Living the Dream | Joseph the Dead Man

Thanks for checking out this podcast from Carterville Christian Church.

We're so glad you're here.

Our hope is that through these messages you'll grow deeper in your faith and experience the life-changing hope of Jesus.

Now let's jump into this week's teaching.

All right, we've got to keep keep it going from last week, so give us uh name that tune.

What's the name of the song?

Well done.

Wow, jumping all over it, the Eurythmics.

And so we got an 80s classic uh to kick things off this morning as we continue our series, Living the Dream.

We're looking at uh the story of Joseph as found in the book of Genesis.

And we pick up where we left off last week, still in chapter 37 again of the book of Genesis.

Uh after college, my wife and I, after we graduated, we moved to Colorado uh for an internship at a really great church, and this church was at the base of the mountains, and it was just a wonderful place to be uh after college.

And uh one of the perks of living in Longmont, that was the name of the town, was getting to ski all winter long.

I had never skied before, took lessons and just went for it.

Now there are two types of beginning skiers, right?

There are those who are cautious and they wedge their way slowly and carefully and steadily down the mountain.

That would be my my wife's approach.

And then there are those who, as they're skiing, envision themselves as downhill skiers in the Olympics, right?

That's that was more my approach, trying to get from the top of the mountain to the bottom of the mountain as quickly as humanly possible, throwing caution to the wind.

And it didn't often end up well for me.

There's a time that my wife tells a story, she's sitting in the lodge and she's reading a book, taking a break, and she's looking out over the mountain as the skiers are gracefully making their way down the mountain.

And then as she looks, she sees this flurry, this ball of snow, and skis are flying everywhere, and she leans in and she's like, Is it?

Could it be?

Possibly is sure enough, that's my husband out there wiping out.

Another story is told.

I'm coming down the mountain as quick as I can, and and I decide I want to um go from one trail to another trail.

So there's like these little connectors, and you're really you're supposed to be cautious, take your time, be careful as you're going, because a lot of people there, and and I could I could see them up ahead.

I could see the ski instructor with his student up ahead.

And I promise it wasn't intentional, it wasn't on purpose.

I just didn't have the skills or the ability.

And as I'm flying from this one trail to another trail, I slam right into them, I wipe them out.

The ski instructor says a few choice words that I cannot repeat on the stage this morning.

And what made matters worse was that it wasn't just any student, it was a disabled student who was being, I know, chaperoned.

It was terrible.

It was just horrible.

If you were watching that, if you were in that ski lodge and you could see me kind of inching closer and closer and closer to that ski instructor, and you could see it clearly, you'd be yelling at me, right?

You'd be saying, stop, turn around, move out of the way.

And we experience that sometimes whenever we're watching a television show or watching a movie, and and the music starts to change, and the main character is just steadily moving towards disaster, and it's like internally or externally, you're yelling at the scream, scream, turn around, don't go there, go back.

Don't make that next decision, don't make that next choice.

And the main character plunges right into the disastrous situation.

When we come to Genesis 37, our main character, Joseph, he is barreling down the side of the mountain, heading into what is very clearly and obviously a disastrous situation.

And if we were watching this on a television screen, we'd be yelling at Joseph, Joseph, turn around.

Don't do it, don't go there.

But he in the end finds himself in what I'm going to describe as a seemingly hopeless situation.

So it all starts with Jacob's request.

Genesis chapter 37.

Genesis 37 · chapter mention

We'll pick up in verse 12.

You've got your Bibles, you can open up Genesis 37.

Verse 12, you also see the words, you will also see the words up on the screen.

Last week we looked at these dreams that Joseph had, uh, dreams that seemed to predict a day when his own brothers will be bowing down to him, and not only his own brothers will be bowing down to him, but even his mother and father, and there's great animosity in the family.

And then we have this request of Joseph, verse 12.

Now his brothers had gone to graze their flocks near Shechem.

Now kind of remember that.

We'll come back to that in just a little bit.

And Israel said to Joseph, Israel being the other name for Jacob, said to Joseph, his son, as you know, your brothers are grazing the flocks near Shechem.

Come, I'm going to send you to them.

Very well, he replied, here I am.

Very well.

So he said to him, Go and see if all is well with your brothers and with the flocks, and then bring word back to me.

Then he sent him off from the valley of Hebron.

Now, in these early stages of the story, it seems that it's not uh computing for Jacob.

Like it's not crossing Jacob's mind, the father's mind, that things are not well in the family, that this may not be a good idea to send Joseph into uh his brother's arms.

We can read earlier in the chapter that they hated him, verse four, and they could not speak a kind word to him.

Do you intend to rule over us?

His brother said in verse eight.

Will you actually rule us?

And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.

Even his own father was rebuking Joseph.

What is this dream you had?

But Jacob's not reading the room.

It's like sending sheep into a pack of wolves, like wearing a white shirt to a pasta party.

It's not gonna end well.

Jacob, don't do it.

Send someone else.

And then we read about Joseph's journey, verses 15, 16, and 17.

When Joseph arrived at Shechem, a man found him wandering around in the fields and asked him, What are you looking for?

He replied, Joseph replied, I'm looking for my brothers.

Can you tell me where they are grazing their flocks?

They've moved on from here, the man answered.

I heard them say, Let's go to Dothan.

Now you can see up on the screen a picture of the region of Dothan.

It's, you know, beautiful, prairie, kind of pasture-like uh place, location, uh, where they're grazing their flocks.

And here's why the geographical references matter.

Here's what I want you to hear in all of that.

They start off in the valley of Hebron, which is kind of the southern part of Israel to the west of the Dead Sea.

That's where Jacob and Joseph, that's where they begin this journey.

Jacob says, Hey, Joseph, your brothers are up north taking care of the flocks.

I want you to go check on them, go see, go see how they're doing.

And so Joseph then travels about 45 miles north to Shechem, right?

Going up north 45 miles or so.

And when he gets to Shechem, he's looking around, trying to find his brothers, but there's this man who says, Oh, I saw them, but they moved even further north to the region of Dothan, another 10 to 15 miles.

The point is this Joseph is a solid 50 to 60 miles away from his father's protection, at least a four to five-day journey.

There is no one to protect him.

And his brothers, they see the opportunity.

And so we we read about the brothers' betrayal in verse 18.

So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan, but they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him.

Here comes that dreamer, they said to each other.

Come now, let's kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns.

I want you to kind of underline that word, cisterns.

It's a uh a man-made well that they would dig into the ground and that it would catch the rain water and it would be used to water the flocks as they're traveling about.

Let's throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal has devoured him.

Then we'll see what comes of his dreams.

When Reuben, the oldest son, heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands.

Well, let's not take his life.

Don't shed any blood, just throw him into the cistern here in the wilderness, but don't lay a hand.

Now, Reuben was saying this because he intended to go back to rescue him from them and take him back to his father.

So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe.

You remember that ornate robe that he was wearing that was given to him by his father, and they took him and threw him into the cistern.

The cistern was empty.

There was no water in it.

And you can read the rest of the chapter, you can kind of see what unfolds.

Um, Judah and the other brothers, apart from Reuben, decide to sell him to a band of nomads, Ishmaelites, Midianites who are related to one another.

Uh, and he ends up in a caravan on his way to Egypt, sold as a slave.

Now, here's what I want us to see this morning.

This is what I want us to do.

What I want us to imagine is I want us to imagine in our minds Joseph at the bottom of that pit.

Can you go there with me?

I want you to picture Joseph at the bottom of that cistern, at the bottom of that slimy pit, with no idea what his brothers are scheming up above above, feeling utterly betrayed and confused and afraid, and wondering as he sits there in the mud, wondering how in the world is his dream possibly going to come true?

Have you ever been there?

Have you ever had your hopes and dreams dashed?

Have you ever found yourself in what seems like a hopeless situation?

Now, in the Bible, there are actually others who will come who find themselves at the bottom of the pit.

For example, David reflects on his experience in the slimy pit, whether it was literal or figurative, I don't know.

Probably a reference to a cistern here in Psalm 41 and 2.

He writes, I waited patiently for the Lord.

And he turned to me and he heard my cry.

He lifted me up out of the slimy pit.

Many believe that's an actual reference to a cistern.

He lifted me up out of the mud and the mire.

Jeremiah the prophet talks about uh the Lord's judgment upon the people of Judah, and the king of Judah at that time declares it to be fake news, and so he throws him, actually, literally, into a cistern that belongs to his son.

So they took Jeremiah, they put him in the cistern of Malchadjah, the king's son, which was in the courtyard of the guard.

They lowered Jeremiah by ropes into the cistern.

It had no water in it, just like Joseph's muddy pit.

It only had mud, and Jeremiah sank down into the mud.

And then you'll remember Daniel, he refused to refrain from bowing down to the Lord in direct defiance of the king's edict.

And we read that the king gave the order and they brought Daniel and they threw him into the lion's pit.

Now, here's what we don't know about Joseph's experience down in the pit at the bottom.

We don't know how he reacted.

We don't know what actually happened down there in that hole.

Right?

When you read, and I hope you'll take some time, and I know our groups this week will be reading through the rest of Genesis chapter 37.

Genesis 37 · chapter mention

There's no mention of God.

There's no mention of God's intervention in the situation, at least in chapter 37.

We have no description of what Joseph does down there in that hole.

We know in chapter 39 that repeatedly it says that the Lord was with Joseph, but we don't get that description in chapter 37.

I'm not saying he wasn't with Joseph.

Maybe this was training ground for what was to come.

Maybe Joseph was at perfect peace down there in that cistern in this slimy pit in the mud.

Maybe he sensed the Lord's presence and he had a contentment and satisfaction.

We just don't know.

Or maybe he was panicking, maybe he was screaming, maybe he was crying.

No description is given to us.

So we have to use our imaginations slightly.

So I want us to imagine that we're with Joseph.

We can see him down there in that cistern.

We have the opportunity to encourage Joseph as he sits there waiting for whatever would happen next, afraid, alone, betrayed, abandoned.

What word of encouragement would we give Joseph in that moment?

What word of encouragement, perhaps, do we need to hear?

Do you need to hear when you find yourself in what seems like a hopeless situation?

Maybe we would say to Joseph, Joseph, remember, don't forget, as you sit there in the pit, don't forget, you are not alone.

You are not alone.

You may feel alone, you may be the only one in the room, but you are never alone.

I heard the story of an old man who lived alone in the country.

He wanted to dig up his potato garden, but it was tough work and the ground was hard.

His best friend Fred used to help him, but Fred was in prison for 20 years for a crime he was convicted of.

The old man wrote a letter to his imprisoned friend and he described his predicament.

He said, Dear Fred, I'm feeling pretty bad right now because it looks like I won't be able to plant my potato garden this year.

I'm getting too old to be digging up a garden plot all by myself.

If you were here, all my troubles would be over.

I know you would dig the plot for me, love Tom.

A few days later, he received a letter from Fred who wrote it from jail.

He said, Dear Tom, for heaven's sake, don't dig up that garden.

That's where I buried the bodies.

Love Fred.

6 a.m.

the next morning, FBI agents and local police arrived and dug up the entire area without finding any bodies.

They apologized to the old man.

They left.

That same day, the old man received another letter from his imprisoned friend that read, Dear Tom, go ahead and plant your potatoes now.

That's the best I could do under the circumstances.

Love Fred.

Listen to me.

Going through difficulties and hardships, as I know many of you are presently enduring, going through difficulties and hardships is almost at times unbearable.

Facing cancer, overcoming addiction, marriage problems, financial problems, unanswered prayers, almost unbearable at times.

But going through difficulties and hardships alone is absolutely unbearable.

Most of us, if not all of us, can endure just about anything if we know that we don't have to do it alone.

So whatever you're going through, hear this word of encouragement.

You are not alone.

Not only do you have us, your church family, not only do we want to be your people, but most certainly God is with you.

So maybe the word of encouragement that you need to hear comes from David.

Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.

So go ahead and look at the person next to you.

Maybe this is what they need to hear today.

Go ahead and say to them, You are not alone.

So if we were there, maybe that's what we would say to Joseph.

As he's down there at the bottom of the pit, we would say, Hey Joseph, I know it feels like you're all alone, but you're not.

You're not alone.

Or maybe we would say to Joseph, hey, Joe, I know it may seem like no one is listening, that no one cares, but but I want you to know that you can cry out to the Lord.

It can be a whisper, it can be a scream, it could be a song.

Either way, don't forget, don't forget.

Here's the word of encouragement.

God is listening.

God is listening.

Maybe that's what you need to remember today.

God is listening.

As some of you may know, I uh teach at Ozark Christian College.

I teach preaching classes there.

I've been doing that for over 20 years.

So that's a lot of sermons that I've heard over the decades now.

Uh lots of stories that these students have told, and some of them really stick with you.

Like recently, there's a young man.

I was listening to his sermon.

He's a funny kid, big kid, Oklahoma boy, and he's up there and he starts telling the story.

He starts talking about a young lady that he worked with, and you know, she caught his attention and she seemed interested in him.

And so he finally got up the nerve and he asked her out on a date, and she enthusiastically accepted the invitation.

Woo-hoo, going on a date.

Top of the world.

Goes home.

Excitedly, he tells his mom, hey, mom, I got a date.

She said, Yes, I'm gonna go on a date with this young lady, this girl.

And she says, Oh yeah, well, tell me her name.

What's her name?

And so he says, her name, and she says, What's that name again?

Say that again, and she's he says his her name again, and the mom starts like thinking about this and is like, hmm, scratching her head, and finally it confirms what she's thinking, and she says to her son, she says, Now, you know that's your cousin, right?

You you know that, right?

And he says, No, what?

No, it's not, I know I what are you talking about?

That's not my cousin, though.

That's not certainly not my cousin.

And and the mom says, No, no, yeah, no, she's definitely your cousin.

Like, and so the mom explains the family tree and the connections and the relationship, the relations, and and he's like, Oh my goodness, I cannot go on a date with my cousin.

So he you know goes back to work and he's kind of embarrassed, he's kind of nervous about this.

What is he gonna say?

He finally has an opportunity, a moment to break the news to you know, this young lady.

He says to her, he says, Hey, listen, I know we said we were gonna go on a date, but I know you probably don't know this, but we're actually cousins.

She says, What?

Really?

He says, Yeah, yeah, we're cousins.

Are you sure we're cousins?

And he says, Yeah, my mom said that, you know, this and that relation, and and yeah, that that that we're definitely we're definitely cousins.

And she says, Well, I mean, we're not first cousins.

It's you know, it's like second or third cousins or something.

He says, No, no, no, you you're not hearing me, you're not listening.

We're cousins.

I'm not dating my cousin.

And she says, Well, I mean, are you sure?

I mean, they did this all the time in the Bible.

Like, I don't see the big deal.

He says, No, no, no, I don't care for fourth, fifth, or tenth cousins.

We're not, I'm not gonna do this.

She says, Well, how about you just think about it for a little bit?

Turns around and walks off.

Have you ever had a conversation with somebody who just isn't listening?

Like, just isn't, and all the wives in the room are like, uh-huh.

Oh yeah, in there.

Well, listen, when you're in the pit, when you're at the bottom, when you're in what feels like a hopeless situation, it can feel like even God is not listening.

And I'm sure that's how Joseph felt.

In fact, you can see up on the screen a picture of a cistern in Bible times, in ancient times.

This would be a a pretty massive, significant hole dug into the ground, and there would be a drain, and the rain water would come down and it would drip and pour into this cistern, and it would be there as a reserve for future purposes as people are coming by.

And at times that water would be empty, and it would be a slimy, muddy pit at the bottom, and there would be plaster along the sides to keep the water from seeping into the ground, and you can see the narrowness of the hole at the top, and that's where Joseph found himself: slimy bottom, slick walls, contoured.

There is no way, there is no chance that Joseph is getting out of that cistern.

He is stuck, and he probably felt like no one could hear him, not even God.

And so maybe the words that Joseph needs to hear, maybe the words that we need to hear when we find ourselves in that situation, are the words of David again in Psalm 139 where can I go from your spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you're there.

If I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand.

God is there.

He is listening.

Go ahead and say to the other person on the other side of you.

God is listening.

But I think what we might ultimately want to say to Joseph as he's there at the bottom of that pit in that cistern is that God can be trusted.

God can be trusted.

Even in the most hopeless of situations, God can be trusted.

God is always weaving together a pattern that we may never fully see.

God is working upstream in ways that we may never be aware of.

For Joseph, it would take decades for him to come to even a small ounce of realization as to what God was doing.

He was 17 years old when he was thrown into the cistern.

He would spend 13 years in slavery, and then he would spend another nine years apart from his family.

And then finally, at the age of 39, after living with the betrayal of his brothers for 22 years, after being written off as a dead man, he would finally see just a small part of God's purpose.

What they intended for harm, God intended for good, and he didn't even realize the bigger picture that God was painting.

I love the illustration.

I've shared this before that Kyle Eidelman uses in his book, Don't Give Up.

He talks about visiting his grandmother when he was a kid, no iPad, no iPhone, no video games.

He was bored.

He went to the game closet.

In the game closet, he found a ziploc bag of 500 puzzle pieces with no box, no picture.

Goes to his grandmother.

Why did you throw out the box and not throw out the puzzle pieces?

She said something about the Great Depression.

And so there it is.

He's got a ziploc bag of 500 puzzle pieces.

Can you imagine how difficult that is to put together a puzzle without seeing the picture?

Sometimes life is like that.

All we see is the puzzle piece that is right in front of us.

We don't see the full picture.

But that's why we turn to the one who can see the picture, who can redeem the most painful situations, even the painful situations that are of our own doing.

So perhaps what you need to hear whenever we find ourselves in a hopeless situation are the words of Paul.

In all things, we know that God works for the good of those who love him and who have been called according to his purpose.

You are not alone.

God is listening, and he can be trusted.

Years ago, I read the incredible true story of Louis Zamparini in the book Unbroken.

He was an athlete in high school and in college, even running in the Olympics as a young man.

He went on to become a World War II bomber pilot whose plane was shot down over the waters of the Pacific Ocean.

Eight of his crewmates were killed.

He and two others survived and floated on the debris of the plane in the middle of the Pacific Ocean for 47 days.

They battled starvation, dehydration, even shark attacks.

Eventually he was captured by Japanese soldiers, and he spent over two years in the most horrendous of conditions in a POW camp, being tortured physically and emotionally, broken.

He at one point, even though he admits he was far from a believer, he at one point was so broken, he prayed a transactional prayer to the Lord.

If you will save me, I will serve you.

And the Lord saved him.

The Lord lifted him up out of that pit.

But when he got out, he forgot the Lord, as we so often do.

Zampirini went on to suffer from debilitating PTSD.

He turned to alcohol.

His marriage and his life was falling apart.

He suffered from terrible nightmares.

His life was in the pit all over again.

But he was persuaded by his wife to attend a Billy Graham crusade in Los Angeles.

During that service, he heard the gospel preached.

He heard about a God who loved him, who sees him, who knows him, who loves, gave his life for him.

Zamporini accepted that message.

He fell to his knees.

He surrendered his life to the Lord.

You can see a picture here with Zamporini and Billy Graham.

He testified that his desire for alcohol went away.

His nightmares were no longer, and he continued to grow in the Lord.

And a year later, he even had the opportunity to travel back to Japan to confront the very man who had tortured him all of those years prior to extend to him genuine forgiveness.

And he preached the gospel.

And in 2021, he was even asked to carry the Olympic torch in the Japan Olympics past the very site, running past the very site of the camp where he was imprisoned.

The Lord was with Louis Zamborini.

The Lord was with Joseph and Jeremiah and David and Daniel.

And he's with us.

And he hears our cries for help and can use the pain and the loneliness of the pit for his purposes.

And the good news this morning, the great news this morning, is that we have something that Joseph didn't have.

We have Jesus.

Jesus found himself in what may have seemed like a hopeless situation, a hopeless place.

On the night that he was betrayed and arrested, he was alone in the garden, in the darkness, in despair, to the point of sweating drops of blood.

And there in that garden, he prayed three times that the Lord would take this cup from him, three times.

Father, are you with me?

Father, are you listening?

Oh, Father, not my will, but yours be done.

And he would suffer and he would die and he would be placed in a more literal pit.

On Friday, he died alone on the cross.

On Saturday, there was silence as the angels waited.

But then on Sunday, the light pierced through the darkness as the stone was rolled away.

And now, church, the saying is true.

Death has been swallowed up in victory.

Where, O death, is your sting?

Where, O death, is your victory?

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God.

Everyone say, Thanks be to God.

He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Here's what I've come to say this morning.

Because the tomb is empty, our hope is full.

Because the tomb is empty, our hope is full.

Let's stand and sing together.

Thanks again for listening to the Carterville Christian Church podcast.

Our prayer is that today's message has encouraged you and drawn you closer to Jesus.

To learn more or get connected with our church family, visit CartervilleChristian.com.

We'd love to walk alongside you in your journey of faith.