My Power is Perfected In Weakness- Genesis 41:37-57

2 Corinthians 12, starting in verse 7, about

halfway through, through verse 10. This is the

Word of God. It says, Therefore, I love this

next phrase, I will most gladly boast all the

more about my weaknesses so that Christ's power

may reside in me. So I take pleasure in weaknesses,

insults, hardships, persecutions, and in difficulties

for the sake of Christ. Listen to this, for when

I am weak, then I am strong. Let me be seated.

That was a verse that I've been wrestling with

a lot over the last month, and as I started wrestling

with it, immediately I saw this passage in Genesis

41. I was like, that's it. That's the week we're

reading that in service. This is the week. Because

friends, if I'm honest, that concept is kind

of an uncomfortable concept for us, right? I

take pleasure in weaknesses, insults, hardships,

persecutions, and in difficulties. I don't know

about you, but when something's hard at work

or something's hard at home or maybe something's

hard at school, I don't typically say, like,

I take pleasure in that. I love when something's

hard. Like, I just started writing my dissertation

a few weeks ago, and within the first 24 hours,

I hit writer's block. And I did not take pleasure

in it and say, this is the best thing ever. No,

instead, I took pleasure last week when that

writer's block went away and it all just started

flowing. We don't typically take pleasure in

difficulty. But I think what we're going to see

today in Genesis 41 is a great reminder of the

importance of taking pleasure in weaknesses and

hardships and persecutions and in difficulties.

Because friends, without all the weakness and

hardship that Joseph's gone through, then Genesis

41, 37 through 57 never happens. It never takes

place. If Joseph's never sold into slavery, he's

never in Egypt in the first place. If Joseph's

never falsely accused by Potiphar's wife, he

never goes to prison. If he never goes to prison,

he never meets the cupbearer and the chief baker

and never interprets their dreams. If he never

interprets their dreams, then the chief cupbearer

can't forget about him for two years. It's another

hardship, right? But if the chief cupbearer never

forgets about him, the chief cupbearer can never

remember him like we saw last week. Which means

then that Joseph never would have been called

on to come and to interpret this dream on behalf

of God that Pharaoh has. And if none of that

happens, then none of what we see in Genesis

41, 33 through 36 happens. Where we see how Joseph

proposes what should be done. You know, Pharaoh,

here's your great dream that you've had, but

this is what needs to happen. Because he never

would have been in the position to speak with

the wisdom that God and God alone gave. And if

that stuff never happens, then we never get to

verse 37. If all of those difficulties, all those

hardships, all those pains, all those persecutions,

all those times where Joseph did the right thing

and got the wrong result, if those hadn't happened,

we never get to where we are in Genesis 41, 37

through 57. Today we're going to see how God

uses the trials that Joseph has gone through.

to position him and to equip him for what he

is fundamentally called to do. Our main point

for today kind of mirrors that God uses trials

in our lives to shape us. No one enjoys going

through difficulty. No one enjoys watching that

family member have a stroke and have to come

back to where they were through rehab efforts.

No one enjoys seeing that family member going

through chemotherapy. Friends, all throughout

that, God is teaching us and shaping us, drawing

us closer to him, giving us unique opportunities

to bring the gospel forth to other people, giving

us unique places where we can grow closer to

God, because God uses our trials in our lives

to shape us. And so as we jump into Genesis 41,

let me ask you first to turn back to Genesis

41 if you have not done that yet. Let me also

ask you to check out verses 37 through 41 with

me. Remember, Joseph's gone through all of these

different trials. And finally, as Joseph sees

like maybe a light at the end of the tunnel,

at least he's out of prison. He's gotten to shave

and change his clothes and all these things that

maybe he wasn't getting to do in prison. In the

midst of all of that, he's been summoned to then

tell Pharaoh about a coming trial, a coming hardship,

a coming famine that's so bad that people forget

what it is to have plenty. We're going to pick

up in verse 37. It says this. The proposal, this

is the proposal Joseph mentions, like in the

seven years of good, keep one -fifth of all of

the harvest, you have plenty. It says, the proposal

pleased Pharaoh and all his servants, and he

said to them, to his servants, can we find anyone

like this, a man who has God's spirit in him?

And so Pharaoh said to Joseph, since God has

made all this known to you, there is no one as

discerning and wise as you are. You will be over

my house, and all my people will obey your commands.

Stop for a second. A couple hours ago, Joseph

is in a prison cell, forgotten about, okay? Only

I as king will be greater than you. Pharaoh also

said to Joseph, see, I am placing you over all

the land of Egypt. So Pharaoh responds to Joseph's

plan to save this harvest. Really, this is God's

plan that God gives. And we see he's pleased

by it. He likes the plan. He asks all of his

advisors a question, all the wise men who couldn't

interpret his dream, all the servants in the

palace. He asks them one question. Can we find

anyone like this? A man who has God's spirit

in him. Listen, there's two parts to this question.

First, Pharaoh is asking in general, who can

help us with this? Like, who is this? Notice

that wording. It's a man who has God's spirit

in him, Elohim's spirit in him. That's not a

word used in the Old Testament to describe the

Egyptian gods in this narrative. It's a word

here only used to talk about Yahweh. And that's

what Pharaoh's looking for. He's not just looking

for a random guy. He's not just looking for a

smart man or somebody who's got a great GPA.

He's looking for someone who has the spirit of

God. And here's the second part of this. I really

think Pharaoh's asking this rhetorically. He's

not saying, like, is there anyone out there?

But he's also saying, is there anyone else in

Egypt who's like Joseph, knowing the answer?

No, there is no one else in Egypt who walks with

God like Joseph. No one else in Egypt could interpret

his dream. No one else in Egypt could do what

Joseph's just done. Only Joseph could. Only Joseph

follows God. Only Joseph follows the one true

God. I mentioned this before, but I think it's

worth bringing up again. Joseph has followed

God in Egypt for 13 years. He doesn't have a

church to go to. He doesn't have a Bible study

to join. He doesn't have a small group. He doesn't

even have a Bible. He doesn't have other people

can point towards God. Everything in his life,

in fact, is pointing him away from God, yet he

is still faithful. And I'm going to be clear.

We should not avoid meeting with other Christians,

right? That's all I'm saying. I'm not saying,

like, go be like Joseph and just cut yourself

off from everybody else. I mean, don't make following

God harder than it is. But also, let me challenge

you. Don't use a season without a ton of community

as an excuse for sin or for not following God.

So it can be kind of easy for us to say, well,

in the past I had this perfect season. Like this

was something that my campus ministry warned

me about when I graduated college. I didn't really

believe them. That it's different going from

like a college campus ministry context to like

the local church. And then I showed up at my

new church in Kansas City and I grew to love

those people. It was a great season of life.

But I showed up and I looked around at the young

adult Sunday school class and I knew none of

them. And none of them knew me. They'd all grown

up together. They weren't super interested in

getting to know me. So I went to church, and

I went back to my apartment, my single -bedroom

apartment, my solo apartment by myself, and I

sat there. I was like, I am all alone. No one

else has moved into this building yet. So I thought

they were just really quiet. I was like, no one's

here. I don't know anybody on campus. The only

person I knew in this entire city is my mom,

and she turned around and left this morning,

so she's gone. So I don't know anybody. My girlfriend's

10 hours away from me right now. There's not

a whole lot of community here. You'll go through

it. There will be seasons like that where you

don't have a lot of community, but be like Joseph

and don't use it as an excuse for sin or to stop

following God to try to fit in and be cool. So

let's keep going with what Pharaoh does. So Pharaoh

realizes Joseph is the only person who can fill

this role, so he appoints Joseph to this. Cornerstone,

stop right there in this section. God is working

in this. God is working to put Joseph in this

position. God has this position for Joseph. The

fact that Joseph, all the way back in Genesis

37, is in charge of all of his brothers and all

of his very wealthy father's flocks had a reason.

The fact that he moved to Egypt and then was

in charge of all that Potiphar had, another very

wealthy man, there was a reason for that. The

fact that Joseph even went to prison and was

in charge of all of the prison, there was a reason

for that because God was working in all of this.

He suffered. He's been broken down. I promise

you that the Joseph who went to Egypt in the

first place, getting thrown into the pit, is

a different Joseph than the Joseph that we see

here in Genesis 41. I would argue it's a humble

Joseph, a Joseph that knows he can count on God

and God alone. And through it all, God has a

plan for the suffering that Joseph endures. Cornerstone,

sometimes we face suffering and if we're honest,

sometimes we start to think, why would God let

this happen to me? Like, why would God let this

happen to me? Why would God take this from me?

I'm going to start to ask this question. Does

God really care about me? Does God really love

me still? Like, does God know this is all going

on? But here's the thing, those aren't the right

questions. That's not the right way to approach

suffering. I think James 1 says it really well.

It says, consider it a great joy, my brothers

and sisters, whenever you experience various

trials. Notice that word. It's not consider it

a great happiness. Consider it a great joy. We

don't have time to get into that, but it's important.

Because you know that the testing of your faith

produces endurance. And I love what verse 4 says.

And let endurance have its full effect, so you

may be mature and complete. lacking nothing.

You want to be a mature Christian? You're going

to have to suffer to get there. There's a great

story that Tim Keller told when I was in college.

I was wrestling through my call to ministry and

what that looked like, and he was doing a series

of roundtables with the Gospel Coalition where

he'd sit down with other pastors and they would

talk about ministry and what it was like. My

dad watched one and sent it to me. He made a

comment in there. He said, you know, you're going

to go through like a thousand heartbreaks as

you follow the Lord. because it's worth it, because

you're going to come out on the other side. And

he goes to this verse, mature and complete. Friends,

being a Christian is not a call to have the easiest

life, the most comfortable life, or the life

where you never struggle, or the life where you're

always with all the people you want to be with,

or in the place where you're the most comfortable.

Being a Christian, a follower of God, is signing

up for something where we understand that we

will experience various trials. Notice that in

James 1 -2, James doesn't say, if you experience

various trials, he says, whenever. You will experience

these trials. Joseph experiences trials. But

Joseph also lets this go. He lets it have its

full effect, this endurance that he's grown,

this endurance that he's had. He comes out the

other side, mature and complete, lacking nothing.

Friends, we have to suffer. We have to go through

trials to grow. Let's be clear. God works in

Joseph's trials. We'll be clear on something

else that we're going to see throughout the kind

of back half of Joseph's life. God also works

when Joseph is not being tested. If you're in

a season of trial and hardship right now, I want

you to hear that God is at work. On the other

hand, if you are in a season where life does

not feel like that, I want you to hear that too.

God is still at work in your life. God is not

done working just because things are okay in

life. Let's move on to verses 42 through 45.

As I read this, notice how Pharaoh goes from

words about what Joseph's going to do to actions

now. He's talking about how incredible Joseph

is and the position he's going to have. He's

going to rule over everything, have all this

power, but now see what his actions show. There's

seven things to show Joseph's promotion here.

I don't think it's any coincidence that it's

seven things. See, throughout the Bible, seven

is used to show completeness, especially completeness

of God's timing. And these verses show us the

complete transformation of Joseph's life because

of God. So here are these verses, follow along

with these seven things. It says, Pharaoh removed

his signet ring from his hand and put it on Joseph's

hand. He closed him with fine linen garments

and placed a gold chain around his neck. He had

Joseph ride in his second chariot and servants

called out before him, make way. So he placed

him over all the land of Egypt. Pharaoh said

to Joseph, I am Pharaoh and no one will be able

to raise his hand or foot in all the land of

Egypt without your permission. Pharaoh gave Joseph

the name Zaphonath -Paniah. and gave him a wife,

Asenath, daughter of Potiphar, a priest at On.

And Joseph went throughout the land of Egypt.

So here's those seven things. First, Pharaoh

gives Joseph his signet ring and places it on

his hands, showing that Joseph has complete authority

in Egypt. Remember, we talked about this a little

bit in Genesis 38 with Judah and Tamar. A signet

ring was a sign. This was the person's identity.

This was their power, their position, their authority.

So the Pharaoh takes off his signet ring. And

he gives it to him and says, Joseph, you are

in charge. Joseph, everyone has to listen to

you. The only person that doesn't have to listen

to you, Joseph, is me, Pharaoh. But every other

person has to listen to you. I just have always

thought this was kind of ironic. That includes,

of course, Potiphar and Potiphar's wife, Joseph's

jailer. All of those people need to listen to

Joseph. Secondly, Pharaoh gives Joseph fine linen

garments. These are garments that Pharaoh would

wear, that royalty would wear. So Joseph now

looks like Egyptian royalty. Pharaoh takes Joseph,

puts a gold chain around his neck, which was

a sign of wealth. Understand this, Joseph is

not just powerful, Joseph is now rich. Like this

is the ultimate rags to riches story. He's in

jail in the morning, and in the evening, he's

super wealthy. Then Pharaoh has Joseph riding

his second chair. This is like Air Force Two

that the vice president takes around. His servants

yell out to the people, make way! That's something

done for Pharaoh himself. Right? If Joseph hits

the traffic jam, everyone has to leave. On Friday,

Hope and I were driving up to Sevenbury to go

get a free drink, and we ended up right behind

the Ohio State football team. I know. It was

brutal. Here's what was great about it, though.

There's a police escort, which meant everyone

was off to the side of the road, and we were

right behind that. So we hit every single green

light. Four and a half minutes after turning

onto Neal Street, we were in the parking lot

at Seven Brew, which is unheard of. It's great.

That is Joseph's daily reality. Everyone has

to move from out of the way of Joseph. He has

power and authority. He is in charge. Like, Joseph

is the man. Then, see that... Joseph sees the

land, he's shown the land by Pharaoh, and Pharaoh

tells him that no one can raise their hand or

foot in all the land of Egypt without your permission.

Literally, this is Pharaoh showing that all of

Egypt is in the hands of Joseph. Everybody's

actions, what they want to do, it's all up to

Joseph. And then Pharaoh gives Joseph a new name.

I want to slow down here for a minute, because

this really matters. There's kind of two parts

to this. First, Pharaoh does this because he's

giving Joseph a new identity of sorts. No longer

is he a Hebrew in the eyes of Pharaoh, now he

is an Egyptian ruler, hence the new Egyptian

name, Zaphonath Paneah. But understand this,

this is going to become really clear a little

bit later on in this chapter and throughout the

rest of his life. You can give a man of God a

new name, but you cannot change their character.

You can give Joseph a new name and a new identity,

but that doesn't change who Joseph is. Friends,

let me give it to you this way. You can take

a new job, you can move to a new city, that doesn't

change who you are. You can be in a new tax bracket

that does not change the way that you serve the

Lord. Even with new wealth, new position, new

influence, we will see today that Joseph stays

true to God. And for us, that can be hard for

us. Identity can be a real issue for us. It's

a big issue for our world. And so often it's

because we seek to identify ourselves how we

think that other people want us to identify ourselves.

But that's not what we're called to do as Christians.

Instead, we are called to identify ourselves

by what God says about us. Because that identity,

the identity that we find in a place like 2 Corinthians

5, 17 through 21, that identity will never change.

That promotion does not change that identity.

Alternatively, that loss of your job doesn't

change that identity. That new boyfriend or girlfriend

doesn't change your identity. That breakup doesn't

change you. Instead, what we see in the Bible

is this. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he

is a new creation. The old has passed away, and

see, the new has come. Jumping down a little

bit. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ,

since God is making his appeal through us. We

plead on Christ's behalf. Be reconciled to God.

In verse 21, He made the one who did not know

sin to be sin for us, so that in him, in Jesus,

We might become the righteousness of God. Let

me just stop right there for a minute and just

ask you, do you grasp that? That if you know

Jesus, if you have placed your faith in Jesus,

that you are the righteousness of God. I don't

know about you, but there's a lot of times where

all I see about myself are my weaknesses. If

only I was better at this. The first house that

Hope and I owned was a fixer -upper, and I convinced

myself I was going to chip gains and just go

through the house fixing everything with the

wave of the magic TV remote, right? It's all

just going to be done. And pretty quickly I learned

that's not how that works. That wasn't my strength.

And it's easy for us to sit in our weaknesses

and become frustrated. But do you grasp that

if you know Jesus, you are the... righteousness

of God because of what Jesus did. That is how

God identifies you. You are identified as a new

creation. You are identified as an ambassador

for Christ. It means you're a friend of Christ,

and you've been identified as the righteousness

of God. Remember that identity, no matter what

the world tells you. Here's the second significant

part of this new name. The name Zaphonathpania

has meaning, and to be totally honest, here's

where we get into a really fun part. I'm a history

nerd. I will hold myself back, I promise. Translation

of Egyptian hieroglyphics is really fascinating

because we don't know a lot of it. We know this

much. We know that Pania has to do with life

or supporting life. What we don't know is what

Zaphonath means. We have some ideas, though.

And so the most likely translation of this name

is either he who cares about life or, and I think

this one's a little bit more accurate, he has

the spirit of life in him. With that phrase,

spirit of life, referring to having God who lives

inside of him. Friends, Pharaoh, this pagan Pharaoh,

can recognize that Joseph walks with God. How

bright of a light is Joseph in this world? That

bright of a light. The new name he has includes

that he has the spirit of life or the spirit

of God living in him. And here's the seventh

thing that Pharaoh does for him. Pharaoh gives

Joseph a new wife. Well, actually his first wife.

And this is part of his new identity as an Egyptian.

It's also a deep honor, though. Her father, after

all, is a priest, which was the second highest

class in all of Egypt behind Pharaoh and his

advisors. This is a big deal. Pharaoh's given

Joseph a totally new life. With all seven of

those honors given to him, Joseph begins to do

his job. In verse 45, we see that he travels

throughout Egypt. He begins to work hard. I think

that matters. See, it can be easy for us sometimes

to, I think, read about Joseph's life and think,

well, he gets to the end of his trial, and then

he can kind of just sit back and rest for a little

bit. You know, hey, congrats on your marriage,

Joseph. Congrats on your new position and on

the signet ring and all this stuff. Have fun.

Instead, Joseph goes to work, and he glorifies

God with his work. Now, verse 46 is a transition

verse, and it gives some more information, I

think some context that really matters about

how long Joseph has endured this trial. This

is what it says in verse 46. It says, Joseph

was 30 years old when he entered the service

of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Joseph left Pharaoh's

presence and traveled throughout the land of

Egypt. So in Genesis 37, we read that Joseph

was 17 years old. And now we see he's 30 years

old. It has been 13 years of a trial for Joseph.

Let that sink in. 13 years of hardship. 13 years.

It's like half the time I've been alive. Like,

how often do we get tired of a trial after two

hours of it? Like, wow, this is really terrible.

I can't wait for this to be done. And then the

professor's like, you still have another hour

left in your test. Okay. How often do we get

tired of that trial after two days? Man, this

is really hard. Can't wait for this to be done.

Or two weeks, two months, let alone two years.

We're like, okay, this is enough. Thirteen years.

For thirteen years, God was working. For thirteen

years, Joseph learned what it meant to persevere.

For 13 years, Joseph endured and grew into being

a mature man of God. I want to challenge us with

something today. Perseverance isn't just about

standing strong for a week or a month. Perseverance

is about standing strong for as long as that

trial takes, whether it's a week, a month, or

13 years, or the rest of your life like what

Paul experienced. We read that in 2 Corinthians

12 this morning. I pleaded with God three times

take this away from me and Paul loves that word

plead it has a like a really deep emotional aspect

it's not just like hey God make this go away

it's like Paul's entire being is wrapped up in

this and God says no what did Paul say but he

said to me my grace is sufficient for you for

my power is perfected in weakness therefore I

will most gladly boast all the more about my

weaknesses so that Christ's power may reside

in me. Friends, our trials teach us. Don't try

to skip that trial. At least for me, sometimes

it's tempting. Can we just do this on fast forward

real quick, God? Can we just double time through

this? This time stinks. This is hard. I don't

like this. Let me plead with you. Do not try

to skip your trials. Learn from them. Learn what

it is to persevere, to endure. Come out the other

side mature and complete, lacking nothing, drawing

close to God. Don't miss the opportunity for

growth that your trials gives to you. And we're

going to see some of that opportunity for growth

that Joseph experiences in verses 47 through

49. It says this, during the seven years of abundance,

the land produced outstanding harvests. Not just

like mediocre harvest, outstanding harvest. Joseph

gathered all the excess food in the land of Egypt

during the seven years, and he put it in the

cities. He put the food in every city from the

fields around it. And how effective was this?

Verse 49 tells us. So Joseph stored up grain

in such abundance, like the sand of the sea,

that he stopped measuring it because it was beyond

measure. So you see these seven years of plenty

summarized in these verses. Joseph's in charge

of the food supply, the agricultural production.

And these years of abundance are so abundant

that the food is so numerous that it cannot be

counted. I'm not an expert on agriculture. We've

got some people here sitting in the back who

know a lot more about how grain counting works.

But that is a lot of food to have so much of

it that it cannot be counted. Like, let me put

this into a term that maybe more of us could

understand. Imagine if tomorrow morning you woke

up and every dollar in your 401k had increased

by 4 ,000 % overnight. Hey, I think a lot of

people would be calling Mike, like, hey, good

job, Mike. Thanks for your help. But this is

wild stuff. That is a miracle. That doesn't just

happen. That's not how that works. In high school,

we had to do this stock market game for my economics

class. And at first, it was like, every day was

like up 5%, and then I was like, this is so cool.

And then you hit the downside, where you go up

one day by 0 .1%. Like, okay. Guys, these years

of abundance are absolutely miraculous. Like,

there's just no good way to show this. There's

so much grain that's compared to the sand of

the sea. Have you ever gone to the beach and

tried to count the sand grains? It's impossible.

Like, you just look at it, and you're like, that's

not going to happen. It's a tremendous amount

of grain. And in all of this, Joseph is working

hard, and we can inference something about him

because of his character. He's working hard to

glorify God. Consider this. Every single person

around Joseph knows why he got this job. He didn't

get this position because he went to this school

or because he comes from this family. He got

this position for one reason and one reason only.

Because of God. So everything that he does at

work is a direct representation of God. There's

no hiding it for him. Sometimes for us we can

hide that a little bit, keep our Christian selves

off to the side. But Joseph shouldn't be alone

in the fact that everything he does is a direct

representation of God. If you follow Jesus, then

your work is a direct representation of God and

what God has done for you. Don't miss that. The

way that we work, the way that we talk about

work, the way that we act on a day -to -day basis,

the way that we handle ourselves when we go to

lunch today. The way that we tip our waitresses

at lunch today are our waiters. The way that

we interact with people is and always will be

a direct representation of the God that we proclaim.

Because just to be honest with ourselves, we

don't know if that person's heard about Jesus

before. There's a really cliche thing my youth

pastor used to say about how, you know, your

life might be the only Bible that someone gets

to read. And every time you'd say it, Beatrice,

you're not in your head over there, it's really

cliche. It just is. It's like painfully cliche.

But the honest truth is that it's also the truth.

And it's a humbling reality, but it's also true.

As I was on campus this fall, meeting some students,

there were some students we met who had never

heard of Jesus before, who had never opened up

a Bible before. This is real stuff. Ask our students.

I bet they've experienced this also. Your life

may be the only Bible that person ever gets to

see or ever has seen. The way that we act, the

way that we live, is a direct representation

of the God we proclaim. Look at verses 50 through

52 with me. I think this is one of the most powerful

statements about who Joseph is. It says this,

and the second son he named Ephraim, and said,

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

There's a lot to talk about in these verses.

So first, Joseph has these sons before the famine,

and his sons are named Manasseh and Ephraim.

You might recognize these if you're reading through

the Old Testament this year as being two tribes

of Israel. We will get to that later on in this

series. But there's something super important

to think about the meaning of these names. Before

we jump all the way there, though, notice something

about Joseph. He marries an Egyptian woman, in

fact, the daughter of a priest of their religion.

But that does not stop Joseph from naming his

children after the things that God has done.

And I think that shows his faith. And in fact,

non -biblical but extra -biblical Jewish writings

actually record Asenath as having converted to

follow God. Like, she gets saved because of what

Joseph does. Not only is he faithful to glorify

God, he's faithful to reach people for God. And

that stands in blunt contrast, if we're honest,

to his older brother, Judah. Judah marries a

Canaanite woman, adopts her culture in Genesis

38, going so far as to have sex with a shrine

prostitute to worship an idol. Joseph, on the

other hand, marries a woman in a foreign land

where no one else follows the God he follows

and leads her and their children to God. And

here's the meanings of these names. Manasseh

means God has made me forget all my hardship

and my whole family. Let's look at it this way.

Joseph has been blessed with a new home and a

new family by God. He's found contentedness through

God. That doesn't mean everything's perfect.

It's not. I'm sure if you would have asked Joseph,

would you like to see your father again before

you die? Would you like to see your little brother

Benjamin at some point before you die? I'm sure

he would have said, yeah, that would be great.

But you trust God with it. God's given him a

new family, a new home. God's provided for him.

And then Joseph names his younger son Ephraim,

which means God has made me fruitful in the land

of my affliction. Here's the big takeaway I want

you to see from that name. Joseph doesn't try

to pretend that his suffering didn't happen.

So often when we suffer as Christians, we want

to put on that bold face. So somebody comes up

to your church and says, how are you doing? You're

like, I'm great. I'm doing wonderfully. Or we

get through that hard time, that difficult season,

and we look back and we're like, it wasn't that

bad. It's fine. Instead of doing that, Joseph

focuses on how God has provided for him through

his suffering. And in fact, I'll go one step

further on this. Joseph has embraced his suffering.

He's embraced what he learned and how God has

been with him throughout his suffering. He's

embraced that life is not how it used to be.

Life is different for Joseph now. Absolutely

it is. Let's put it this way. When he was 17,

Joseph spoke no Egyptian. Now Joseph's business

language is Egyptian. It's a different life.

But he embraces it. He's content in it. He trusts

God with it. And he gives God the glory so that

God has made him fruitful in the land of his

affliction. To say this one other way, Joseph

has used his trials to draw closer to God. Check

out these last few verses with me, verses 53

through 57. It says, then the seven years of

abundance in the land of Egypt came to an end.

Not ideal. And the seven years of famine began

just as Joseph had said. There was famine in

every land. Notice that not just in Egypt, all

over the ancient Near East there was famine.

But in the whole land of Egypt there was food.

When the whole land of Egypt was stricken with

food, the people cried out to Pharaoh for food.

And notice this, Pharaoh tells all of Egypt,

go to Joseph and do whatever he tells you. Now

the famine had spread across the whole region,

so Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold

the grain to the Egyptians, for the famine was

severe in the land of Egypt. It says every land

came to Joseph in Egypt to buy grain. for the

famine was severe in every land. Right on cue,

the seven years of abundance end, God's complete

provision stops, and they're replaced by seven

years of famine, which I will challenge you,

God is at work in all of these seven years of

famine. And there's famine in every land, as

we will hear next week from Josh as he preaches.

It's not just famine in Egypt, it's famine all

over the place. The Egyptians just have the food.

And as the famine gets worse, Pharaoh sends everyone

to Joseph, they're provided for, people from

not just Egypt. every land. Hear this. God uses

Joseph in a massive way. When Joseph was sitting

in his jail cell, I can almost promise you that

he was not thinking to himself, well, someday

when there's a famine and I run all the storehouses

in Egypt, and someday when I'm in charge of all

the grain supply of the known world, then things

will be good. No, this is not on Joseph's radar.

And here's the challenge for us with it, I think.

It can be easy for us when we're going through

that trial, that hard time, that difficult season.

It can be easy for us to limit what God can do

and to say, well, God, if you're able to get

me through this, that would be really great.

God, if you're able, I don't know, God, possibly.

Guys, God is more than able. God's plans are

so much bigger than what we can see. Don't run

from your trials and embrace your trials. I just

want to challenge us with three takeaways today.

I'm going to be honest with you. One of these

is an action -based application. The other two

are truths that I really want to challenge us.

They need to go from just being things that have

been said to things that are in our hearts, things

that we remember, things we look back on as we

go through difficult seasons. So let's start

with this first point of application. I was really

struck this week as I was praying about this

message and studying this text by the significance

of the names throughout, of Joseph being given

this new name, that he's given all this authority,

and that Pharaoh starts to try and change his

identity. That shapes our first application point,

which is that Christ shapes our identity. I want

you to hear this. If you are a follower of Jesus,

your identity needs to be in Christ. If you are

here and you do not know Jesus as your Lord and

Savior, If you do not know that Jesus has come

to earth, given his life on the cross, died for

your sins, and risen again, then let me challenge

you that everything you can put your identity

in will fail except for that. Let me call on

you today, if that is you, to put your faith

in something firm. And that firmness is salvation

through Jesus. Salvation in Christ. 2 Corinthians

5 .21 says, He being God made the one, that's

Jesus, who did not know sin to be sin for us.

What are they talking about? Well, see, sin is

anything that's not perfect in God's holiness.

We are all sinners. That's what we read in Romans

3 .23. We have all fallen short of the glory

of God. But Jesus went to the cross. He took

the weight of our sin. He became sin for us,

giving his life for us. And he didn't just like

emotionally take that on or metaphysically take

that on. Jesus died on the cross. He paid the

price that we needed so that we could be saved.

But Jesus did not stay dead. Jesus rose again

on the third day and that sealed our salvation

and defeated death forever. And Jesus did all

this for a reason. So it might become the righteousness,

the perfection of God and spend eternity with

him. Let that sink in for a minute. God who has,

God who is perfect. He's perfect in every way,

loves us so much that he wants us to be his sign

of righteousness or his sign of perfection to

the world. And today, Jesus made that possible.

If you're here and you don't know Jesus as your

Lord and Savior, let me ask you today to go to

God. Romans tells us that to be saved, all you

have to do is confess with our mouth that Jesus

is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised

him from the dead. Let me call on you today.

to do that, to repent from your sin or turn away

from your sin, to accept Jesus as Lord. Let me

encourage you to go one step further and tell

somebody that's a decision that you've made today.

If you have accepted Jesus as your Savior already,

then I have another challenge for you. I want

to challenge you humbly to look in the mirror

and to evaluate yourself. Ask yourself this question.

And I hate this question because I asked myself

this question this week. Am I living out of the

identity that God gave to me, being the righteousness

of God, being new creation and ambassador of

Christ, or am I living out of what I want my

identity to be? When I first got married, I would

occasionally struggle with this in marriage and

would talk about how I just want to be like Super

Daniel, right? Like Super Daniel always could

fix everything, whether it was an issue with

the house, whether it was making sure dinner

was made on time, whatever it was, Super Daniel

could do everything all at once. But Super Daniel

wasn't real. Super Daniel is kind of a goofy

analogy for this, but it's the truth that a lot

of times we can slip into that. We want to be

super student who gets A's in everything. We

want to be super employee. We want to be super

mom. We want to be super dad. We want to be super

husband. We want to be super Christian who's

always just like super overjoyed to get in God's

word at 6 a .m. in the morning. And, you know,

everyone else wakes up at 7, and we've been up

for three hours reading through Leviticus and

diagramming sentences, and we're just on fire

in every way. And that's not real. That's not

what we're called to be. We're called to be made

new and to be the righteousness of God. So let

me ask you, are you living out of that identity

that you've been made new and set free? You are

the righteousness of God. Here's the second point

of application. Trials shape us. Your trials

are unique and they're different. We are not

all going to go through what Joseph went through.

Praise God for that. We see that in Scripture.

None of his other brothers are sold into slavery.

And all four of his oldest brothers had serious

reasons why they probably should have been sold

into slavery. But not a single one of them is.

Instead, they become pretty wealthy guys, honestly.

They don't face the same trials. Now, they had

challenges of their own, most self -inflicted,

but still they had challenges. Consider Paul

in the New Testament. He talks about everything

that he endured. His beatings, his thorn in the

flesh. He doesn't say, and don't forget Corinthian

church, my thorn in the flesh is also Timothy's

thorn in the flesh, and Titus' thorn in the flesh,

and is also Luke's thorn in the flesh. His trials

are different, and the same is true for us. Our

trials are unique, but they're all hard. I heard

a great example of this a few years ago at a

conference. A songwriter was talking about how

he was so convicted when writing a song that

his first grade daughter had hard things in her

life. And you hear that sentence, and at least

for me, I was like, does she though? She doesn't

have a mortgage payment. She doesn't have a whole

lot of stress. She doesn't have a boss to deal

with. Like, what is the hard part? And he goes,

I went to bed that night. I was thinking, you

know, my daughter told me today that somebody

at school took her swing at recess. For her,

that felt like the end of the world. You know,

for her, that's a big concern. That's a big difficulty

that her friend stole the swing. That's hard.

You know, for us, we hear that, and we're like,

well, that's a bummer. It's okay, you'll get

your turn in five minutes, that's fine. For that

child, that's the end of the world. You know,

to us, it's terrifying when our boss says, hey,

I need to talk to you at three o 'clock today

in my office, and gives no more information.

For that seven -year -old, they're like, sure,

whatever. Like, I don't care. My point is, all

of us face trials on a daily basis that are different

from each other. And just because someone else

is suffering in a way that maybe looks harder

or looks easier does not mean that it is harder

or that is easier because your trials are unique.

And what that means also is that the lessons

that we will learn from our trials will also

be unique. And that's why the Christian community

is so cool. Galatians 6 says this, carry one

another's burdens or walk with one another and

in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

Friends, we get to walk together with one another

and help one another walk closer to Christ as

we go through various trials. And as we come

out on the other side of trials, we will find

that we've learned so much. And I will challenge

you as you walk with somebody through a trial.

Maybe you're a married couple going through a

hard season together. You may not come out with

the exact same lessons. And that's okay. Because

God's teaching you what you need to learn. And

Joseph is a great example of that. The Joseph

of Genesis 37 was a bad leader. Let's just be

honest. He shows up to go checking on his brothers

who he knows hate him. And he's been kind of

poking the bear a little bit with these dreams.

Like, hey, I've got to tell you about my dream

last night. Now Joseph in Genesis 41 is an incredible

leader. He's a man who can manage all the food

in Egypt. We're not just talking about a flock

or 12 brothers who hate him. He can manage All

the food. Everyone in Egypt. So while you're

going through your trial, let me encourage you

to lean on God and to lean on the community around

you. Let me plead with you. Hang in there. Hang

in there. The words of James 1, 2 through 4 are

true. Consider it a great joy, my brothers and

sisters, whenever you experience various trials,

because you know that the testing of your faith

produces endurance, and let endurance have its

full effect so you may be mature and complete,

lacking nothing. Don't run from your trial. Endure

it. Push through it. Grow through this difficult

season. Here's my final point for us today. This

was not in my original manuscript. I just really

felt God put this on my heart Thursday. There

is an end to your trial. There is an end to your

trial. As Joseph's sitting in prison, he has

no idea that there is an end to his trial. All

he knows is, great, I'm in prison another day.

Oh, now Pharaoh wants to talk to me. He doesn't

know what's going to happen. Maybe Pharaoh wants

to kill him. He doesn't know. There is an end

to your trial. I just want to speak to you honestly,

heart to heart. If you are suffering today, let's

just talk for a minute right now. If you're going

to suffer at some point in life, which is everyone,

let's just talk for a minute. I'm speaking to

myself on this also, but I promise you there

is an end to your trial. Right now, you don't

see it. Right now, it feels so far away. You've

gone to the doctor. They haven't given you answers.

Your boss is not helpful at work. That class

teacher is the worst. Your relative is struggling

and is not okay. And you can't see that end to

this trial. It feels far away. And every day

feels way too long. And you just want to give

up. And as you hear what I'm saying, you're thinking,

yeah, I'm just exhausted. I'm spent. I just want

to go to sleep permanently. Like, I don't mean

like in a dead way. I just want to like sleep

all the time. I just want to throw in the towel.

I'm finished. Let me challenge you. Do not quit.

Don't quit. If Joseph quits, if Joseph stops

following God, we never get Genesis 41, 37 through

57. Now, on a macro scale as a history teacher,

I've often wondered about this. What happens

if Joseph doesn't tell them to hang out at the

food in Genesis 41? I don't know. I made my students

do a project on that one day. It was very fun.

My point is we've got to keep going. We've got

to keep pushing day after day. There's a resource

that Shane and Shane puts out, the Worship Initiative.

They released a brand new song on it this week

that's actually not out. No, you probably haven't

heard these words before. That's okay. But the

last verse of this new song, I was listening

to this Wednesday and it just hit me. It goes,

I will sing my way to victory until I see him

face to face for the Lord will not forsake me.

Glory, glory, I will wait. It ends with this.

Yes, the Lord will surely take me home to glory.

I will wait. Friends, you're suffering and you

may not see the end. But let me just encourage

you. That is the God that we worship. Yes, the

Lord will surely take us home to glory. And just

as surely as he will do that, the Lord will surely

be with you right now in the midst of your trial.

It's not our job to tell God when, it's our job

to wait. We could just shorten that phrase down

even. Yes, Lord, I will wait. Know that there

is an end to your trial and it is coming at some

point. But let me challenge you to do the hardest

thing you can do. Wait for the Lord. Wait for

the Lord and rest in him. This trial will not

defeat you. It will not end you. This trial will

end. God has not abandoned you, just as God did

not abandon Joseph. Hang in there. Glory, glory.

I will wait. Let's pray. Father God, we just

thank you for being a God who always will be,

who always has been. God, a God who will always

be at work. Lord, we thank you for the fact that

you were at work in Joseph's life and that you

did get him through to that end of the trial.

And God, we know that you will get us through

the end of our trials. Father, today it might

feel hard. God, I think about David in Psalm

6 as he says that he's crying and that his tears

are soaking his bed. That all he can feel is

sorrow and hurt and pain. And God, maybe that's

where we are today, God. Maybe we're hurting

and we're sorrowful. And God, all we want to

do deep down is just throw in the towel and be

done. But God, I ask that you would remind us

of the importance of waiting, that you are shaping

us through these trials. God, I think about Job.

crying out despite all of his difficulties, yet

I will praise him. God, help that to be our attitude,

that we would praise you on a daily basis. Right

now, God, as we move into a time of singing and

reflecting, God, I ask that we would not just

be singing words, God, but that our hearts would

be worshiping you. And God, I just want to specifically

lift up Betty to you, God. And she's not with

us this morning. God, I ask that you just be

close to her. God, we will wait for you this

week. We will trust you. In your name we pray.

Amen.