Genesis 37:1-11 "Portraits of Faithfulness: Joseph"

1:07Six of your brothers and your sister came from your dad's first wife. Four of your brothers came from your dad's second wife and his female servant. That's your mom. Two other of your brothers came from your dad's first wife's female servant. So, if you're following all of this, we have one man, four women, and 13 kids. How do you think those holidays were? You don't have to wonder, because all of that is laid out for us in the book of Genesis. All of the tension, all the cringy moments, all of the sin.

1:49We're talking about Jacob's family here. Jacob, whom God later renamed Israel, was the son of Isaac and the grandson of Abraham. God had promised to bless Abraham and make him into a great nation, and we really see that promise come to fruition with Jacob's 12 sons, of whom Joseph is one. But as we've noted, the dynamics in Jacob's family were tough from the start. Jacob has two wives and two servants, two concubines, essentially, all of these kids. And things got really bad when his 11th son, Joseph, was born, because Joseph was his favorite son.

2:33And Joseph was his favorite son because he was the first son of his favorite wife, Rachel. Jacob made Joseph this coat of many colors that we heard about in Genesis 37, this beautiful eye-catching garment that would have reminded his 11 brothers and one sister every day of their lives that Joseph was daddy's favorite. Well, understandably, that made them all very upset. In fact, the scripture was a very good thing. Says they hated him, the brothers hated Joseph, and could not speak peacefully to him.

3:07Well, Joseph has a pair of dreams, dreams that are clearly from the Lord because they come to pass, as you know, if you have read this story before. But Joseph is young and seemingly prideful and lacks discernment, and so he wakes up and he tells his family, One day, you guys are all going to bow down to me. Well, as you can imagine, that went over like a lead balloon. And the scripture tells us that his brothers were jealous of him and hated him even more because of his dreams. So one day, the brothers decide to get rid of Joseph the dreamer.

3:47First, they decide to put him to death, but then they think better of it and decide to profit off him instead and sell him as a slave. Well, eventually, Joseph is sold in Egypt to a man named Potiphar, who is an officer in the Egyptian army. In fact, he is the captain of Pharaoh's guard. So how about that? You go one moment from being daddy's favorite son to the next moment being a slave in a foreign land to an officer of the army. Joseph's circumstances were very, very bad.

4:26And for many people, including many professing Christians, when our circumstances were Circumstances are bad, we start to view God and His promises through the lens of our circumstances instead of viewing our circumstances through the lens of God and His promises. And when we do that, we're tempted in at least three ways: we're tempted to compromise our integrity, we're tempted to lose hope, and we're tempted to lose perspective. We're tempted to compromise our integrity, believing that our bad circumstances justify sinning against God and others. We're tempted to lose hope, becoming bitter, jaded, sarcastic people.

5:20We're tempted to lose perspective, behaving as though God is not actually in control of everything that happens to us in our lives. But through Joseph's story, here's what we're going to learn this morning. Take a look at the screen. By God's grace, we can be people of integrity, hope, and perspective, even in the worst circumstances. So, I want to invite you now to turn to chapter 39 of Genesis. We'll be moving quickly through the story this morning. Turn to Genesis 39. We're going to see that by God's grace, we can be people of integrity. Integrity, even in the worst circumstances.

6:05Chapter 39, verse 1. Now, Joseph had been brought down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, had bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there. The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master. His master saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord caused all that he did to succeed in his hands. So Joseph found favor in his sight and attended him, and he made him overseer of his house, and put him in charge of all that he had.

6:38From the time that he made him overseer in his house, and over all that he had, the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake. The blessing of the Lord was on all that he had, in house and field. So he left all that he had in Joseph's charge, and because of him he had no concern about anything, but the food he ate. Now, Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. And after a time, his master's wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, Lie with me. 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. 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?

7:28And as she spoke to Joseph, Day after day, he would not listen to her, to lie beside her, or to be with her. Well, even if you don't know the rest of the story, you can see where this is going. One day, Joseph goes to work in the house, and Potiphar's wife grabs him by the shirt and begs him to sleep with her. But he wrestles away from her grasp, losing his shirt in the process, and he runs out of the house. Now, out of wounded pride or to protect her reputation or both, she accuses Joseph of trying to rape her.

8:05And she shows his shirt to her husband when he gets home as proof. Well, understandably, Potiphar is furious and he has Joseph thrown into prison. I want you to look now at verse 21 of chapter 39. But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners who were in the prison. Whatever was done there, he was the one who did it. The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph's charge because the Lord was with him. And whatever he did, the Lord made it succeed.

8:48Talk about awful circumstances. Sold into slavery by your own brothers, falsely accused by an immoral woman, you lose your job and get thrown. Into prison. And let's talk about prison for a minute here. This is not American three square meals a day, I want to talk to my lawyer, kind of prison. Ancient prisons were vile places. You were guilty until you were proven innocent. There was no such thing as a right to a speedy trial. In fact, most prisoners were never tried at all.

9:27They just rotted in prison until they died. Under such circumstances, would it be surprising if Joseph said, I have been a man of integrity. And look where that got me. Forget integrity. I am going to pursue comfort and pleasure and distraction in any way I can, whenever I want. But, friends, Joseph did not say that. Instead, by God's grace, he conducted himself with complete integrity. And that integrity showed up in his work and in his sexual purity. First, Joseph displayed integrity in his work. Not long after he is sold to Potiphar as a slave, he's put in charge of everything that Potiphar owns. According to verse 6, Joseph was such a man of integrity that Potiphar didn't think about anything except what he was going to eat that day. Now, remember, Egyptians despise The Hebrew people. And they despised shepherds in particular. And Joseph is a Hebrew who is a former shepherd. Imagine, as an Egyptian, entrusting a Hebrew slave who is formerly a shepherd with everything you own, saying, Here are my keys, here's the access to the money, here's all the passwords to my accounts, manage my house. That's crazy. And then after Joseph is thrown into prison, the warden ends up putting Joseph in charge of all the prisoners, and Joseph is a prisoner himself. Just like with Potiphar, verse 23 says that the warden paid no attention to anything in the prison except what he ate. Again, imagine, you put a prisoner in charge of the other prisoners in an age where rebellion and revolt was common? In a day and age where, according to the law of the land, if you let a prisoner escape, you were put to death? That is crazy.

11:35And yet, Joseph conducted himself with complete integrity. Not once did he take advantage of his positions. He didn't take anything in Potiphar's house that didn't belong to him. He didn't incite a riot at the prison. No, by God's grace, he just did his work, whatever tasks he was assigned, with complete integrity. Look at Colossians 3. Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that the Lord, from the Lord, you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.

12:20You couldn't find a better description of the way Joseph conducted himself at his work. He worked heartily at his jobs, whether as the butler of Potiphar's house or as the underkeeper there at the prison. He was trusted implicitly by Potiphar and the warden because of his great integrity. Friends, can the same things be said of us as Christians? Can your employer trust you to put in a full day's work for a full day's pay? Not wasting time on the internet, watching videos, but working hard. Can you be entrusted with the company card not to spend a dime that you're not supposed to spend?

13:06Students, in an age of take-home homework assignments and tests, in an age of artificial intelligence, can your professors trust you to do your work with integrity, to not cheat, to not copy assignments? Kids, can your parents trust you with what's going on in your room, with what you're doing online, with how you're doing. You're using the things in the house. Can your parents trust you? How we answer those questions reveals whether we are people of integrity at our work, whatever our work may be.

13:46Second, Joseph displayed integrity in his sexual purity. Again, how easy would it have been for Joseph to say, I don't owe Potiphar anything. His marriage stinks. His wife is unhappy. Nobody's home. No one is ever going to know. It's not like she's ever going to tell a soul that she slept with a Hebrew slave. Come on. I could get away with this. I deserve this. But Joseph didn't view it that way at all. He viewed doing that as sin. Sin against Potiphar, sin against her, and sin against God, most importantly. But she was relentless, as many men and many women are today.

14:42Look at verse 10 again of chapter 39. And as she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not listen to her, to lie beside her, or to be with her. Christians, take good notes of how Joseph. Joseph conducts himself in this situation. Look what Paul would later write in Ephesians chapter 5. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. The NIV translates this passage, but among you, there must not even be a hint of sexual immorality. Not even a hint.

15:34Joseph wouldn't listen to her. He wouldn't lie next to her. He would not even be around her. But friends, too many of us are trying to fight sexual immorality. Listen to me, that is a losing battle. Look at what 1 Corinthians 6 says. Flee sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Friends, the Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, does not write, fight sexual immorality. He writes, flee sexual immorality. Run away from it as far as you can, as fast as you can. That is the counsel and the command of God in Scripture.

16:30But many of us are not doing that. If we were ever running away from it, we stopped, we turned around, we put up the dukes, and we're trying to fight it out. It's a losing battle. You keep your subscription to Netflix, you keep your smartphone, you keep telling yourself lies that this time is different. This time I'm going to be able to fight and win. You can't. Flee sexual immorality. That's what the scripture says. We've got to stop making excuses, Christians. The statistics show, pastoral experience shows that most people in the church use pornography on a regular basis. Stop. Enough.

17:18Flee sexual immorality. That's what the scripture says. We've got to stop making excuses about it. And so, friends, what we need to do that is the grace of God. God told the Apostle Paul, My grace is sufficient for you. But I cannot tell you how many conversations I have had with well-meaning, earnest Christians who tell me, in essence, God's grace is not sufficient for me in this area. I can't stop. We have to decide what we believe. Do we believe that God's grace is sufficient? Or not. If we do, then friends, we've got to take a hold of it. We've got to take a hold of the grace of God. We've got to go to the Lord and say, Lord, I need your grace. I cannot be a person of complete integrity on my own. I've tried it. I've tried it for years and years, and it's not working. So I come before you, Lord, to receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need, because there is no hope for me otherwise. Friends, let's take hold of the grace of God through believing prayer. Let's take hold of the grace of God. Because only by God's grace can we be people of integrity, even in the worst circumstances.

18:44Let's turn now to chapter 40, where we'll see that by God's grace, we can be people of hope. Chapter 40, verse 1. Sometime after this, the cupbearer of the king of Egypt and his baker committed an offense against their Lord, the king of Egypt. And Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker. And he put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard in the prison where Joseph was confined. The captain of the guard appointed Joseph to be with them, and he attended them. They continued for some time in custody. And one night they both dreamed, the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were confined in the prison, each his own dream, and each dream with its own interpretation. When Joseph came into them in the morning, he saw that they were troubled. So he asked Pharaoh's officers, who were with him in custody in the master's house, Why are your faces downcast today? They said to him, We have had dreams, and there is no one to interpret them. And Joseph said to them, Do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me.

19:55Again, no one would be surprised at this point if Joseph was a bitter, jaded, cynical person. Sure, he's in charge of the prison, but who cares? The prisoner with the most privileges is still a prisoner. So Joseph could be jaded and cynical, but he's not. One day he's walking the prison, making his rounds, and he notices that two of his fellow prisoners look downcast. I mean, how downcast does one have to look in prison for it to be noticeable? You look really sad today. What's wrong? Well, I woke up and I was in prison again.

20:35But Joseph takes notice, and Joseph takes care. He asks his fellow prisoners what's wrong, and he listens as they share their dreams with him. A jaded and cynical person would have said, Look, your life's hard, my life's hard, who cares? You've had some dreams, good for you. I had dreams too, but mine are dead. Nobody helped me. I'm not helping you. But Joseph hasn't become bitter, jaded, and cynical. He is still a man who hopes in God. And so he interprets their dreams and tells the cupbearer that when Pharaoh releases him from prison, remember me and get me out of here. But look at verse 23, the last verse in this chapter, chapter 40.

21:23Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him. Thanks a lot, man. You had one job. So chapter 41 begins. Two whole years have passed. Joseph is still in prison, but now the opportunity of his lifetime comes about. Pharaoh himself has a dream. He wakes up in the middle of the night. He goes back to sleep. He has a second dream and wakes up again. You know Pharaoh's over 40. That sounds like every night of my life.

21:58Pharaoh summons his magicians, but they are not able to help. They cannot interpret his dreams. And then the cupbearer is like, oh yeah, when I was in the joint, there was this dude who could interpret dreams. I was actually supposed to tell you about him like two years ago. Sorry. So Pharaoh sends for Joseph. Joseph interprets the dreams. He says there's going to be seven years of plenty and then seven years of famine in the land. Now I want you to look at what Joseph says, verse 33, chapter 41.

22:33Verse 33, now therefore let Pharaoh select a discerning and wise man and set him over the land of Egypt. I want you to think back to what we heard at the scripture reading in chapter 37 before the sermon. Teenage Joseph, he was a completely different person back then. Teenage Joseph was like, y'all gather around. I've had some dreams. You're all going to bow down to me. You might as well start now. But 13 years later, Joseph doesn't say anything like that. He doesn't tell Pharaoh, you know, Pharaoh, I'm actually a dreamer myself. And I believe I've been destined for this job. I'm the only one who can do it, actually, so you better hire me because I'm the only one who can fix these problems.

23:30Joseph could have self-promoted like a man who had lost faith in everything except his own wits and skills. But he doesn't do that. Instead, with complete faith in God and despite his circumstances, Joseph tells Pharaoh, select a discerning and wise man and set him over the land of Egypt. Would anybody have been surprised if Pharaoh said to Joseph, that's the worst of the Lord. That's a great idea, prisoner. Thank you so much. You've been a great help to the kingdom. Guard, take him back to the dungeon and give him an extra portion for dinner tonight. That definitely could have happened. But instead, look what does happen. Look at verse 38, chapter 41, verse 38.

24:19And Pharaoh said to his servants, Can we find a man like this in whom is the Spirit of God? Pharaoh sets Joseph over Egypt, essentially makes him the vice president. It's unbelievable if it weren't in the Bible. Now, friends, listen, when our circumstances are bad, we start to view God and his promises through the lens of our circumstances instead of viewing our circumstances through the lens of God and his promises. That happens to all of us. We can be tempted to lose hope, to become bitter, jaded, cynical, sarcastic people who say, What's the point? My life stinks. It's not what I wanted. It's not what I worked for or prayed for or planned for. So forget it. I don't care anymore.

25:21And of all people, it would have been no surprise if Joseph ended up that way. But by God's grace, he didn't. You remember what we saw in Romans 5? Take a look on the screen. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

26:00Friends, those words are absolutely true, but they require faith to believe. To the unbeliever, suffering is just suffering. It's just one more thing that makes this life hard and frustrating and disappointing. But to the believer, for the one who hopes in God, all suffering has a purpose. No suffering ever needs to be wasted for the Christian. Suffering produces endurance, which produces character, which produces hope, and that hope doesn't disappoint us because our hope is in God. Suffering teaches us to hope in God in ways that nothing else in this world can teach us. You can sit in every class that we offer. I hope you'll take them. They're wonderful. You can sit in life group. You can come to church every week, and there is something that you can learn only in suffering that you cannot learn anywhere else. Else.

27:03Suffering teaches us to hope in God. Friends, I know there's a lot of people in this room who are suffering. You've suffered a miscarriage or multiple miscarriages. The relationship that you had invested so much in for so long came to an end. There are chronic health issues among us, cancer. There are many people with church hurt who have been let down and disappointed and abused by leaders they trusted and loved. You can allow those things, that suffering, to make you into a bitter, jaded, cynical, sarcastic person.

27:54Or you can allow suffering to produce endurance and endurance character and character, hope that doesn't disappoint. So ask God for grace this morning to suffer well, to not waste your suffering. By God's grace, we can be people of hope, even in the worst circumstances. Let's turn now to chapter 41, all the way down to verse 41. We're going to see that by God's grace, we can be people of perspective. Chapter forty one verse forty one And Pharaoh said to Joseph, See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt. Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his hand and put it on Joseph's hand, and clothed him in garments of fine linen and put a gold chain about his neck. And he made him ride in a second chariot. And they called out before him, bow the knee. Thus he set him over all the land of Egypt. Moreover, Pharaoh said to Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without your consent, no one shall lift up hand or foot in all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zophanoth Panea, and he gave him in marriage to Asanoth, the daughter of Potiphara, priest of On. So Joseph went out over the land of Egypt. Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh and went through all the land of Egypt. During the seven plentiful years the earth produced abundantly, and he gathered up all the food of these seven years which occurred in the land of Egypt and put the food in the cities. He put in every city the food from the fields around it, and Joseph stored up grain in great abundance, like the sand of the sea, until he ceased to measure it, for it could not be measured. Before the year of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph, Asanath, the daughter of Potiphara, priest of On, bore them to him. Joseph called the name of his firstborn Manasseh, for, he said, God has given Made me forget all my hardship in all my father's house. The name of the second he called Ephraim, for God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.

30:11Can you imagine from 17 to 30, Joseph is either enslaved or in prison? The prime of his life, enslaved or imprisoned. It would not surprise me if Joseph not only forgot his father's house, which he said when Manasseh was born, but he forgot God. I mean, after all, by this point, he's got an Egyptian name, an Egyptian wife, an Egyptian job, and an Egyptian address. Why not Egyptian gods and goddesses too? But by God's grace, Joseph has a God-centered, eternal perspective on all that's happening to him. I mean, think about the names that he gives his sons. His second son, Ephraim, he's remembering that God has made him fruitful in the land of his affliction. He sees that God has brought good even out of such awful circumstances.

31:12Over the next three chapters, the famine hits that Pharaoh dreamed about, and Jacob sends 10 of his remaining 11 sons to Egypt to buy grain. And they end up, of course, bowing down before Joseph, the brother they sold into slavery so many years ago. Turn ahead to chapter 45. Long story short, and you should definitely read this whole story if you haven't. Joseph eventually breaks down in front of his brothers, weeping, and he reveals himself to them. They are understandably terrified because Joseph can have them put to death.

31:53So, what would you do? Your dreams have literally come true. You're the second most powerful person in the world, and now you've got your brothers who sold you into slavery in front of you at your mercy. What would you do? Look what Joseph does, chapter 45, verse 4. So, Joseph said to his brothers, Come near to me, please. And they came near. And he said, I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now, do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here. For God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God.

32:53That is remarkable, isn't it? Joseph says, You sold me into slavery, but don't. Don't be distressed or angry with yourselves. How could Joseph say that? By God's grace alone. The Lord had given him an eternal perspective. He said, God sent me here. God sent me before you to preserve life, to preserve our family lineage, to preserve all of the promises that he made to our father Jacob and our grandfather Isaac and our great-grandfather Abraham. God sent me here. So Joseph says, in other words, God was at work when you did not kill me. And God was at work when you sold me into slavery. God was at work when I was sold to Potiphar. And God was at work when I was falsely accused by his immoral wife. God was at work when I was imprisoned. And the only reason that I am standing before you here today, the second most powerful person in all of the world, is because God sent me here. God sent me here.

34:02What perspective? What unbelievable perspective. Go to the last chapter of the book, chapter 50, verse 15. Some years later, Joseph's father, Jacob, dies, and this is what happens: chapter 50, verse 15. When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, Dead. They said, it may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him. So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, Your father gave this command before he died. Say to Joseph, Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you. And now please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father. Joseph wept when they spoke to him.

35:00His brothers also came down and fell before him and said, Behold, we are your servants. But Joseph said to them, Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear, I will provide for you and your little ones. Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.

35:34You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good. I don't know about you, but something in me, even as a Christian, feels like crying out, This isn't fair. These awful brothers deserve some punishment, some justice for what they did to Joseph. But he doesn't punish them. He doesn't punish them while Jacob is alive, and he doesn't punish them after Jesus. Jacob dies. We understand human nature. We understand our lust for revenge. And yet, Joseph does not punish them.

36:12As we've seen, Joseph is not looking at this situation from a human perspective, from a human lens. He believes deep down in his heart that God brought all of the trials and all of the suffering in his life, and that he did so with a divine purpose that is only clear in hindsight all of these years later. That is a perspective that you and I can only have by the grace of God. Look at Romans chapter 8. Such a well-known verse, but remember, the context is suffering.

36:47And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Friends, it's not hard to memorize that verse. A lot of us have that verse memorized. It's not hard to teach it in a classroom. It's not hard to preach it in a sermon. What is hard is to believe that verse in the worst circumstances of your life. When you suffer, when you go through trials of various kinds, Kinds, you can really look at it one of two ways.

37:35You can conclude that God has nothing at all to do with your suffering, or you can conclude that God has everything to do with your suffering. Not in the sense that He causes it, but in the sense that in His perfect wisdom and goodness, He allows your suffering to accomplish His own purposes in your life and in the lives of many others, just like Joseph said. But, friends, that perspective is only possible by the grace of God. God alone can enable us to view our circumstances through the lens of God and His promises rather than the other way around. By God's grace, we can be people of perspective even in the worst circumstances.

38:31New life, the grace of God allowed Joseph to be a man of integrity, hope, and perspective, even in the worst circumstances. And that same grace is available to you today through faith in Jesus Christ. I want you to think about the parallels between Jesus and Joseph. Just like Joseph, Jesus was betrayed by his own brothers. The Israelites, the descendants of Joseph's brothers. Like Joseph, Jesus was sold for a few pieces of silver and handed over to foreigners.

39:12But unlike Joseph, who was left for dead and then sold, Jesus was sold and actually put to death. It seemed like the whole situation was out of control. How could God be allowing this to happen to his only begotten son, the son that he said he loved and he was well pleased with? How could God be allowing that suffering? Joseph told his brothers, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good. And friends, the same thing was true of Jesus. The Apostle Peter affirms that in his impromptu sermon outside of the temple. Look on the screen. Peter preached to the crowd: the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate when he had decided to release him. But you denied the holy and righteous one and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But what God foretold by the mouth of all The prophets, that as Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled.

40:36Joseph told his brothers that God sent him ahead in order to preserve life, to rescue them from the famine that was to come. And friends, in the same way, Jesus was sent ahead of us to the grave so that we would never suffer the consequences of our sin in hell. God raised Jesus from the dead, confirming that He accepted His life and His sacrifice on our behalf. And now, all who believe in Jesus' perfect life, death, and resurrection are forgiven and counted righteous, even though we are not even as righteous as Joseph, to say nothing of Christ.

41:21So, my friends, receive God's grace today because only by God's grace can we be people of integrity, hope, and perspective in the worst circumstances of our lives. Let's pray. Father, I want to. Pray for the men and the women and the children who are here today, whose circumstances are very bad, whose circumstances are not what they hoped for, or worked for, or planned for, or prayed for. I pray that the story of Joseph would minister to them in a special way.

42:34That if they've been tempted to compromise their integrity, or to lose hope, or to lose perspective, would you minister to them in a special way through Joseph's story? That if your grace was sufficient for him, it is also sufficient for them. And God, I pray that most of all, the true story of Jesus Christ would minister to all of us in our trials and suffering. Jesus is the only person who never deserved anything bad to happen to him.

43:15And yet he was betrayed by his closest friend. He was falsely accused. He was sentenced to death and he was put to death. He did not deserve that. But we do. And so, Lord, I pray that this morning we would put our hope in Jesus, either for the first time or yet again, because we need the grace that only comes through faith in Christ. Help us, Lord, as we seek to minister to each other in the hardest circumstances of life. I pray that we would be your hands and feet to one another. Your listening ears. Put your words in our mouth.

44:10We love you, Lord. Thank you for the story of Joseph. What a portrait of faithfulness. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.