers get together

and they go in and they slaughter all the men of that city.

On the way home, Rachel again has Benjamin, and she dies in childbirth.

On their way home, as they make their way home, Reuben, the

oldest, has immoral relations with one of his dad's wives. Immorality,

jealousy, anger, deceitfulness characterized the family of Jacob.

Characterized it. One father, four poor families again. A lot of

it could be just X marks the spot. A result of polygamy, by the

way. God never condoned polygamy. God never condoned it.

One man, one woman for a lifetime. When they asked in the

New Testament about divorce, Jesus said, have you not heard? God

said, leave your father and mother, cleave unto your wife, and

they shall be one flesh. So he repeats the Old Testament account

of one man, one woman for a lifetime. By the way, that is the

definition of marriage. One man, one woman having kids, married

for a lifetime, not two men or two women, so forth and so on. Amen.

And Jacob, as he faced all these problems in his family, as

his family went through all the. Just seemed like one thing after

another, one adversity after another, one self inflicted wound.

If you read the account, you find that Jacob does very little

about him. In fact, in some instances he says very little. When

Reuben committed the incest with his wife, he just said one word

to him. There was no rebuke, there was no. It was just unbelievable

the way that Jacob dealt with the family problems. In fact, that

is the problem. He didn't deal with the family problems. He took

after his father Isaac, who also was a father, passive father.

And you read the account of Isaac, you see a man who was a passive

father, a passive dad. And Jacob took on some of those characteristics

as well. Again, no reproof of his kids and no condemnation of his

children. By the way, King David did the same thing. Go through

and read other leaders in the Old Testament who were passive in

their father kid role. We'll do some application of that in a

moment. So let's look again at the particular verses here, one through

four. And Joseph was the favored son of Jacob. Why was he

the favored son? It gives you the reason at least one of them.

It says that Israel loved Joseph more than all his children

because he, he was the son of his old age. In other words, we've

used this illustration many times in preaching about parenting

and to be careful about favoritism. And so Jacob showed favoritism

to Joseph. He showed favoritism. Now remember who Joseph's

mom was. Joseph's mom was Rachel. Rachel was the wife that

Jacob loved. Rachel wasn't having kids. She was barren. And

then after Leah and Bilhah and Zilpah have had all these kids, Rachel

cries out to God and she finally has one. And now Joseph's

an older man and he loves that child because he's a child of his

older age, but also because he is the firstborn of Rachel, the one

that he loved. You know that he made him a coat of many colors.

And we learned about that in Sunday school. We learned about that

in children's church. And that again, Jacob loved him so much he

made him a coat of many colors. And that's exactly what it

is. And you read the Hebrew and you see the interpretations of

this and there's different thoughts about what this particular

coat meant. But we do know one thing. It made him stand out. It

made him stand out that he was special to his dad. But I do believe

if you read especially some older commentaries and men in the

1800s, and then you make your way up to the 1900s, and I just never

really saw this. But I. It's very. I think it anyway, is that

being the firstborn of his beloved wife, Jacob gave him the

firstborn rights. Reuben was the firstborn. But it seems as though

in the context that it's written, and because of not just

jealousy, but other things going on by his older brothers, seems

as though Jacob had decided, I'm going to treat Joseph as the

firstborn with all the rights of the firstborn. Which means he's

the man. And we know that because he also put him in authority

over his brothers, of going and checking on them. Look at verse

13 and 14. It says, and Israel said unto Joseph, do not thy brethren

feed the flock and Shechem come, and I will send thee unto them.

And he said to him, here am I. In other words, Joseph says, I'm

ready. You see, Such a wonderful character. Joseph was a

man of integrity. When his dad asked him to do something, he said,

here am I. You remember another man who did that when God

asked him to do something? Abraham offering up Isaac immediately,

no hesitation, Abraham says to God, here am I. Joseph was an obedient

son. He said, look there. Next verse 14. And he said to him, go,

and I pray thee, and see whether it be well with thy brethren

and well with the flocks and bring me word again. So he sent him

out of the vale of Hebron and he came to Shechem. If you put this

in with verse two, at the very end, it says, and Joseph there was.

The lad was with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his

father's wives. And Joseph brought unto his father their evil

report. So there is no doubt in light of this passage here that

Jacob had put Joseph in a position of reporting and checking

and seemingly authority over his brothers. That would make you

mad if your younger brother was kind of in charge. He's wearing

the. There's some commentators who say that the coat of many colors

was basically what a foreman would wear. You know, the guy that

sits in the truck. My. My sons used to call one of my other sons

paper cut because he was just a foreman. We work, we work, we sweat.

You sit in the truck, you get a paper cut out now and again. It

hurts, right? But that's what some commentators say. And maybe

that is the case. This is this coat depicting that again, Joseph

was the primary here is that Joseph was loved by his dad more

than the others. But there's certainly some things behind that

too. And whether or not he was given the authority of his brothers

and whether or not he was given the rights of the firstborn.

It seems as though that is true there. In verse two, it says

he brought an evil report of his brothers to his dad. What does

that mean? It means that his brothers were evil, they were wicked.

You can see that throughout their lives, both the past scriptures

prior to chapter 37 and then read the rest of it. They were immoral

and wicked as proved by their actions. Whereas Joseph was a young

man of character, as proved by his past and future actions. Joseph

had a strong conviction when it came to the word of God. He had

a strong conviction when it came concerning God's law. Think

about all that Joseph went through. Think about the stand that

he took when it came to Potiphar's wife and so many other

things. A man, a young man, 17 years old, with strong convictions

concerning God as the younger brother, as the younger sibling,

because he was given some authority, whatever to degree what

that may be, we. We don't know, can't be dogmatic. But nonetheless,

his brothers hated him for it. They hated him in fact, so much so

that verse four said, they couldn't speak peaceably unto him.

They were disrespectful to him. They would cut him off. Can

I remind you that darkness does not like light? Somebody said

it this, the unprincipled are intolerant of those with integrity.

Let me say it again. The unprincipled are intolerant of ones

with integrity. So you have Joseph's brothers who are unprincipled.

Anything goes any, anything else. Sleep with my dad's wife, I

can murder a whole town. I can do all these things. Unprincipled.

And then here's a young man who is principled, who's a man of

integrity. And so what happens is they're intolerant of him. They're

intolerant of him because of his actions, because of his character.

Again, Joseph's conduct was consistent condemnation to them.

To his brothers, it was constant condemnation to them. They

hated him. They hated him because he was beloved of his dad.

They hated him because he reported, and rightly so, to his

dad of their evil wickedness. It was a constant reminder of their

wickedness. Jesus said in John 3:20, Everyone that doeth evil, hateth

John 3:20

the light. Neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should

be reproved. I want to remind you that if the world loves us, possibly

we're not being the light we should be. If the world loves us,

we're possibly not being the salt that we should be. Because light

dispels darkness. Light exposes the little corners of the

room. It exposes. And that's what Joseph was doing. He was exposing

their sin because of his conduct, because of the way he lived,

because of his light. One of the reasons why I like Trump, and

there's several reasons why I don't like him, I do not like his

attitude at all. It's unchristian that New York, you know?

Yeah, it's unchristian. A Christian shouldn't act the way he

acts. Come on. A Christian should not say some of the things

he says, especially the vulgar words. That's not Christian. Christians

shouldn't have a dirty mouth like that. Right. Christians shouldn't

treat people the way he treats people. Say amen. Absolutely. Calls

them all sorts of things. Nicknames, everybody, doesn't he?

We laugh at it, but it's not right. Amen. But I love some things

about him, too. One of the things I admire about him is those

who are immersed in darkness hate him. They hate him. They despise

him. Don't get me wrong. Some of it is the attitude, but mostly

it's not. Mostly it's because of what he stands for. I'm thankful.

I agree with nearly every policy he's ever done. I agree with

all of them. He, for the most part, hangs right there when it comes

to biblical morality. He hangs right there at it. I'm so thankful.

We'd be given a little space of grace. Unlike the previous administration,

who was wicked, evil and just unbelievable. Wicked and evil man,

preacher. Wicked. When you believe the things and institute

things that the Biden administration instituted, you are

witness. Wicked. Anti Bible, anti Christian. And I could continue

to go on and I could feel the blood rushing to my head again. Trump

isn't perfect either, but I admire and I just. It gets me excited

when he implements things that are morally and biblically sound.

I just want to. Just want to cry. Yes. Reverse all those liberal

policies, whether they be moral or economic. I love. The Bible

says, go to the ant, you sluggard. The Bible says, if you

are capable and you are a person who's physically capable and

you don't work, you should not eat. It's as simple as that. The

previous administration just want to hand out money to Everybody,

by the way, your money. Okay, I gotta get off the politics. The

point I was making was a lot of the policies that Trump has implemented

and done, the liberals hate because it exposes them. It exposes

them. Understand that. Romans tells us that the law of God's been

placed on every heart. The Bible says there's a little light

in everyone, that everyone who comes to the world, John says, has

been given some light. The difference between being an animal

and a human being is that we have a conscience, we have moral

awareness. And yes, sometimes for a liberal, it may be recessed

way, way, way, way down in there, in the crevices, the dark,

dark, dark, you know, but it's still there. The reason why they

cry so loud and they're so intense, tolerant of us, when they

tell us to be tolerant of them, is because their sin has been

exposed, their immorality has been exposed, and that's what Joseph

did to his brothers. Please do not think I'm comparing Joseph with

Trump. That's what Joseph did to his brothers. Conflict. Darkness

versus light. I mean, the Bible describes it over and over

again. Good versus evil. It's a real thing. May we be reminded

there is a battle taking place that we cannot see, and it bleeds

into what we can see. Many, many times a battle's taking place.

Good versus evil. Children of God versus the children of Satan,

said man. That's a pretty bold statement. Well, let me remind you,

John 1:12 says Jesus said Jesus words. But as many as received

John 1:12

him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God. We are children

of God. If you're saved tonight, isn't that amazing. But

notice what he says about some of the Jews and especially the pharisees

in John 8:44. These are Jesus words as well. He says to them, ye

John 8:44

are of your father, the devil. You're saved tonight. You're a son

of God. You're a child of God. If you're not saved, the Bible says

you're a child of the devil. And there is a great war taking place.

And Joseph in the home did not create the problems so much as that

he revealed the problems. He shed light on the problems as they

surfaced. And then lastly, remind you tonight that the Old Testament,

God spoke by way of visions and dreams, or he spoke directly

to them. We know from Genesis chapter 12 that when God came to

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

and gave Abraham the promise, he promised him all the soil that

he walked on, that his seed would be as the stars of heaven,

as the sand of the seashore. He promised him that through him

and through his future seed that all the nations of the earth

would be blessed. Acts chapter 7 says, When Stephen's preaching,

Acts 7 · chapter mention

he says that that particular passage is in Genesis 12, that God

appeared unto Abraham. So the New Testament gives us further information

into that Old Testament story. Where the Old Testament says that

God promised him these things. The New Testament tells us that he

actually appeared to him and talked to him and gave him those

promises. So God would speak to them directly or God would speak

to them through visions and dreams. We learned about that through

King Nebuchadnezzar, didn't we? And God spoke through dreams

and through visions and through Daniel and so many other

prophets, through dreams and visions. That's the way in which

God spoke and gave divine revelation in the Old Testament.

But the New Testament, God speaks through his word. Hebrews

Hebrews 1:1

1:1 says, God, who at sundry time and divers manners spoke in

times past, referring to the Old Testament, hath in these last

days spoken to us by his Son. And this is the written word. Jesus

is the living word. This is the written word. And God speaks

through His Word. This word was completed around 100 AD. The

Bible says no man add to or take away, or they're in danger of

hell. Corinthians tells us, when that which is perfect is come,

that which is apart will be done away with. What is that which

is perfect? It's the Word of God. When the Word of God was completed,

there was no, no need, no longer any need for the gift of tongues,

no longer any need for the gift of prophecy or the gift, these

special sign gifts. No, there was no need for that anymore. Because

God did not need to directly speak to his people verbally or through

visions or through whatever the case is. No, we have the complete

Word of God. Those sign gifts were merely a transition for the

church to transition from again, the Old Testament Testament

system to the New Testament covenant. The New Testament system.

Clearly they were done away with. Clearly. So God speaks through

His Word today. But in the Old Testament, and I've preached this

to you before, in the Old Testament, he spoke through visions

and dreams or directly. Who had a dream? I know Martin Luther

did. I mean, I'm sorry, is it not Martin Luther? Yeah. Mr. King,

Joseph had a dream. Had two. That is God's divine revelation just

as much as this is God's divine revelation. When God gave

Joseph the dream, it would be the same as if he has written it

down for us today in the book. Jacob would have known that. Why?

Because God spoke directly to Jacob on occasion. So When God gave

Joseph the dream of the sheaves bowing down to his sheave

and the sun, moon and stars bowing down to him, it was God's

divine revelation. God telling the family and telling Jacob and

telling his brothers that it would be Joseph who would lead the

family one day, that Joseph would be the leader. Jacob would

have been very much aware that that's the way in which God spoke.

In fact, that's why it says there that he observed he used that

word. What it should have said was, Joseph's going to be the leader

of our family. God just said it now, Reuben. And he should have

gone down through every one of the other boys and said, guess who

is going to be the leader of our family? It's Joseph. Daddy should

have took care of it. But that's not what happened. And I'll

just say again, it's either that or you have Joseph being ambitious

and prideful. And that's not consistent with Joseph's character.

In other words, who's just making it up? Certainly not intuitive

of his past character, nor was it, was it any way close to his future

character. No, no. God spoke to him and his dad should have recognized

that. Let me give you a few things that will be done. We as parents

need to be careful about passive parenting. Passive parenting

produces bad kids. The Bible says in Proverbs 22, and we've heard

this verse a thousand times, most of us train up a child and the

way to go. And many times we talk about training. And I use the

tomato plant illustration where you put the little cage over

the tomato plant so that you can get the little, you know, branches

to go up in the. So that doesn't just lay on the ground. You're

training that tomato plant to go up. Or maybe you talking about

a vine and you put up a little trellis and you make the vines grow

through the trellis and blah blah, blah, blah, blah. But can I

remind you, it says train. You know what a trainer does? A trainer

trains. Not like a choo choo choo choo. No, no, I'm talking about

nobody. Okay, never mind. Ms. Cindy Biddles on here. Laugh at that

one. Train up a child. I on occasion have had a trainer. My wife

will testify the last time I went to a trainer. It's been a long

time ago. My wife, she was going through that 24 hour fitness

and I said, well, you know what, I'll just check it out myself.

The trainer know, she gets weighed and all this stuff, blah,

blah, blah. Trainer weighs me, man, you hide your weight Good. How

in the world do you weigh that much? I'm like, I don't need no training.

Then I must be fine. No, but, man, a lot of effort, a lot of time

from the trainer. The trainer was really good. He not only would

he work us out that hour or whatever, but, man, there was calls,

there was messages, and there was everything to help and train

and get us. It takes work, by the way. Parenting is work. A passive

parent is a lazy parent. A passive parent is a parent who doesn't

want confrontation. Can I remind you, you're a trainer. Act

like. May mean a little less sleep, by the way. It may mean a

little less work. I'm talking about your real job, your day job.

Again, love is spelt T I m e. But training takes time. Passive

parenting leads to inconsistency, both positive and

negative. We need to be consistent with our children, especially

when they're small and as they grow up. The thing that's got me

the most, I know the teenagers next door. One of the things I've

seen over the years, over 30 years of pastoring now, is parents

give up as the children get older. Seen so many parents give

up, especially as they come to the teenage years and just kind of

allow their teenagers to do whatever. Why would you do that?

You had all that invested, all that time and effort invested when

they were younger. Why do you just kind of let them do their own

thing? Because you're lazy. You don't want to confront them.

You're afraid that they'll rebel. Can I tell you, you should

have a little more faith in your child if you've raised them

right, that if you confront them with their bad behavior as a

teenager, that they will not conform. I believe God can do anything.

Children, you read some of the books again. The Bible's the greatest

parenting book, but there are some good books out there. One of

them is written by. I think it's James Dobson on boundaries that

kids want. Boundaries. If you've ever read. It's a great. It's

a good book. Kids truly do want some boundaries. They want to

know where they stand. They want to know where they're at with

mom and dad. Don't give up on your kids as they grow up. One of

the best times in my life was when my kids became teenagers. I

enjoyed it so very much. Two of them are in here tonight. Loved

it. Loved it. It ought to be a great, great experience. Be careful

about favoritism. Favoritism leads to jealousy and anger. This

is where the word equitable equality actually does fit to treat

all our kids equal. I know one's personality may be a little

more this or you may have a little more in common with that one.

But you need to do everything you can to treat your children the

same. Grandparents treat your grandkids the same. You do one for

the other. You do one for one, do the for the other. My pawpaw and

grandma were great at that. Being a light will open the eyes

of the wicked of their moral fallenness. Just be aware of that.

Many people who do not like you, especially maybe in your workplace

or wherever, may not like you because you are a light. And it exposes

their darkness. It exposes them. You're just shedding a light

on it. Shedding a light on it. Their conscience is pricked. Lastly,

had Jacob had faith in the divine revelation, the dreams that

were given to Joseph, he would have known that Joseph was not dead.

He would have believed. He would have told his 11, his 10 sons.

I don't believe you because God's word says that that Joseph

one day will lead our family. And if God's word said that, then

I just believe it. I trust that that's what's going to happen.

So Joseph can't be dead. You guys are lying. You say. Well that's

a little far fetched. No, it's not. Think about Abraham. Genesis

22. Amen. God says to Abraham, take your son, your only son, offer

him up a sacrifice. And Abraham said, here am I. And he doesn't

blink. He doesn't, you know, he goes, takes him, takes him up

to Mount Moriah. There he offers him up and of course God stays

his hand. But the New Testament again tells us in Hebrews

11 it says that Abraham did so because he knew that the promise

of God was true. That that Isaac, that through Isaac the Messiah

would come. And therefore Isaac could not die. Or if he died,

God would need to raise him from the dead in order to keep his

promise. And God will keep his promises every time. Because God

cannot lie. So Abraham, unlike Jacob, believed in the divine revelation

that was given and trusted in the divine revelation. So much so

that he was willing to kill his son. It's amazing the distinguishing

of the two from one another. Let's be Abraham. Amen. Let's follow

the word of God. Trust the word of God. Trust the Lord. He'll

never let you down. Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.

Lean not on understanding and all the ways. Acknowledge him and

he'll direct thy paths and just put it all out. Just trust him,

just trust him again. If Jacob had trusted the divine revelation

and what peace that would have brought in his heart. It brought

peace in Joseph's heart and we'll learn that as we go along in

the story. Why was Joseph able to go through the things he went

through? Because he had peace in knowing that one day he would

leave his Father's house. He believed the promise. He believed

that the revelation. Amen. Just believe the book. It's a blessed

book. It's a great book. It's a miraculous book. It's a life changing

book. It's a powerful, powerful book. Let's all stand. Draw

Me Nearer and I have preached a little too long. So hymn 2:23,

draw me nearer, nearer, nearer Blessed Lord, let's pray. Heavenly

Father, Lord, we thank youk again for the Old Testament, the

examples that we have there, the good and the bad. And Lord, may

we live a life that's consistent. May we be parents that

are consistent. Lord, may we continue to be the light and salt

that we ought to be. And Lord, most of all, may we trust your word.

May we have faith in you, thank you and love you in Jesus name.

Amen. All right. Hymn 223, draw me near. If you want to come

pray tonight.