June 29, 2025 Youth Sunday- Time Travel to Joseph's Trials and Triumphs

Music.

So today, guys, and adults, we're going to go back at a time machine,

way back to the time when Joseph,

Joseph was with his dad, Jacob.

So we're going to close our eyes.

All right, now we have to pretend now. We're going to put our seatbelts.

We're going to put on double seatbelts. So one seatbelt, click.

Another seatbelt, click.

All right, you ready? Here we're going to go. We're going to go way back in

time, way back in the Bible times. Here we go. One, two, three.

Boom. We landed. You can open up your eyeballs.

Guess what? Right now outside, it's dusty.

There's sand. And there is a young man named Joseph.

And Joseph, he was loved by his dad. But you know what Joseph did?

Joseph had brothers. How many of you have ever told on your brothers before

or sisters? You ever do that?

Ever do that? Say, hey, mom, did you know? Did you know they're doing that out

there? Right to try to get them in trouble?

Well, Joseph, he had older brothers, and he would do that a lot.

And his brothers, they did not like it. And actually, they got so much that

they did not like him at all.

And they actually hated him, which was really bad. But one day,

one night, yeah, come on up, girl.

One night, he had a dream. And so he got up the next day and said, brothers, guess what?

I had a dream And I had this dream about The,

These things of wheat And they all bow All twelve of them they all bow down

To the one And his brothers are like what Why are you telling us this Are you

telling me That we're going to bow down to you,

Yeah And you know what Here I'll

let you Here you go I'll let you find something You take your time girl.

Oh, there you go, Naomi. Nice. I'm going to close it. There we go.

Way to go. Just don't get your fingers slammed.

All right. So Joseph, he told them a dream.

And his brothers did not like it at all. It made him hate him even more. And then, guess what?

He had another dream. And so this time he told his dad about it.

And his dad said, what? Are we going to bow down to you as well,

your mom and me? and he scolded him.

But in the back of Jacob's mind, it's like, hmm, I wonder what that's about.

And guess what? Guess what the Bible also talks about for parents?

He, Mr. Jacob, right?

He loved his son so much that he gave him a special jacket.

He didn't get his other brother's one. He showed favoritism, right?

He showed him like, oh, you're better than them. And that made his brother does not like him even more.

And so guess what happened? So Joseph or Jacob said, all right,

hey, your brothers are out and they're out tending the sheep.

Why don't you go check on them?

So he sent them out there. So they're walking on and they see Jacob coming and

Jacob or Joseph went and he talked to one of the guys and said,

hey, have you seen my brothers?

They're like, yeah, he's over here. He's over here.

And so he's walking there and his older brothers, watch your fingers and his

older brothers saw him coming and they're like oh there's that annoying brother,

there's little special joseph let's kill

him they hated him so much they wanted to kill their brother but their older

brother reuben said no no no no let's let's let's not do that let's just let's

just throw him in a pit and then in the back of his reuben's vine reuben was

planning on coming back and taking care of and getting him out.

But guess what? So they threw him in his pit.

It was this old well that was empty of water, but they threw him in there.

And guess what happened?

They didn't kill him, but they said, let's do something else. Let's not kill him.

Let's sell him. Have you ever heard of that? Wanting to sell your brother?

Right but they'd hated him so much that

they wanted to sell his brother and these guys came along and they said hey

these are traders we're going to we're going all the way to egypt and we will

buy your brother off you we don't know how well i guess we do know it was 20

20 pieces of silver that's what

he got him for him and they took joseph it wasn't money it was the dollars.

If you notice some of these images, I tried AI, so that's why they look kind of goofy.

So anyway, so Joseph, then now he was taken away from his mom,

his dad, and all of his family. And he was taken all the way to Egypt.

And guess what? There was a man named there, Potiphar. Can you say that?

Potiphar. and he was in charge of a bunch of soldiers and he had a whole house.

And you know what? He said, I'll buy him. And guess what happened?

God started blessing Joseph. God started blessing Joseph. So everything that

Joseph did, God blessed.

The Bible says that in Potiphar's house, things started going so well that the

only thing that Potiphar had to worry about, guess what?

What he's going to eat, everything else Joseph took care of.

And things were going so well, but there's a lady in here. She's not a good lady.

She was a naughty lady, and she was a tricky lady, and it was Potiphar's wife. And guess what?

She told Joseph.

Come be my friend and come kiss me. Oh, and she was married.

He's like, no, that's against God. And your husband has trusted me with everything.

I'm not going to do that. And she kept on trying to get him in trouble.

And he said, nope. And he would avoid her as much as possible.

He wouldn't be around her. And then guess what happened?

One day she was extra tricky and sneaky.

And she courted him when no one else was around.

And he's like, no, your husband, trust me, I'm not going to do that.

That's wrong. God says that's wrong.

And she said, she, guess what? She started faking and screaming.

And so Joseph ran away when she was trying to get him in there and lure him in.

And she ripped off the back of his coat. And so then Joseph ran out.

But then guess what this woman did?

Potiphar's wife. Are you ready?

Help! Help! He's taking me! He's hurting me!

She screamed, and all the men came in, and she lied.

She said, Joseph, look what this Jew, you brought this Jew in here,

and look what he did to me.

Look what he did to me. And then Potiphar, he heard about it,

and he came in and said, she says, Oh, husband, husband, look what you're,

this Jew that you brought in, look what he's done to me.

He tried to hurt me. And guess what?

Potiphar got angry. And he said, all right, Joseph, you're going to prison.

And so Joseph now goes from the pit.

Now he goes to Potiphar's house.

And guess what? Now he goes to prison for doing something he didn't do.

Was that fair, Clover? "'Now that wasn't fair!'.

And Joseph, he was missing his mom. He was missing his dad. He was missing his

brothers. He was missing his town where he grew up.

And now he is in a prison.

So time goes on. And guess what?

God blesses Joseph even in the prison.

So much, Jack, that he became in charge of the prison.

He became in charge. And he was given all these things. And guess what?

But one day, they're in Egypt.

Who is the king in Egypt? What do they call them? Do you remember?

Mr. Ron told us about it today. What's that?

Pharaoh, right? So the Pharaoh was their king. He got angry at two people.

Two people that worked for him.

One was called the cup bearer. You know what the cup bearer did?

What did the cup bearer do?

He gave the king his drinks, but what did he do before it?

He's going to tell them his dreams in a minute but guess what he did,

so the cupbearer's job was to make sure that no one tried to hurt the king or

the pharaoh so he would have to test the drink and if he died,

then he knew it was poisoned right, but if he didn't,

then he didn't, and so the king would drink it, or the pharaoh would drink it

so that was his job, that was the cupbearer's job, but then the other guy he

was the chief baker for the pharaoh,

and so the The cupbearer and the chief baker, they were in prison now,

and they both had a dream.

And so the cupbearer tells Joseph the dream, and Joseph says,

I can tell you what that dream means. It's not me, though. It's God.

God's the one who tells about it. God will tell about dreams.

And so he told him to me the dream that in three days that he was going to end

up going back and the Pharaoh would have him back.

And so he was excited. And he said, this is what Joseph said.

He's like, look, so remember, when you go back, please tell Pharaoh that I'm

here. I was wrongly accused. I shouldn't be here. But remember me, please.

And so a couple days later, the cupbearer goes back.

And so the baker, he's like, okay, so he told him his dream.

Maybe you know my dream. So guess what the baker did? So the baker told Joseph what the dream was.

But the baskets, and guess what? these birds come along.

And Joseph's like, Joseph was pretty blunt.

And so Joseph said, yeah, in three days, Pharaoh's going to call you,

but you're going to get your head chopped off and you're going to get impaled.

And guess what happened in three days?

Exactly what Joseph said happened. The cupbearer went back to his job and the

baker ends up losing his head.

And guess what?

Do you think the cut bearer remembered who told him about the dream?

Nope, he didn't. So for two more long years, Joseph had to work in the prison.

Until one day, one day, Pharaoh, he had a dream.

And all of his counselors, they couldn't understand what it was. And he had this dream.

And they couldn't give him the answer. And so the cupbearer said,

oh, oh, I totally forgot.

That ever happened to you before? Forget something? Your grandpa does it all

the time, right? They forget stuff? Yeah, right, Jack. Here we go.

And so Joseph was called because the cupbearer said, oh, you know what?

Pharaoh, there's a Jew in the prison and he knows how to tell dreams.

God talks to him and shows him about the dreams.

So Pharaoh called Joseph, and he said, I've had this dream.

None of these people that I pay, these are supposed to be wise people that I pay.

None of them could tell the answer. So Clover, you know what happened?

So Joseph said, I can't tell you the dream, what it means. But he said, who can?

God can tell you what it means because God will tell me what the dream means.

So he was always putting the view back on God, that God was the one making him possible to do this.

So Gemma, guess what happened? So Pharaoh started telling you about the dream.

And he talks about these cows that he had.

And these cows, some of them were nice and plump and fat.

And they came out there's seven of them and they came out of the water and they were nice and big,

but then seven skinny cows

they came and guess what they did kind of gross they ate the fat cows the skinny

cows ate the fat cows isn't that gross this was his dream right and so then

he told him another dream that he had.

And Joseph said, because the same thing is happening here with the second dream,

it was these pieces of wheat.

And the horrible looking ones, they ate the nice, big, juicy pieces of wheat.

And Joseph said, well, this is what's going to happen.

There is going to be a famine. You know what a famine is?

You ever heard of a famine? what's a famine Jack when

there's no food right there's there's no water there's

no food and what happens if you don't have

food you start to starve right

and we start to get skinny skinny and then all of a sudden we're gone

right exactly we're gone and

so so Joseph says well

this is what it means and this is what i would do so he says you know what pharaoh

if you're smart you would find someone to collect during these seven years when

you are having tons and tons of food and what they call bumper crops like when

there's lots and lots of extra food that's growing great,

save a part of that and then when the time comes when you have those seven years

of famine you'll have tons of food.

And Pharaoh's like, that clover is a brilliant idea.

And he's like, hmm, I think you'd be good for the job.

Yes. And so Pharaoh said, Joseph, I'm going to put you in charge of this.

And he said, Joseph, you are going to be my number two.

No one else in all of Egypt is going to be over you except for me.

And he put him in a nice chariot and they had a guy going around,

hell, this is a new Pharaoh. Everyone bow to him.

This is Pharaoh's second in command.

So Joseph, now, he goes from being hated by his brothers, thrown into a pit,

sold to the Egyptians, put in Potiphar's house, teased by his old nasty woman, put in prison,

sat there for a long time, and now he's second in command of Egypt.

Isn't that crazy?

And so God uses Joseph. And so guess what happens?

God starts to bless. And the crops, the rain would come. There's lots of crops and lots of food.

And he would save the food. They had so much food that they could not contain

all the wheat and all the things that they had.

And then guess what? What comes after all the extra crops? What was the last part?

They stored it. And then famine came. And you know what happened in famine, Tinley?

People started getting hungry. They got really hungry.

But guess what? Because Joseph knew from God what was going to happen. What did they have?

They had lots of food, all stored up in these things.

And so the people of Egypt, they would come and they would get the food and they would buy the food.

And then later on, when they ran out of money, they would give their land.

And when they ran out of land, they would give themselves because they just didn't want to die.

And other people around the area, other countries heard about it. There's food in Egypt.

And guess who heard about it? A man who was very, very sad.

Because guess what? Joseph's brothers lied and told their dad about Joseph.

They said, Clover, can you believe this? They said, yeah, he was eaten by wild animals.

And they took his special jacket, his special coat, and they dipped it in blood.

And they made his dad believe that he was eaten and killed by wild animals.

But Jacob heard that there is food in Egypt.

So he tells his sons, go to Egypt and buy some food for us because we're all starving.

We're all starving. and so he did. And guess what?

Guess who's in charge of all the food in Egypt? Second. Second in command. And who was it? Joseph.

So guess what? His brothers come and guess who recognizes his brothers when they show up?

Joseph. The brothers that put him in the pit, sold him.

Sees them coming and he is moved with a lot of emotions and so they came and

they they bought food and so what guess what they did they bought this food

and they joseph said okay let's do this,

he tells his people put their

money back in their bag so when

they buy it put their money back in the bag and so they did and then

they get in trouble and they start talking

to joseph and joseph says through an interpreter he finds out that his father

was still alive he heard about it and he found out that he had a younger brother

named benjamin can you say benjamin benjamin And so he had another brother named Benjamin.

And so all of a sudden he had an idea and he, these guys got in trouble because

they thought they stole the, they stole things.

And so he said, you know what? You're going to have to keep one of you brothers here.

Cause I want to see the only way I'll ever know that you're telling the truth

is that you're going to have to bring your younger brother to me so I can see

him. and I'm going to keep one of your brothers here in prison.

So he did. And he goes back and they tell their dad, dad, dad, guess what?

There's food there, but they're not going to let, they're not going to let our

brother go until the younger brother comes. And Jacob's like, no way.

You are not taking Benjamin because the last time you did, my favorite son Joseph ends up dying.

There's no way I'm going to do it. time went on

and they got hungry and they said dad we're so

hungry our kids are they're gonna they're gonna die we

need to go get food and so joe so jacob

said okay i'll send you he wasn't happy about it but he says take all the stuff

with you even the pistachios and almonds and all these things all these fancy

things and make sure to take extra money because somehow you guys didn't pay

for your food the first time, and so he sends him back.

Joseph, when he saw them coming and he saw Benjamin, his younger brother,

and he heard them talking.

He was so sad, but he didn't want to show it. So he hid in the side room and

he started crying because he wanted so badly to see his dad and his family.

And he came back out and he started talking to his brothers and he was going

to put them through a test.

And he had a test where he was going to see if these brothers had learned their

lesson. And so they had a special meal.

And Joseph, these brothers were really surprised because Joseph wasn't speaking Hebrew.

He was speaking Egyptian. And so he, but he seated all of his brothers in age,

ba-boom, ba-boom, ba-boom, all of them. And they were amazed at that.

And then they start eating and all of them had nice food but guess what guess

who got extra food can you guess not joseph joseph at his own table yes,

who do you think benjamin right benjamin got how many times do you think he got how much extra food.

Five times extra he got all kinds of extra

food and they were watching them and his

brothers they didn't get jealous and then

guess what happens now they're going to go back

they're going to go back to egypt or go back to see their

father jacob and so he puts

he says he tells his leaders he's

like look i have a special cup i

have a special silver cup clover and they took that cup he

says put it in benjamin's bag so they put the special cup in benjamin's bag

and they start to leave and they are just gone a little bit and he tells his

servants all right chase after them chase after them and bring them back here

and tell them when you see them,

if i find my master's special cup that he uses to tell tell what's going to happen,

That person right there Is going to be my slave forever And so he sends him back.

Stop and they're like what are you talking about who do you think we are we

didn't lie we don't steal why would we do that we literally bought we brought

the money back that we're that people gave extra and we brought it back to you

we wouldn't steal from you and joseph started talking to them,

they said well whoever is and and the older brother said you know what whoever

if if someone here actually has that cup you can kill him that's fine you can

just kill him so they started going through the bags and they got to benjamin's

bag clover guess what was in benjamin's bag,

the silver cup oh no

the brothers are like we promised we

promised our dad we promised our dad that that we wouldn't that we would take

care of benjamin and now now oh no and they start to freak out and they they

say no no please please you don't understand we our father has he's we promised

him that we wouldn't do this. Take us all. Take us all. Just not Benjamin.

And Joseph said, no, you didn't do it. I said, it's him. And guess what?

Joseph couldn't take it anymore.

God says that Joseph went in the back room. He told all of his Egyptian helpers

and the people that work for him, he says, leave me, leave me.

And he started crying and not just a little bit crying, but crying so loud that

it made it all the way back to Pharaoh.

Pharaoh heard about it. People could hear him wailing and crying.

And his brothers look at him. Why is this Egyptian crying? And he said, my name is Joseph.

I'm your brother. And they're like, what? No way.

No way. You're Joseph. We thought you're dead.

And Joseph said, no, God used what you did to save your lives.

This is what Joseph said to him. Joseph wasn't angry with his brothers. You know what he said?

He's like, God put me in that pit.

It wasn't you. God wanted me to go in that pit, then go to Potiphar's house

then go to the prison and then end up in Pharaoh's house and palace so I could take care of you,

and keep that promise that God made to our great grandpa that we would be a massive big nation.

Joseph said, Joseph said, what you meant for evil, God turned it around for what, Jemma?

He turned it around for good, right?

God took this kid who was 17 when he got taken away from his family. Imagine that, 17.

And now he is a leader in Egypt.

And he said, Benjamin, and he gave him a giant big bear hug. He said, Benjamin.

And they both were crying. He said, go get your family. Go get dad.

Go get dad. I want to see him.

And so they went and Pharaoh heard about it. This is how much Pharaoh loved Joseph.

He heard about that his dad was still alive. He said, you know what?

Take everything you need to go get them. And I will let them come and they can live here.

They can have land and they can be all taken care of. They sent chariots back

with them and wagons to bring all of their stuff. And it's like,

you know what? You don't even have to bring your stuff.

My stuff is your stuff. We will totally take care of you.

So God, Clover, think about this, guys, and adults.

God took something that looked like a tragedy, looked like a trial,

and he completely turned it around.

Did Joseph understand when he was in that pit?

And he was screaming at his brothers because his brothers talked about that.

Like, we heard him pleading, but we didn't listen to him.

But God turned it around. He says, what you meant for evil, God meant it for good.

And now an entire nation was saved. Isn't that pretty amazing?

God takes care of those who he loves, doesn't he? Yes, sir.

Absolutely. Satan tried to make a mess of God's plan, and Jesus turned around

and made it true. Right, it's exactly.

That's why some people say that Joseph in the Old Testament is kind of like Jesus in the Bible.

Isn't that pretty cool? All right. Let's pray that we're going to get back on our time machine.

And then we'll do one more song and then we will go eat. Because there's no famine today.

Right? You don't want a famine, do you? No, we don't want a famine.

All right, so let's put our hands out. Let's fold them. Let's pray.

And then we'll jump back into Strong's Michigan.

Dear Jesus, we thank you so much for today.

God, I thank you for these kids.

Jesus, I thank you that we get to learn about Joseph and how you took care of him.

How his brothers desired to hurt him, they were jealous, but you turned his

trials around and you used them to save an entire nation.

And then from that nation, Jesus, you came, you were born.

God knew all along what he was doing.

God knew everything that he was doing, and that's amazing. Jesus,

we thank you. God, we thank you for your love, for your sovereignty.

Jesus, I pray now that we would meditate as parents as well on this truth about Joseph.

Music.