The Robe, the Pit, and the God Who Stays With You

[Music] Everyone shout Genesis. Genesis. Genesis. The word means beginning. It means origins. And it's the first of 66 books that make up the Bible. It is truly the book of beginnings. Now, we find ourselves nearing the end of our study of the book of beginnings. It's in this book that we discover who God is. He is the creator. In the beginning, God created. What God says happens. He has

power. He has all authority. He has a great plan. He is a good God. By Genesis chapter 3, sin enters the story. Unfortunately, every single person has been impacted by sin since the book of Genesis. It gives us an understanding and a reason for why bad things happen. It's because of sin. And we all have been impacted by sin. Yeah. Our God has a solution for sin. From the very beginning, God was not surprised by sin. He did not look away from sin. In fact, he says that he would provide a solution that we could be saved from our sins, which is amazing. In the book of Genesis, we find that the God of creation is also the God of salvation. There's nothing that God can't do. The God of creation is also the God of salvation. He is the God that we need.

We need to trust in him that he can create something new in our lives. But we also need to be saved from our sins. God made a promise that he would use his people. He first spoke to a man named Abraham and said, "Out of you will come a great nation." Abraham had a son named Isaac. Isaac had a son named Jacob. And Jacob, well, he had 12 sons. Jacob was a wrestler with God. And God changed Jacob's name to Israel. And these 12 sons would be known as the 12 tribes of Israel. Today, I want to look at one of those 12 sons of Jacob. This particular son is Joseph. Everyone say, "Joseph." Joseph. You see, in the Bible, we've got so many different lessons we can learn from. There are some people you can look at and say, "I don't want to live like

that." God gave us an example of their lives to say, "Look at how they made a decision and there are serious consequences. Don't do this." And then there are some people that we can look at and see, that's an example. That's a role model. That's someone I can look to and learn from. And that's who Joseph is. Joseph is a life that we can learn from. In fact, there are more chapters devoted to Joseph than any other person we read in the book of Genesis. Abraham's mentioned the most in the book of Genesis, more than 900 times. Next is Jacob. And third, we see Joseph. Joseph is significant and how he was determined to live his life. So, let's dive right in today. And I want you to see the application in your life that the God of

Joseph can be your God as well. You can trust in him and he wants to work through you and he wants to work in you. Let's dive in. We're in Genesis chapter 37 and we're going to learn from the life of Joseph. Genesis 37 starting with verse 2. These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph being 17 years old was pasturing the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilha and Zilpa and his father's wives. And Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. Now, Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons because he was the son of his old age, and he made him a robe of many colors. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him, and they could not speak peacefully to him.

I want to turn our attention to this text today to better understand the beginning of Joseph's life. Joseph came from a large family. 12 brothers, two sisters. With a large family comes some large issues, some large problems. You know, every family has its problems. But this family, they had some significant problems. Joseph is the son of Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel. And even today, we celebrate this great nation that God had a plan for named Israel. But but Joseph wasn't alone in this. He he had these older brothers. He had these brothers that we're going to see were actually against him. And we're going to see that this family had all sorts of problems. You see, these brothers did

not all come from the same mother. There was four particular women that we we learn from in this in this story of of Jacob. Jacob had two wives and two concubines. There was Leah, there was Rachel, there was Zil, Zilpa, and there was Bilha. So, here we have this great big family coming from all these different people. I'll tell you, you thought your family was dysfunctional. This was a dysfunctional family. They all lived under one roof, under one home. And we're going to see that your issues do not stop you from being used by God. The enemy would love for you to think that maybe the things that you've been through or the family that you were born into would disqualify you from being used by God. The only thing stopping you from being used by God is you. You've got to surrender your life

to the Lord. You got to see that God wants to use you. Now, Joseph did not have an easy life. And we see this from the very beginning. I want to start with just a simple parenting lesson. It should be obvious, but sometimes parenting is not so obvious. We should not play favorites to our kids. It's one thing if you have multiple kids and you take each and every one of them out and say, "You're my favorite," but don't tell everyone. It's a whole another thing to play favorites. I know that no one would intentionally try to lead a dysfunctional life, but is is never a way to motivate your children to try to say, "Be like this brother or look a little more like this sister. Can't you be as smart as this particular person?" Shame is never a great motivator. But it's in this place we see

Jacob has a favorite of his sons and it is Joseph. Now what can we learn from that lesson in terms of the application of our life with the Lord? Well, there's always a lesson in the Bible with the Lord because the Bible is not our story. It's not man's story. The Bible is God's story. And the Bible tells us in the book of John, the whole book of John is all about Jesus. And John tells us right from the beginning, but to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. Today, if you believe in Jesus and you would receive his name, God looks at you and he calls you calls you his child. That's enough to awaken your heart in the morning. You're a child of God. When you receive the name of Jesus, the name above all names, God looks at you. He

loves you. He gives you his favor. And God says, "You are my child." He loves you so much. How great is God that he made you for a purpose. He just wants you to receive him and believe in him. And when you do that, you're a favorite child of God. He wants to tell you today, "You're my favorite. Just don't tell anyone. I love you so much. God wants you to receive all that he has. And as we understand the the ancient families of old, there was there was birth orders and there were inheritance and there was blessings that come along with this. But when you're a child of God, God says you get the same inheritance as anyone else. God doesn't play favorites. But you must believe in him. You must receive his name. Doesn't matter what family you were born into. Doesn't matter what

you've done with your life or what was done to you. What matters is that God says you're my child. And if you're a child of God, that changes everything. It changes how you think, changes how you live, it changes your destiny because you are a child of God. Now, Joseph, he lived this life of integrity. So much of what happened in his life was not his fault. Joseph was out in the field and he was with his brothers. They were taking care of the sheep and clearly they were doing something deviant. They were doing something they ought not do. This is what brothers do, right? I I imagine it was something with the sheep. Maybe they were pushing them over, throwing rocks at them. We don't know exactly what they were doing. But Joseph comes back to his dad and he tattletal.

He tells on his brothers, "Dad, this is what our brothers are doing. They're they're not spending their time wise. They're not being good stewards of what you've given us." And you know the old saying, it's deeply spiritual. Snitches get stitches. His brothers weren't having that. They weren't excited that Joseph went and told on them. And but it's in this place that Jacob said, "I finally got a good one." And verse three says, "Israel loved Joseph more than the others of his sons because he was the son of his old age and he made him a robe of many colors." We can look at this story and best understand why did Jacob love Joseph the most. Well, Jacob in his youth, he saw a girl and it was love at first sight. Her name was Rachel. He he so badly wanted to marry Rachel. So, he went to her

father and said, "I'd like to marry your daughter." But but Rachel's father duped Jacob into marrying Rachel's sister, Leah. But the father also gave Rachel over to Jacob to marry. So now he's got two wives, Leah and Rachel. They've got two maid servants. And it's in this place that Leah, she ha she was able to have kids easily. She had one, two, three, four. She had a total of six boys. Rachel had a hard time having kids. And yet Jacob was most in love with Rachel. Her first boy was Joseph. So you can see with Joseph, it's a it's a special person in his life as a reflection of his mother. And so here

here Jacob so favors Joseph, he makes him a robe of many colors. This would be what we see even today in the Middle East like a tunic. It's it's a robe. It's almost looks like a dress. It's cool in the hot weather. It's easy to move around in. And normally tunics did not have many colors. That would have cost a significant amount of money to get those dyed fabrics. that would have been a sacrifice. Even more so, you would stand out to have a robe of many colors. It's not something you would work in. Let me just tell you that robes of many colors or a coat of many colors, that was not the fat of the day. All the cool kids did not have a robe of many colors. Joseph stood out when he wrote wore that robe of many colors. This was special.

This truly shows the affection of a father to this son, Joseph. Now, I need you to know today that God has a deep affection for you. That when you believe in Jesus, he takes who you are and he gives you something new. He gives you a robe of colors. On one occasion, Jesus was challenged. Why are you hanging out with sinners? Jesus told three stories in Luke chapter 15 why he hangs out with sinners. All three stories are stories of the lost. A lost sheep, a lost coin. And then he tells a story of two lost sons. And in that story of the lost sons, Jesus tells of a younger son that says, "Dad, I want my inheritance." And he goes to a foreign land and squanders all of his dad's money. He ends up with the pigs and he ends up in a place he doesn't want to be. And he thought to himself, "If I

could just be a servant in my father's house, it'd be better than where I am right now." And the son said, "I'm going to head home and beg my dad to be a slave." And on his journey home, he was practicing this speech of asking his dad for forgiveness. But Jesus tells us in that story, when the father saw the son far off, the father ran to him. That's not exactly something dads did back in the days of old. They would have had to raise their robe. They would have had to hold their tunics up. They would have had to expose the world that I'm running. You normally didn't run unless you're running from something or running to something in war. But this father ran to his son. And when he got to him, he didn't shame him. He didn't blame him. He didn't condemn him. He actually wrapped his arms of affection around him and kissed him. And

he declared, "Go get a robe to put around my son. Who he was is not who he is right now. Get him a robe and get him sandals for his feet. He might have smelled like pigs slot, but now he's going to look more like his father. You go get the finest of robe. You go wrap that around. And Jesus tells us in this story, God cares about who you are. Not where you've been, not what you've done, but who you are in him. You're a child of God. Receive the robe from Jesus today. This is the robe of righteousness. Not because you've done something, but he exchanges your past. He exchanges your sins. When you repent and come home, he celebrates and he wants to wrap something different around you today.

There are all sorts of illustrations in the scriptures of putting on the the new. You could read about this in the letters to the churches. Paul wrote to the Ephesians and he says, "Put off your old self which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires." Oh, just meditate on that. Your old life is deceitful. It led you to a path that you don't want to go down. It will lead you to be with the pigs. You'll end up smelling stinky. You'll end up having holes and dirt on your clothes. But this is you. Put that off and be renewed in the spirit of your minds. And to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Take off the old clothes and put on the robe of righteousness. Why? Because you're

made for this. You are made in the image of God. Sin is what has distracted us, detourred us, and has actually tried to destroy the fact that you're a child of God. But you are to put off that sin and put on that righteousness. Paul, the author, says in another way to the letter to the Colossians, I like how he words it here. He says, "Put on then." That that's the same phrase we would say in the morning. Put on your clothes. I'm glad you didn't come to church naked today. You put on then. put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved. Do you see this language? You are beloved. You are loved by God. You're not ordinary. You're meant to be holy. So put on then, and here it is. It's a whole list. It's like your undergarments, your outer garments, your socks, your shoes, compassionate hearts.

Put on compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, patience. You see all that you should put on in Jesus. bearing with one another and if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you. You should start looking more like your heavenly father. He loves you. Someone's offended you, you want to get back to them, but don't act like your old self. Don't act like your brothers. Act like your father. You forgive just as you've been forgiven. And then notice this in verse 14. Here's the key. And above all these, put on the robe of colors. put on love which binds everything together in perfect harmony. When Jesus died for your sins, he did so so that you would no longer look the same. He wanted you

to stand out. He wanted you to wear the robe of love. That is this robe of many colors. The robe of grace, the robe of compassion, the robe of mercy. This is a great robe that God has given you today, but you've got to put it on. God's given it to you, but will you receive it today? Or will you go back to your old ways? Will you go back to the way that everybody else is living? When Jesus gives us this this clothing, if you will, this is symbolic, by the way. This is symbolic of what happens in our hearts. This is a choice that you're going to be determined to receive what God's given you today. And so it was with Joseph. He received it from his father. But although he received something special, not everyone celebrated what his father did. Look at

verse four. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his other brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him. Joseph's brothers could not contain their anger. They were so full of hatred is spewed out with their words. We see so much in one verse. They saw. Do you know people are looking at you today? They're looking at you, whether you know it or not, they're looking at you as seeing how you live your life. And one way you should live your life is as a child of God. You let the world know you're special because you're made in the image of God. And when you live for the Lord Jesus, I want to warn you of this. Not everyone will celebrate that you are a child of God.

Sometimes it's confusing. Sometimes it doesn't make sense. But Jesus warned us that you will be persecuted for his name's sake. If you're really living for Jesus, people will see Jesus in you. There's just something different about you. Jesus warned us that you'll be persecuted for righteousness sake. In the book of John 15, it's right before Jesus went to the cross and he gave us a message. Love one another. What could go wrong if you love one another? Well, he says in John 15:18, right after he says, "Love one another." He says, "If the world hates you, there's a warning. If the world hates you, know that it hated me before it hated you." How could you hate Jesus? A

God that is love came in the flesh, revealed himself, and he was crucified. So, if Jesus who was sinless and perfect was crucified, just imagine what could happen to us. But Jesus warns, if they hate you because of me, they're actually not hating you. They're hating me. And he explains it this way. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world. I gave you a robe. You stand out. You're special. Therefore, the world hates you. So here, the world wants to reexlain what God has said about love. Love is love. Let's just come up with our own

conclusion. let's come up with our own explanation of what this looks like. And when you stand apart and say, "No, no, no. Love is not love. God is love." And he set a way that we should live. And we should live according to his word. People say, "Uh-uh. I'm going to hate you." And and it's confusing because you say, "Wait, wait. I'm not trying to share a message of hate. I'm trying to share a message of love." And Jesus says, "There will be confusion there because there was confusion when he came into the world because the king of all kings did not come like the other kings. He He's not a conquering king. He came to serve and to tell the truth. Now, these brothers, when they see this, they're full of anger. Now, we've got to watch out when we're angry. Anger is just one of the many emotions that God

has given us. But you determine what you're going to do with your anger. They were angry for the right reasons. Because their brother was loved more than they were. That wasn't fair. Can we just admit it? It's not fair. Not fair. So many of you were mistreating your families. Your parents didn't treat you the way that they should have treated you. You experienced something that was not fair and you're angry. But you determine what you do with that anger. And the Bible says in Ephesians, be angry and do not sin. If you let anger fester in your heart, it's going to grow. So the the the the counsel is do not even let the sun go down in your anger. Don't don't let a day go by where this wrecks or ruins your life. Here's why. In the very next verse, and give no opportunity to the devil. When you're angry, it is an opportunity for the devil to move in.

In fact, it's the most opportune time. You could be filled with joy. You could be filled with hope. You could be filled with peace. You could be filled with love. And all it takes is a moment to be angry. Someone says something to you in the wrong tone. Someone offends you. Someone cuts you off at a roundabout. someone drives slow in the parkway in the fast lane when you're late for a meeting. It doesn't take long to be angry and the devil is looking to move into your life. That the word opportunity in the Greek there is it's it's like real estate. Don't give real estate to the devil. Your heart should be the Lord's. Let God live in your life. But when you're angry, the devil's looking to move in to occupy some of your heart. Stay angry. You should be angry. They should have never done that to you. You have the right to be angry.

You should get revenge. You'll feel better if you get revenge. And the devil's going to look to destroy your life in your anger. And it will all be when you don't release it back to the Lord. That's called pride. And in the book of Proverbs, it's a whole book about wisdom. In the words of wisdom, we read, "Pride goes before destruction and a hotty spirit before a fall." So if you think that you could play the role of God, the words of wisdom in Proverbs that it's not going to be good. It it'll end up being destruction. And so we see with his brothers, they already hate them. And Joseph is going to make a move that's going to seal his fate and his future. And it happens in verse 5. Look at this. Now Joseph had a dream. Everyone say dream. A dream.

What could go wrong when you have a dream? He had a dream. And when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. He tells them a dream. Verse six, he said to them, "Hear this dream that I have dreamed. Behold, we were binding sheav in the field, and behold, my sheep arose and stood upright, and behold, your sheav gathered around it and bowed down to my sheep." His brother said to him, "Are you indeed to reign over us, or are you indeed to rule over us?" So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words. Because according to the custom and the tradition of the day, Joseph is younger, so he should serve them. But in this vision, he sees things backwards. Now, I've got to warn you, if you want the God of the Bible, he does things backwards.

Jesus says, "You're going to be surprised who's in heaven. It's not always the first because the first will be last and the last will be first." There's just something about this servitude. And Joseph, he just explains this dream that God gave to him. And by the way, when God gives you a dream, it doesn't mean you have it figured out. Well, you would think that Joseph would see the hatred of his brothers and try to make things right and love on them so that they would love him. But we read in verse 9, then he say dreamed dreamed another say dream again. Dreamed and told it to his brothers and said, "Behold, I have dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun and the moon and 11 stars were bowing down to me." But when he told it to his fathers and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, "What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to

bow ourselves to the ground before you?" And his brothers were jealous of him. But his father kept this saying in his mind. When you have a dream, it can often be misunderstood. Because a dream is not a reality. It's something to come. I believe we have the God of dreams. We have the God that wants you to dream dreams. In fact, that's what faith is. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. I don't have it yet, but I know it's going to be great. I can't see it yet, but I know God's going to do it. And here, Joseph is not even his fault. He's just sharing the dream that God gave to him and his brothers were jealous of him. Mad declare today, jealousy never leads to

life. There's only one person that can be jealous and that's God. And the Bible says he's a jealous God. And the reason he's a jealous God is God loves you so much. He doesn't want you having an affair with false gods. That when you go after the things of this world, the Bible says God is jealous for you. And the reason God can be jealous is he's perfect. He's righteous. He's holy. But the tenth commandment, the final of the ten commandments says, "Do not covet your neighbor's wife." Don't be jealous of what someone else has because jealousy will never lead to life. And Joseph at 17 years old was misunderstood. I believe God gave me a revelation regarding this. At 17 years old, he was he was so young. Do you know how often the young generation is misunderstood?

The young generation dreams dreams because they don't like how the previous generation did it. And then the older generation misunderstands the younger generation. Are you tracking with me? Cuz if you were young once, you used to have dreams. And those dreams are often misunderstood. Oh, you got to get a real job. Oh, quit dreaming like that. That's not going to happen. Get to work. The younger generation could be so misunderstood. This is a picture that what can happen when we don't dream dreams. The the prophet Joel said and Peter quoted this in in Acts chapter 2 when the Holy Spirit came upon his people that when the spirit of God comes, do you know what's going to happen? The young people are going to have vision, which means they're going to think long term. And you know what's going to happen to the old people? They're going to dream.

Come on, dreams. You know what typically happens to old people? Their dreams are squashed. They hope one day to retire, to take it easy, to rest, to relax. But may I prophesy over you today, that's not the life God has for you. He wants you to dream dreams. And young people, if you got dreams, bring it before God. Because if it's not God's dreams, it's not good. But his dreams are so great, he wants you to see what he can do in your life. And here he is misunderstood which will be the beginning of so many obstacles in his life. His life will be full of hurdles. It will be full of hang-ups. His life will be so filled with hardships. It would be 13 years before Joseph starts to see something good in

his life. When he shared about this dream, do you know when you're 17 years, 13 years can feel like a lifetime? Don't you remember being 17? 30 feels old. To think 13 years down the road is incredibly hard. To go back in time and say, "Listen, your hardships will be worth it. God's going to use you. Keep being humble. He's going to elevate you. He's going to do great things through you, Joseph." But at the time when you're going through hardships, let's just call it what it is. It's confusing. Let's even go further and make sure that we're using the same language. It's hard when you go through pain, when you have problems, and you say, "Wait a second. All I did was have a dream and it seems like your life goes from hard to harder.

And that's exactly what happens with Joseph. You know, we started this church 13 years ago. When I started this church, I had some great big dreams. We're going to flip upside down this city. The whole world's going to know the love of Jesus. But I'll tell you, it didn't start that way. Some of you have heard this story. We started small and we kept growing smaller. It was hard. People would come to our church and they were looking for a certain type of kids church like the type of kids church we have today. But at the time we had a tiny kids church and people were like, "Well, I need a bigger church with a better kids ministry. Well, I need a better youth ministry. We want some better music ministry. Uh we would prefer a better preacher." And so over the years, it was so hard. We had hurdles. We had to go through all kinds of hiccups with the

city. The city certainly wasn't excited to have a new church in this this town. And we we had to do so many different things. It was like one problem after another and frankly it was confusing like Lord I started this church for you. Why why don't you bring your blessing upon this your your favor upon it? But do you know what God was doing every single time we had an obstacle? It was an opportunity to trust God that this is his church and his ways are not like man's ways. If you go through hardships, it's God getting you ready for something greater. Jesus said, "If you can be entrusted with a little, you can be entrusted with much." So many of us want the much, but we don't want the little. And Joseph's life is going to be all about being faithful with the little. God wants you

to start with where you are, not where you're going to be, but if you start with where you are today, and trust God, and don't allow your hardships to stop you from having hope, God's going to use you. He's going to grow in you. And what you'll see is that dreams always come at a cost. If you want an easy life, you're going to miss out on all that God has for you. The miracles of God come at a cost because you've got to trust God even when other people can't see it. Even when some people hate you, you've got to keep living like the Lord. You've got to keep loving God because he loves you. And you'll see that God has a way and a purpose in your your life. God's given us his word so that we would see what he has for us. Some of us think that we've got to come up with our own dreams. You know, today if you're wondering, "How do I know if this dream is from God or not?" You go to the Bible and you use it as the

litmus test to everything you do in your life. That's how you know if it's from God or not. If you're married and you say, "I'm just not happy with the person I'm married. I think I want this other person as a as a spouse." You can go to the Bible and say, "That dream's not of God." God said, "What I've joined, let not man separate." Amen. So, what God wants to do in your marriage is a miracle story. You may not like the process. You may not like the hardships, but God's going to do something greater if you would stick to his dreams and not yours. You watch at your work. Everybody seems to be excelling. So, maybe you should just lie. Lie a little bit because everyone else is corrupt. And the only way you're going to move up in this world is if you lie. The Bible says that the Lord detests lying lips. He wants to elevate you in your integrity. You don't need to get there by doing things on your own and in sin.

Someone's hurt you and offended you and the Bible says you should forgive as the Lord's forgiven you. And you say, "You don't understand how hard that is. You don't understand the anger I have. You don't understand what was done to me. I don't understand. But the Lord does. He knows what it's like to be slapped. He knows what it's like to be spit upon. He knows what it's like to be cussed at. He knows what it's like to be falsely accused. He knows what it's like. And the Bible says that if you don't take care of angerness, it will grow into the root of bitterness. And if you allow that to bear root, your fruit will be bad. You won't enjoy worship like like you could. You won't pray like you could. You won't love like you could. So you say, "I can't remove this anger." The Bible says you better believe you have to remove this anger. You've got to get rid of it so that you could become who God wants you to be. And the list can go on. You're wondering, "Well, I don't know if this dream is from God, this this business, this relationship, this

investment." Go to God's word. Give it to God, and he's actually going to show you a way. He's given you his word as the authority so that you would know God's will to prevail in your life. And Jesus says, if you would just ask, it'll be given to you. Anything is given to you. This city is the authority of Jesus Christ. It'll be given to us. We're going to see healing in this city. We're going to see redemption in this city. We're going to see the removal of all of the oppression that the enemy has caused for generations. It's going to be removed when we bring it to Jesus. He has all authority. We've got to start believing it and dreaming his dreams. We got to start seeing rehab centers shut down because there's no more need for it. Hallelujah.

We we've got to start seeing that the the the the CPS and the social workers today, they're going to be out of jobs because there's no more need for this. Generational curses are going to break in Jesus name. I want you to know today that what you think is impossible, the Bible says is absolutely easy for God. There is nothing impossible for Almighty God. That's why you've got to read the book of Genesis. You see, in the beginning, he can just say it and it happens. We bring it before God. But it's in this place that Joseph lives would start to be filled with hardships all because he shared a dream. It wasn't even his fault. He was just born into this. You ever feel like you were born into hardship? Like you didn't ask for this. You ever said anything like this? I didn't ask for this. I didn't want this. But it just came upon I didn't ask to be

adopted into this family. I didn't ask for a bad marriage. I didn't ask to be divorced. I didn't ask to be broke. I I didn't ask for any of these things. Joseph didn't ask for. But but things went from hard, come on, follow the Bible here, to harder. Genesis 37:12, now his brothers, they went to work out in the fields. And verse 13, Israel, that's Jacob, that's the father, said to Joseph, wait, why isn't Joseph out in the field? Does it ever feel like maybe someone else is more blessed? Like, wait a second. I work harder than them, but they get to stay home. It's not up to you to figure out. You're to have integrity right where God's put you. Jacob said to Joseph, Israel said, Joseph, "Are not your brothers pastoring the flock at Shees?

Come, I will send you to them." And he said, "Here I am." So he said to him, "Go now to see if it is well with your brothers and the flock, and bring me word." Because we know in the past he's a tattletail. So you go tell me what's happening. I want to actually know what's happening. So he sent him Jacob sent Joseph from the valley of Hebron to and he came to Sheckchum. Let let me just tell you sometimes God will send us on a mission and we have no clue what he's going to do with this mission. I need you to track with me here that we see in the present but God looks outside of time and he can see the end result. I'm going to fast forward in the story because his brothers see him from a far way off. How can they tell that that's Joseph way, way far off, the robe of many colors? They can see that robe coming and they decide we've got to kill him. We have to get rid of this guy.

This guy is destroying our lives. And may I just say today, some of you think if you could just eradicate a problem, your life would be better. It wouldn't take care of the deeper root of the problem. You you think if I just got divorced, if I just got rid of this, if I only got rid of this coworker, this boss, this Some of you think if I moved to a different city, my problems would be different. But wherever you go, there you are. So, if we just get rid of Joseph, it's going to eradicate the problem. Reuben steps forward. He's the eldest of the 12 brothers and says, "Let's not kill him because the blood will be on our hands. Here's what we got to do. Let's just throw him in a pit." So it says in verse 23, when Joseph came to his brothers, what's the first thing they do? They stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colors that he wore, and they took him and threw him into a pit. Everyone say a pit. A pit. The pit was empty and there was no water in it.

It was dark. It was deep. So here they are. They take him in a pit. And I need you to see this today because so many of us, I'm going to declare today, every one of us will find ourselves in a pit at some point. This is a symbolic pit. People will misuse you. People will abuse you. Some of you were molested. Someone said something about you. At some point, you're going to be thrown into a pit. And it is a dark place. It's a lonely place. It's a place of confusion. It's the hard place. And when you end up in a pit, you've got to know God's dreams will still come about. The pit does not stop God from being God. He never stops. He always has full authority. His ways will always work out, even when people mistreat you and abuse you. I declare today, it's not God that's doing it to you. It's God allowing it to happen in your life because in his sovereignty, he knows

that you would probably not grow another way. Exactly. You are going to mature. You will be stronger. You will persevere. You will have a greater hope than you would have had if you just had an easy life. I know we want the easy life. I know we don't want the the life in the pit. But your problem is an opportunity for God to get you out of that pit. And he did just that. Some Ishmalites were coming by. They were heading to Egypt. And they said, "Hey, how about we monetize on this and make a little money on our brother." So they sold him into slavery. They decided to sell him into slavery. And it's in this place that right now in your life, if you're going through some hardships, you only see a little bit of what God's doing. You have no clue that God may position be positioning you to get you to the place that he wants you to be.

He might be getting you ready for something so much greater than you can see. Paul says this about the life that we live. He says we see in a mirror dimly. We if even if we read the Bible, we don't even know the fullness of God, the fullness of the hope of heaven. We see only dimly in a mirror. But one day you're going to see face to face. Now I only know in part. But then I shall know fully even as I have been fully known. See, we cannot live by what we can see. If you live by what you can see right now, you're going to stop trying to fulfill God's dreams in your life. It's in this place that God has such a greater plan than you can see. But he's not going to reveal it all to you right now. You're not ready for this. If you

knew the end, you'd probably try to fast forward this. You'd probably try to rush this. But God wants to grow in you. His word, Jesus said his word is like a seed. You know how small a seed is? It's tiny, but the potential is that it's going to be great one day. But it's going to take some time. You can't rush the process. So take God at his word. Obey his word. And at the right time, you're going to bear fruit. It's coming, but stay faithful. You just can't see it right now. So Joseph ends up in Egypt, and we're told in in chapter 37:36, "Meanwhile, the Midionites, they had sold Joseph in Egypt to Piper, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard. He gets sold as a slave. He's in Egypt. Now, as you read the book of Genesis, you can know that Joseph's journey is just getting started.

Some of you are going through some really hard things. And may I declare to you today, God's just getting started. He He's going to do more than you can imagine. He's going to use all of your past. He's going to use all of your hardships, and he's going to use it for his glory. But you may not see it right now. It's in this place that the very person he ends up working for, Potterer, had a wife who had her eyes on Joseph because the Bible actually says that he was a really good-looking young man. And in Genesis chapter 39, we see that Potterer Piper's wife, she tries over and over with these sexual advances to get Joseph to do something that he shouldn't do. You know, the enemy is tempting you like crazy. Even right now, he's going to tempt you to distract you from God's word. He's going to tempt you at your workplace. He's going to tempt you at

your home. He's going to try to get you to do something that you shouldn't do. And typically, a temptation is going to have something behind it where you can justify it. I deserve this. I've earned this. I've been through something hard. I'm just going to do this one time. That's how you give into temptation. But not Joseph. He was a man that wanted to see God work in his life. It says, "One day when he went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the house was there in the house, she potterer's wife caught Joseph by his garment, saying, "Lie with me." But he left his garment in her hand and fled and got out of the house. Would you please learn from Joseph today we can do the same thing in our lives? Run from sin. Flee from it today. It will never give you what you think it will give you in your heart. Today, someone's being tempted right now by something in your

life. I'm here to tell you, leave your coat behind and run. You will never regret doing the right things. You do not want a life of regrets. But I will say this, doing the right thing does not always lead you to a better place because she ends up falsely accusing Joseph of trying to bring forth sexual advances. She tries to do that because that's what the devil tries to do is to take your right living and destroy it. Jesus says the devil is real. He's a liar. He's the father of lies and he wants to destroy your life. In John 10:10, Jesus calls the devil a thief. And he he this is what the devil wants to do to you. He wants to steal, kill, and destroy your life. So what he wants to do is take those good things and turn them bad.

He wants you to do evil things in your life. That's the devil. He's a thief and he wants to destroy you. But Jesus says, "I came that might have life and have it abundantly." Hear from God today. He wants to give you abundant life. You might be in the pit today, but God wants to give you abundant life. You say, "Why would God put me in a pit?" Well, I'll tell you, our savior went into a tomb and he's not there today. He defeated death. He defeated the devil. But it was three dark days. It was lonely. It was hard. But this is the place where by the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus rose from the grave. And the same power that rose Jesus from the grave is the same power you have in the Holy Spirit today. God wants you to be an overcomer. He wants you to be more than a conqueror because he loves you.

But you've got to be willing to run from that sin today. So this case with Joseph, I want to wrap this up today. And may I just say we're really getting started with Joseph. We want to come back next week as we look at Joseph part B. But in this particular case, it says in verse 20 of chapter 39, Joseph's master took him, put him into the prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined, and he was there in prison. Everyone say prison. Prison. A dark dungeon. Another pit. But the Lord, it says in verse 21, the Lord was with Joseph and he showed him his steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. My friends,

just as the Lord was with Joseph, we have the same God today. The number one attribute of God we see in the scriptures is in Hebrew. It's the steadfast love. It means God never stops loving in the pit. He loves you in prison. He loves you. When you've been falsely accused, he loves you. He's not going to stop loving you. He's with you. He's for you. That's why we've got to turn to the Lord and trust him. Your trials do not forfeit the love of God. That's why James says, "Consider it joy when you go through trials because your trials are a test of your faith and your faith is greater than anything you're going through because our God is greater than anything you're going through. He's proved it with his resurrection. He's proven it. Put your faith in him. Don't

give up on God when things get difficult. Go to God. Run to him. You say, "You don't know what I've done. I'm such a sinner. There's no sin too great that he won't forgive and give you a new robe today. He's going to give you a new identity if you would put your faith in him. He loves you greater than Jacob loved Joseph. God loves you even more. There's no one today that loves you more than the Lord our God. I know this because he made you. He's your creator and he doesn't make mistakes. He looks at you and says, "I did a good job with this one. There's no one like this one. Oh, I love you so much. I've got a good plan for you. All the dark things that come into your mind, the pits, the prison, the suicidal thoughts, those are not of God. He's going to use it for good. It's going to be a catalyst today.

You're going to use it to point people to the true hope of glory. This is not our home. You are made for a heavenly home. So every pit and prison that you go through on this side of heaven is to remind you that God made you for a greater home. So you trust in him. You hope in him. And when you have challenges like Joseph, you do not waver from your faith. You hold on to your faith. You realize you're favored by God. The whole point of Jesus Christ was to reveal God. Jesus is God in the flesh. He became 100% man so that we would know God, that we would trust in him. He's the only man that's ever lived that that lived a perfect sinless life. And when he died on the cross, he bore every single one of our sins once and for all. There's no more need for a sacrifice. He is the great sacrifice.

And when he died for our sins, he did it as an atonement for your sins, to take care of your sins, so that you would no longer live in your sins. that whatever was done to you, whatever you've done, Jesus died for that once and for all so that you would trust him. This is so important that you see this today because everything you do in your life needs to come back to Jesus. God Jesus became like us not so that you would keep living the same, so that you would become like him. all that you've been through is to give it to Jesus so that you would start seeing, oh, he wants me to become more like him. Jesus became like us so that we would become like him. So today, I say, put off the old clothes and put on the new robe.

Renew yourself. Remind yourself who you are. That God's grace is greatest when we need it. May I just ask you today, have you trusted in the Lord Jesus so that your life would now reflect in him? It's absolutely the most important decision you could ever make. Some of you have trusted in Jesus, but you've reverted back to your old self. Maybe you're more like one of those 11 brothers. You're filled with anger. You're full of hatred. Maybe it's someone mistreated you or someone's getting a higher elevation. You're frustrated. You're upset. Today's the day to repent and say, "God, I want to be more like you, my heavenly father. a God that is love. Maybe today you're here and you've never given your life to Jesus. There's no greater time than right now. This is the moment and the hour that God's been waiting for your entire life for you to come home.

Do not wait for another day. You are not promised tomorrow. But you have this moment, the air in your lungs. Your heart is beating. So would you give that to God? I've got such good news for you. God can do so much more with your life than you could ever do on your own. So, would you right now, would you be willing to give it to him because I'm telling you, he's got a great plan for you. The Bible says in Ephesians 3:20, he could do abundantly more than all you could ask. You can't dream big enough for God. So, give your life to God today, right where you are. If you want to surrender your life to Jesus, you've never done this before, but God sent you here for such a time for you to give your life to Jesus right now. I'm just going to ask that you would just take a bold step right now and say, "I'm ready.

I'm going to give it to Jesus." If that's you, would you just raise your hand nice and high, just surrender, saying, "This is it. Praise God. I see that. Praise God. Yes. You're right in the place God wants you. He's ready to use you." Right now, you're saying yes to Jesus. And right right where you are, just slip your hand up nice and boldly. Praise God. Praise God. Yes. Praise God. So proud of you. Anyone else today, just you throw your hand up just as saying yes to God. I want your dreams. I'm done living this nightmare. I'm surrendering it to you, Jesus. I I want you to right now. Anyone else? Right where you are. I don't want to rush this. Praise God. Lord loves you so much. You will never regret this. Anyone else say right now, you're saying yes to the Lord. It's clear through his word. Praise God. Yes.

[Applause] God's not going to give you an easier life, but he's going to empower your life like never before. He's going to give you an authority and a power that comes from Jesus that you never had before. Because when you say yes to Jesus, he gives you the gift of the Holy Spirit, God himself. God wants to live in you and through you. Now, when you read the Bible, it's going to come alive. God's going to speak to you today. Now, when you go through hardships, don't give don't give the devil any domain. The Bible says he's an accuser. He likes to accuse us day and night. He likes to remind you where you've been. But God's forgiven you of everything you've ever done. From this time forward, you've been sealed by the power of the Holy Spirit. Right where you are. Just close your eyes. We're just going to pray together.

If you've ever believed in Jesus, let's pray with those doing it for the first time today. Just out loud. I'm going to keep it simple. Prayer is conversation with God. It's listening to God. It's talking to God. My friends, these are not magic words. The words don't save you. It's Jesus that saves you. It's not a preacher that saves you. It's not a prayer that saves you. It's Jesus that saves you. Give your life to Jesus right now. Let's out loud if you've ever made this decision. Let's in unity united pray this. Lord Jesus, I trust you. I trust you. Forgive me of my sins. Help me dream again. Help me. Help me follow you. Help me follow you. I receive the Holy Spirit. I receive the Holy Spirit. In Jesus mighty name. Amen. Amen. Would you shout amen today? Amen. Amen. The word amen is not an ending. The word amen means let it be.

That's true. So when you say amen, it's with confidence that God can do anything. When you pray, you could pray bold prayers because God can do it. You pray for the person that seems it would be impossible to be saved. God loves to save that person. The person that seems like they can't get healed, God loves to heal that person. I'll tell you today, God is looking at you and he loves you. He wants to use you today. Well, we're going to sing one last song and may I just encourage you today. If you need prayer, don't leave here without receiving prayer. We're going to have a prayer team on both sides of the platform. If you need prayer after this song, would you just make a step forward? If you made that decision to follow Jesus, we would love to give you a free gift of the Bible. We would love to pray with you. If you're suffering right now, you're going through some hardship, would you come receive prayer today? We're believing in a miracle in

your life. Why don't you stand to your feet as we remember Jesus as we celebrate what he's done, what he's doing, and the best is yet to come. [Music]