June 7

Genesis 37:5-11 (NLT)

⁵ One night Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers about it, they hated him more than ever. ⁶ “Listen to this dream,” he said. ⁷ “We were out in the field, tying up bundles of grain. Suddenly my bundle stood up, and your bundles all gathered around and bowed low before mine!”

⁸ His brothers responded, “So you think you will be our king, do you? Do you actually think you will reign over us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dreams and the way he talked about them.

⁹ Soon Joseph had another dream, and again he told his brothers about it. “Listen, I have had another dream,” he said. “The sun, moon, and eleven stars bowed low before me!”

¹⁰ This time he told the dream to his father as well as to his brothers, but his father scolded him. “What kind of dream is that?” he asked. “Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow to the ground before you?” ¹¹ But while his brothers were jealous of Joseph, his father wondered what the dreams meant.

Transcript

(Transcribed by TurboScribe)

Thank you, Praise Team. What a wonderful morning of worship again. I missed you on the piano though.

6:10, not 6:07, 6:10. We really want you to do that. Alexander had a little fun with you this morning, but please go do that. 6:10 in the morning or 6:10 in the evening or afternoon, whatever you want to call it.

Take a few moments, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, and pray. Pray for our search team in the work that they are doing, finding the next minister for this church. Pray for the person that God is preparing for this position.

But also pray for another team because we've been struggling for a long time. We're looking for someone for our youth, and we just do not have folks that are applying, and it's not just us. It's all over that we're struggling with that.

Pray for us too. Pray for folks that feel that call to do that. With God's grace, I think there might be two people.

That'll be good news for those on the team that we might see apply and that we might be able to sit down and talk to. So 6.10 until we find people, take time. Five minutes is all we're asking.

Be quiet, and that's all you pray for, nothing else. That's what you pray for. Lord, as we continue our journey with Joseph, not an easy journey, Lord, because it starts in a home, goes to a pit, ends in slavery, but also in the end, it ends in war, more than that.

But as we walk this path, help us, Lord, to see you as Joseph did, to see your hand in every moment, even there in the deepest pit, as we said last week. And every day as we walk, and in these moments, may we see Jesus, and only Jesus. I think you got it right, Alexander.

Now I moved it, and now it's all oblong. It started, the trouble started when Joseph's mouth started. He walked into breakfast that morning, and he was blabbing about this dream that he had.

Read with me. I'm going to do the verses little by little. It's a little bit of fun.

One night, Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers about it, they hated him more than ever. Remember I told you verse five last week? Listen to this dream, he said. We were out in the field, tying up bundles of grain, and suddenly my bundle stood up, and your bundles all gathered around and bowed low before mine.

I do not know what Joseph was thinking. Was he really thinking that his brothers were going to just slap him on the back and say, baby brother, that's amazing. We can't wait to bow down before you.

Well, they didn't. They kicked dirt in his face, and they told him to take a hike. Verse nine, verse eight.

His brothers responded, so you think you will be our king, do you? Do you actually think you'll reign over us? And they hated him all the more because of his dreams and the way he talked about them. Now you'd think he would take a hint, but he didn't. So he just comes right back, and this time with a dream even more elaborate than the first one, verse nine.

Soon Joseph had another dream, and again he told his brothers about it. Listen, I've had another dream, he said. The sun, the moon, and eleven stars bowed low before me.

This time he told the dream to his father as well as to his brothers, but his father scolded him. What kind of dream is that? He asked, will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow to the ground before you? But while his brothers were jealous of Joseph, his father wondered what the dream was. He should have kept those dreams to himself, and I think that's what he was thinking if you think back to last week's sermon when he was sitting there right at the bottom of that dark pit, heard the brothers up there laughing and having fun.

And then all of a sudden, it's not just their voices, there are other voices too. So let's go to verse 25. Then just as they were sitting down to eat, the brothers, they looked up and saw a caravan of camels in the distance coming toward them.

It was a group of Ishmaelite traders taking a load of gum, balm, and aromatic resin from Gilead down to Egypt. Judah said to his brothers, what will we gain by killing our brother? We'd have to cover up the crime. Instead of hurting him, let's sell him to those Ishmaelite traders after all.

He's our brother, our own flesh and blood. And his brothers agreed. So when the Ishmaelites who were Midianite traders came by, Joseph's brothers pulled him out of the cistern and sold him to them for 20 pieces of silver.

And the traders took him to Egypt. Just like that. Brothers pulled him out, took the money, grabbed the garment, left, and Joseph had no choice.

He was on his way to Egypt to be a slave. Can I just stop the story there for a second? Because I want to set the scene for you for what this sermon is all about. Not too long ago, Joseph had everything going his way.

He was hanging out at home. Brothers had to work. He was the loved son and everything was going to him.

He had his own tailor who made his own special garment for him. He had these wonderful lofty dreams. But like the old saying goes, what goes up must come down.

And Joseph's life came down with a crash. Down, down, down. Put down by the brothers, thrown down into a cistern, sold down the river of slavery, led down the road to Egypt.

Stripped of everything. His name, his status, his position, everything he had, everything he hoped to have, it all went down the drain. Down to Egypt.

And this is what the sermon is all about. Because here's the thing. Life sometimes can do that.

It can get us down. We even have sayings for that. I'm down to my last dollar.

Just yesterday, this was not written in the sermon, but it gave me in a moment. As I was driving to Zehrs to pick up something, I saw this young lady come to the place where she always stands at the traffic light. And she had this cardboard and she was writing her cardboard again.

And as I came back from Zehrs, she was ready and she stood there and she had a down on there. Down on my luck. Because that's where she is.

She's down. Down to my last penny. Down on my back.

Down and out. All of a sudden life takes us down. Boy, that's a downer this morning.

That's not where I'm going. It takes us down. Now let's go back to Joseph.

Hold on to that. Joseph. When he arrives in Egypt, he has nothing.

It's all taken away. His family, his home, his country. Everything.

He has lost everything. But the one thing he didn't lose was his belief in God's plan for his life. Joseph never stopped believing that.

Never mind how down he went. Down into the pit. Down with the Ishmaelites.

Down to Egypt. Down into the dungeon of the jail there. He never stopped believing in the fact that this was God's plan for his life and nothing would change that.

And he was going to hold on to that plan because he knew. Remember last week, Genesis 50 verse 20. You weaved evil.

But God is the amazing weaver and God re-weaved, re-wove those plans. And they became plans not just good for me but good for everyone else. Joseph never stopped believing God's plan and that God had a destiny for him.

And I think sometimes, forgive me when I say this, that we forget that. When we hit those Egypt moments, I think sometimes we forget God has a plan. In my, where are we now, 44 years as a minister, I've heard many Joseph stories.

I told you one last week. I've seen many folks going down to Egypt and I've always asked them this one question. So with all of this, what is the one thing that you still have that you cannot lose? What is the one thing you still have that you can't lose? It can't be taken away.

Difficulties can strip us from so many things. Struggles can overwhelm us. But the one thing that no one and nothing can take away from me is God's destiny for me.

But let me explain that word destiny because we sometimes think of fate. Oh, it's my fate. It's my destiny.

It's just gonna, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. God's destiny for you is a little different. Can I use the Hebrew word because the Hebrew word is way more beautiful.

Amira, I don't know if it's the same in Arabic. Ye'ut in Hebrew. Ye'ut.

It's a yot and a ayin and a vav and a dalet in Hebrew. Amira would understand that. Ye'ut means purpose.

It also means life's plan. It also means that which God made me to be and that which God wants me to do. One thing nothing can take away from me is God's destiny for me.

Think of Joseph. And here's the thing that makes it true for each one of us. The reason we can say that to one another is because of this fact of who you are.

Kerry, who are you? You're not just Kerry. You are Kerry, the child of God. That's what makes you, you.

The fact that we are children of God. Because why is that important? When God says I'm his child, all God does is give the best that God has to me in my life. Also when I'm down in the pit.

Also when I'm with Ishmaelite traitors. Also when I land in Egypt and I don't know where I'm going to be. Also when I'm trying to do good and I land in jail.

God still says you're my child. I have a purpose. I have a plan and I will make that plan work for your life because you're my child.

And we're going to sing that. I specifically asked Kerry. I sent her a text this week and said can we add another song which we didn't.

We're going to sing that in a little while where we say I'm no longer a slave to fear or a slave to sin. I am a child of God. The words go from my mother's womb you have chosen me.

Love has called my name. Think of that for a second. That's who you are.

Jeremiah wrote that. Even before I was born you knew me. The Psalm 139 says in my mother's womb when I was being knit together you already knew who I am.

From my mother's womb you've called and you've woven me. You've called me. Your love has called my name.

And then it goes one step further. The song says that I've been born again into your family. It's God's family we're there to take care of each other in those down moments.

We're there to lift each other up. We're there to laugh with each other Paul the young when we can sit on the stool of repentance and just love one another and just smile. I've been born again into your family.

And then those beautiful words your love your blood flows through my veins. That's who you are. A child of God.

God has a purpose and a plan and a destiny for you even sometimes if it feels it's going down. Don't believe the tombstone that says you're just a dash between two dates. You're far more than that.

Don't fall into into small thinking. This world can take everything away from you. The one thing they cannot take away is the love of the one who has your destiny in his hand.

And sometimes on the way to Egypt we forget that. And then we redefine ourselves according to our catastrophes the things that happen in our lives. And I look at myself well I'm the bankrupt businessman.

I'm the recovering addict. I'm the divorcee. I'm the one with the scars.

No. No that's not who you are. That's not what God does in your life.

Despite those little setbacks God is the God of the big comeback. Think of Joseph. He was a nothing in a bit.

And look what he was. Because God had a plan not just for Joseph and I'm getting ahead of myself but we'll get there. Not just for Joseph but for his brothers and for his father and for his family.

They would all come back to Egypt and they would settle and God would take care of him. Joseph would understand the dreams of Pharaoh and they could help the world who would come and would come by from them when there was no food. That was God's plan.

Although it looked like it was going down, down, down. God knew about that. Don't put yourself down.

Don't allow the world to play the down game with you. You are God's child and God is true to his promises. Listen to this beautiful promise from Romans chapter 11.

God's gifts and God's call are under full warranty. They never cancelled and they are never rescinded. Believe that.

That's for your life. You're God's child. God never goes back on his promises.

You're more than anything that this world could ever throw at you. Remember the question and you'll put that slide on there. I like that big orange slide.

The question I always ask, so what do you still have that you cannot? God's plan for your life never changes because God never changes. Survival in Egypt begins with a yes to God and to God's plan. And yes, you have something that you cannot lose.

Amen. Take a few moments of silent prayer. Thank you.

Father, you are good. Even when we're in the pit and when we're in the hands of the Ishmaelites and we have no idea, because you know those amazing plans that you have made. It's tough sometimes.

We go through real difficult times and we kind of wonder. But then we see you and we know. Thank you, Lord.

Thank you that you have us, our plans, our destiny in your hands. Not fate. We don't care about that.

We care about you. Thank you, Lord. We love you.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.