Sunday message: Joseph part one- Center and reliance

A few weeks back, several of the pastors I listened to entered series about Joseph.  And as I began listening, I felt challenged:  "Name 25 lessons you can draw from Joseph".  Now, God knows me pretty well.  It wasn't a matter of me actually getting 25 things on a list (though I DID come close), but to encourage me to pay attention and garner from his story the lessons I REALLY needed.  Here is where I start to tell the story.


After all the weeks and all the sermons and all the prayer and digging, I think I can boil it down to two things.

1- He kept his CENTER of attention on God.

2- He had to get to a point of COMPLETE reliance on God before God could use him as He wanted.

For those who like to keep it simple, you might want to jump off here, because I'm about to go digging.  For the spiritual spelunkers here, follow along.


Joseph was raised in a family of, let's be honest, reprobates.  Judah got his daughter-in-law pregnant.  Reuben slept with his stepmom.  Levi and Simeon lied and murdered their way to revenge.  Not to mention whatever it was that caused Joseph as a teen to give a "bad report" to his father Jacob about them...

Gen 37:2  These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives. And Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. 


(And we won't go into what some of the Jewish writers said it was, other than "not kosher"...)

But Joseph, who was a "retirement child" for Jacob, got the teaching of God from his father, and took it to heart- REALLY took it to heart.  Even when his brothers threw him into a pit, ate their lunch laughing, and sold him to slavers, and he had "every reason" to abandon God (as they had), he did not.  Thus it was, when Potiphar's wife offered him a little more of the "delights of Egypt" than she should of, he was still God-centered...


Gen 39:7  And after a time his master's wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, "Lie with me." 
Gen 39:8  But he refused and said to his master's wife, "Behold, because of me my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my charge. 
Gen 39:9  He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except yourself, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?" 

So there is his God-centeredness.  But now, think of all the distresses he went through.  In the pit, he counted on his brothers to release him- they did not.  He perhaps counted on Jacob to save him from the Egyptians- he did not, because he thought Joseph was dead ( another nice mark on the brothers' resume).  He thought Potiphar would believe him about the incident with his wife, because he trusted him with everything else- he did not.  And then, when he thought he might be saved from prison by the word of the cupbearer he befriended...

Gen 40:14  Only remember me, when it is well with you, and please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this house....

Gen 40:23  Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him. 

And for 2 years, he waited- on top of the time already served for the crime he didn't commit.  How many of us would be saying at this point, "But I would've, had I known..."

Not Joseph.  And when it became apparent that only God would ever get him out of the mess, he stayed God-centered.  And God got him out.

End of story?  Close, but not quite.  Because I wanted to see how the example applied- I wanted to see a bit further.  And in doing so, I discovered that there is a wonderful process here in applying this to my life- and in Part two- which will be a special Wednesday Bible Study - I will show you the Five Guys method to applying this.