Trusting God When it doesn’t make sense

Today, we’ll look at the life of Joseph.  Joseph’s life filled with one setback after another. Yet Joseph was a young man that trusted God even when life didn’t ‘t make sense. And at the end Joseph life we see everything that happened led to the fulfillment of the purpose and plan God had placed in his heart as a young man.

Genesis 37: verse 1-11

God Can Work In a Dysfunctional Family

• Favoritism
• Jealousy
• Broken relationships
• Competition

Verses 1-4 says this:

Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.

2 This is the account of Jacob’s family line.

Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.

3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him. 4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.

God Gives Dreams Before He Reveals the Journey

• Dreams of future leadership
• God revealed the destination—not the process

Chapter 37 vs 5-8

5 Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. 6 He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: 7 We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”

8 His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.

RIGHT Dream WRONG Audience.

Favor With God Does Not Exempt Us from Suffering

Joseph experiences:

• Betrayal
• Rejection
• Hatred
• Slavery
• Separation

 Lets look at verse 17-20

So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan. 18 But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him.

19 “Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other. 20 “Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.”

23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the ornate robe he was wearing— 24 and they took him and threw him into the cistern. The cistern was empty; there was no water in it.

 28 So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.

Sometimes Obedience Makes Life Harder Not Easier

Joseph obeyed.

Joseph fled.

Joseph was falsely accused.

Joseph went to prison.

Verse 2 of Genesis 39

2 The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. 3 When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, 4 Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. 

Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, 7 and after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me!”

8 But he refused. “With me in charge,” he told her, “my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. 9 No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” 10 And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her.

One day he went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants was inside. 12 She caught him by his robe and said, “Come to bed with me!” But he left his robe in her hand and ran out of the house.

Grow Where You Are Planted

21 the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. 22 So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. 23 The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.

Romans 8:28

28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[a] have been called according to his purpose.

Philippians 4:13

I can do all this through him who gives me strength.