Joseph - Pastor Don Guldin

Good morning, folks. This is Pastor Don Golden coming to you as we always do

with the word of God, the absolute truth in the word of God. We're going to be

looking today at the example of a young man. And I would preface what we are

going to do with today's sermon and today's lesson by saying this. There are

a lot of people who face temptations, trials, and difficulties every days of

their life in this world. Young people today, they worry about

finances. Young people today, they worry about what other people think of them.

Young people today worry about their careers, the jobs they're going to have.

Young people today worry about the families they are going to raise.

All these things are real concerns in today's world. We're going to look in

today's sermon at a young man who lived 3,800

years ago. And he was faced with all the same difficulties and probably even more

than the average young person will think about today. Now, when I say young

person, things change as you get older. When you get my age and you look at, you

know, what you have for income potential and what you can do for your future, a

lot of folks my age have the same concerns. How are they going to pay for

the medical care they need? How are they going to pay for the housing they need?

How are they going to pay for keeping up their car? There's a lot of things that people So, we're talking young and old,

but today we're going to focus on a young man who lived 3,800

years ago. He was born into wellto-do circumstance

circumstances. His father had 12 sons total.

He had flocks of sheep. He had flocks of goat. He had cattle, a herd of cattle.

He had donkeys. And so that he appeared to be a wellto-d do man in his day and

time. His name was Jacob. He had 12 sons

and he had two youngest of his sons by his favorite wife, Rachel.

And the older of those two younger sons was named Joseph. So, Joseph, son of

Jacob, is who we are going to focus on today. Now, what about this young man?

Well, he was born in the land of Canaan 3,800

years ago. And when he was 17 years old,

though he had a total of 10 brothers who were older than him and one younger,

when he was 17 years old, his father literally put him in charge of the

management of the family estate, the goats, the sheep, the cattle, the

donkeys, the other servants that were in the house. He put him in charge of the

affairs of the family when Joseph was 17 years old. This all begins in Genesis,

the book of Genesis and chapter 37 if you want to follow along.

17 years old and to go ahead and distinguish him in his position as the

manager of the affairs of the family's interests.

His father Jacob gave him a coat of many collars. Joseph and the

coat of many collars. Chapter 37 and verse 2, it says, "These are the

generations of Jacob and Joseph being 17 years old." What we just said, the the

the the younger of the the the family of the first 11,

17 years old. It says in verse three, "Then now Israel loved Joseph more than

all his children. If there's such a thing as a problem

with a parent, you must love all your children equally.

And it says here, Israel one and the same with Jacob. It says here, "Now

Israel, Jacob loved Joseph more than all his children, and he made him a coat of

many collars." Verse three. And it says here, you see what happened

with the favoritism. And when his brethren, verse four, saw

that their father loved him more than all of them, they hated him, and they

could not speak peacefully about him.

Jacob goes on and he continues to establish himself in the leadership

position of the family. His brothers, their jealousy

and their anger toward him continues to increase.

And it says in verse 12 of chapter 37, that his brothers, the other 10, not

counting his younger brother Benjam, but the 10 other brothers, the older

brothers, all went to feed the flocks. If you have flocks, if you have cattle,

you've got to move them to new grazing areas periodically.

And this is exactly what they did. They moved the flocks to new grazing areas.

And his father joke Jacob Israel said to Joseph, "Go and check on your brothers

and see how they are doing." And so Joseph does that. He puts on his coat of

many collars, that cloak that distinguishes him from his brothers.

And he goes looking for them, and he finds them. and they see him coming from a distance.

And in verse 18, here's what happens. That jealousy,

that envy, that bitterness that had welled up within them because of the

special treatment that was shown to him when they saw him aar off. Verse 18,

even before he came near them, they conspired against him to kill him. Now,

keep in mind, they're out there and there's just thousands and thousands of

acres of open land. And all those people who were shepherds and keepers of the

flocks would go and move through these very lands. In our country in the early

days they called it open range grazing and there are still some examples of

that in the western part of our country. But they saw him coming at a distance

and they conspired to slay him. Reuben, the oldest of the children, the

firstborn of Jacob, says, "No, don't kill him." He

says, "But throw him into the pit that is here nearby and leave him there until

we can figure out a better way to eliminate him." So they take his coat

from him when he comes in verse 23. And they throw him into the pit. We don't

know how long he's in that pit, but it was a pit where there was no food. There was no water.

And then Judah says to his brother, the fourth of the children born to Jacob.

Judah says to his brother, "What profit is it if we slay our brother?"

Verse 27, Judah continues. He says, "Let us sell him to the Ishelites." Now, the

Ishelites would have been distant cousins of them. third or fourth c

fourth cousins. And unlike the 12 sons of Jacob and unlike Jacob, the

IshRaelites had become merchants and they traveled and they bought and they

sold. They see the IshRaelites coming and it

says in verse 28 that they pulled Joseph out of the pit and they sold him to the

Islamites for 20 pieces of silver.

The Ishelites in turn take Joseph to

Egypt to be sold as a slave.

They have done this. They have sold Joseph to be a slave in Egypt. And they

feel that they have satisfied the need for their anger and their jealousy and

their envy. They feel as though they have satisfied this in a rational way.

They didn't kill him. He will be a slave for the rest of his life. At least he will live.

says in verse 36, apparently he transacted hands again.

And it says that the Midianites who now owned him sold him into slavery to an

Egyptian who was a captain of the Pharaoh's guard named Pipar.

He does well working for Piphar. Potar recognizes his management skills

and his faithfulness in handling things like that and he makes Piphar in chapter

39 verse one puts Joseph in charge of

all of his household. Now Pipar being a captain of the guard for the pharaoh

would have been considered a wealthy man and he puts Joseph in charge of all his

affairs. Temptation comes here. He he survives

being thrown into the pit. He survives the possibility of his brother killing

him. He survives being sold as a slave. He receives good circumstances

and he's working in the house of Piphar and temptation challenge comes again.

Potar's wife decides that she wants to have

more than just a servant relationship with Joseph.

And in the process of him refusing to have an affair with her out of respect

for his employer, Potar, the captain of the

guard. He says that he will not have an affair with her.

She contrives a scheme. She calls him in and when she approaches him to

consummate what she wants to have as an affair, he flees from her and she takes

his robe and keeps it behind. Then she cries out and says that she has been

assaulted. The robe is the proof. Potar wanting to believe his wife cast Joseph

into Pharaoh's dungeon. While he's in the dungeon,

living at the most pitiful circumstances, the one who is in charge of the dungeon

sees again the management abilities and the honesty of Joseph

and he puts Joseph in charge of the other prisoners.

Among the other prisoners are a baker and a butler. The butler being the one

who held the cup that went to Pharaoh and would taste of the wine before

Pharaoh would drink it. These two men have dreams. Joseph by the

presence of the spirit of God within him interprets the two dreams. The baker is

restored to his position. The butler is restored to his position.

And then in three days, the butler is formally returned as the cupbearer for

the pharaoh, but the baker in three days is hanged by the neck.

Joseph is still in the prison managing the other prisoners.

In chapter 41, Pharaoh has two dreams. and his two dreams are these.

There are seven fat and healthy cows that come up out of the river Nile. The

River Nile being the sacred river of Egypt. It was from the Nile and the

overflow, the yearly overflow, the fertility of the soil on either side of

the Nile and on the delta that Egypt made all its wealth.

Pharaoh's dream says, "Seven fat and healthy cows come up out of the Nile.

Immediately they are followed by seven lean and and ugly looking cows.

The ugly and the lean cows eat up the seven fat cows.

Nobody can interpret the dream for Pharaoh. And he becomes angry at his

soothsayers and his dreamers of visions and his astrologers and the priests and

the others because they cannot interpret his dream. Remember that butler, the cup bearer

that was in prison with Jake, Joseph, he comes to Pharaoh and he says, "Listen,

Pharaoh, my king." He says, "When I was in prison," he said, "I met a Hebrew, a

young Hebrew, who could interpret dreams, and he interpreted dreams correctly for me. I

was restored and for the baker whom you hanged." Pharaoh says, "Bring this young

Hebrew to me." They do. They wash f uh Joseph. They

shave him. They dress him in clean clothes and they bring him

to Pharaoh. He interprets the dreams for Pharaoh and

he says, "Your dreams, oh Pharaoh, have been showed to you by God." And he says,

"This is what they mean." He says, "The seven fat cows are seven

years of abundance for the nation of Isra of G Egypt. He says the seven lean

cows are going to be a famine that comes behind these seven years of abundance.

And Pharaoh says, "Well, what should I do?" And Joseph says to him, "During the

seven years of abundance, collect and store the grains so that you will have

enough to ration out to the people of Egypt and live through the seven lean

years." Pharaoh is so impressed with his honesty.

Pharaoh is so impressed with the presence of Joseph, his honesty, and he

says to all his other advisors, he says, "Where can we find such a man as this

one whom in who has within him the very spirit of God to give us all this

wisdom?" And so they make him second in the cabinet,

second in authority only to Pharaoh.

The famine extends far beyond Egypt. And within a matter of time, his

brothers, remember those 10 brothers who threw him into the pit, those 10 brothers who wanted to kill him, those

10 brothers who took his coat of many collars, those 10 brothers who sold him

into slavery, thinking they would never see him again, that it was over. It was done. Well,

those 10 brothers are sent by their father, Jacob, Israel,

to go into Egypt and buy grain. And so, Joseph, the second in command of

Pharaoh, becomes the very means by which their lives will be sustained. They come

to him and because he appears to be an Egyptian and because he is second only

to Pharaoh in the land of Egypt, they come to him and they do not

recognize him, but he recognizes them.

It goes through a series of things that Joseph does to bring them to

a condition of humility. And finally, at a feast that he sets

forth in his own house, he admits to them that he is the brother

whom they tried to kill. He is Joseph.

They all come together as a family and he says to them, "Do not be grieved

because all this happened for good. God took your ill intentions

and turned them around and made them good so that you might survive this

great tragedy. When Pharaoh hears that Joseph's brothers have come to him, Pharaoh says,

"Bring them all and let them live in the choice land of Egypt. Let them live in

the land of Gan and let them because they are skilled herdsmen. Let them

manage my flocks as well as their own. Everything goes well.

Joseph is 30 years old when he is made second in command to Pharaoh.

He serves Egypt in that capacity for a period of 80 years. 80 years and dies at

the ripe old age of 110.

Now there is going to be challenge come again. When the pharaohs whom Joseph served are

all gone, it says that a new king came who did not know Joseph.

And he puts the children of Israel, the

children of Jacob living there in the land of Goan. He puts all them into

bitter and hard slavery. Now you would say what is to be learned

from this. Joseph faced many challenges. Joseph failed faced many many uh severe

temptations and difficulties in his life. Not only did he keep his faith as

a Hebrew, as a son of the commandment, as a child of Almighty God. Not only did

he keep his faith through all those challenges and temptations that he

faced, but he provided for his entire family

when they could not provide for themselves. You say, "Well, everybody

provides for the family." The Bible says that when his family came to him in

Egypt, there were 66 of them in number. 66.

He provided for all of them. What else did he do? He had respect for the

Egyptians. He had to learn to be respectful and accept acceptance of their culture. He

had to learn their language. He had to learn the things that were their

lifestyle. He had to learn to write hieroglyphics so that he could

communicate. He had to develop all these things in addition to being a faithful

Hebrew much like Daniel who we will study off in the distance

who was made the prime minister of Persia in his day. But here we are with

Joseph 3,800 years ago and he lives to be 110 years

old and has well established his family in Egypt. They are safe. They will go

now because of the new Pharaoh who does not know Joseph into a period of 400

years of being slaves in Egypt.

I want to close with these words right here.

I want you to turn with me in your Bibles if you can

to the book of James.

Now, James was the halfbrother of Jesus, the earthly halfbrother of Jesus. He was

the second of the children born to Mary and to Joseph, the earthly parents of

our Lord and Savior. James writes in the first chapter of his

epistle and in verse 12 he says these words,

"Blessed, blessed is the man that endures temptation,

for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has

promised to them that love him." Isn't that a summation

of what God did to Joseph? Here was

Joseph who at the age of 17, his brothers conspired to kill him because

of envy and jealousy.

They literally got to the point to where they said it would be best if they

killed him. And so they do conspire to kill him and

he is only saved from certain death because of the intervention

of the oldest brother Ruben. And so he is cast into a pit and they would have

left him to die there in that pit except that

the fourth of his older brothers, Judah, says for them to draw him out and to

sell him to their cousins, their distant cousins, the IshRelites. It is better

that they get something for him than to have him die in the pit. So he's pulled

out of there. He's sold into slavery. He goes to Egypt as a slave with nothing.

He sold into the house of Piphar. but because of his faith in Almighty God,

the very spirit that lives within him and told him never to give up. Don't

quit. You are a child of the living God of all the ages.

Serve the living God, your God, with holiness and righteousness.

proclaim that God is the giver of all that is.

He was blessed of God with the very knowledge of God and the strength of God

within him. He was blessed. He was that blessed man. And because he was blessed,

he endured the temptations. When he was thrown into the dungeons a

second time, he did not give up. He did not say to God, "Why have you put this

this shame and this punishment upon me?" He did not do that. He sought ways that

he might serve the living God in that dungeon.

He comes out of that dungeon to interpret the dreams of Pharaoh.

And because of what God has given him in love and understanding,

Pharaoh promotes him to the second in the land.

Joseph, Joseph, and from that position, he provides for all his family. Starving in

Canaan, they came to Egypt and they lived well.

Blessed is the man. Blessed was Joseph,

that man that endured temptation, that never quit in his faith to Almighty God.

When he was tried, tried with temptations and with problems, he

survived. And the Bible says, "He that does that, he that endures the

temptation because of the spirit of God within shall receive the crown of life

which the Lord has promised to them that love him."

In closing, all of us face trials. All of us face difficulties.

If you want to succeed in this life, if you want to live a life of peace and

prosperity because of satisfaction in your condition,

being content with what you have, being comfortable, being loved by those around

you, and you being able to love them. The only way you can accomplish that is

by being a child of God. Here's how simple it is.

Simply say to God, "God, have faith in me and put your salvation upon me

because I am a sinner. Give me the strength to live this life

with the very presence of your spirit within me. Let me live the blessed life.

Forgive me of my sins as I forgive those who sin against me. Almighty God, I want

to be a child of yours. Bless me, God. Bless me. Make me that blessed one with

your salvation. In the name of Jesus, I pray that you

have received that salvation.